gradually rounded down, the outline becomes undefined toward its juncture with the relieving surface, owing to the white of the raised portion being partially transparent and permitting the dark to show through it when it is thinned down. Care is taken to finish this dark surface as much as possible with the cutting tools, and so separate the white from it as to leave it smooth and unscratched. A final polish is given it, however, with putty powder applied dry with a stiff brush, but the utmost care is necessary in this operation, as the slightest slip will ruin the work. This is the cameo cutter's work, the mountings being the jeweler's work. The cameos sell, unmounted, for about $25.

THE MICROSCOPE IN THE DETECTION OF FORGERY.-The Boston Journal of Chemistry for August, publishes some "interesting paragraphs" from a recent lecture in England, by Mr. Jno. Rogers. The quotations are an abstract, though not so credited, of remarks in Dr. R. H. Ward's lecture on the Practical Uses of the Microscope, delivered as president's address at the Buffalo meeting of the American Society of Microscopists, in August, 1879. Not only is the substance taken from that source, but numerous phrases and entire sentences are copied word for word. Dr. Ward's publication upon the subject was based upon more than twenty years of original work in a field then new and practically unoccupied, and, in appropriating his work, credit should have been given so fully and conspicuously, that it could not be overlooked or misunderstood.

KENT'S INFUSORIA.-The sixth part of Mr. W. Saville Kent's Manual of the Infusoria, just issued by David Bogue, of London, completes a work that will be a classic in microscopy. The hook is the more remarkable as showing how much of excellent work can be accomplished in a limited time, the author having explained that when he undertook this study, ten years ago, he was but a beginner in practical microscopy. Finding the literature of his chosen subject to be fragmentary and scattered, and practically unavailable, he undertook to compile a manual that should bring to the knowledge of English-speaking microscopists the vast number of species of Infusoria now known to science. It soon became evident that the original plan of covering the broad field occupied by Ehrenberg and Pritchard, was far too comprehensive for the present state of knowledge. A more limited group was therefore adopted, represented by the flagellate, ciliate and tentaculiferous Protozoa; and these have been elaborated with great thoroughness, much original research being incorporated along with the record of previously described forms. Questions of affinity and derivation, of interest in general biology, have been well kept in view; and an additional plate with description of the apparatus specially adapted to the study of infusorial life, will be appreciated even by experienced students. The work comprises three

large octavo volumes; it is lavishly illustrated, and derives additional value from an extensive glossary, bibliography and index.

-:0:

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

- Professor H. W. Parker, of the Iowa College, Grinnell, Ia., has issued a circular which we are sure will appeal to the generosity of every naturalist and museum in the country, who, we hope, will send duplicates to restore the ill-fated collections of that college. It will be remembered that by the tornado of June 17th, the college buildings were demolished and with them the museum. Professor Parker, the curator, is now in the East collecting specimens and money to restore the collections, and it is hoped that there will be a generous response. The department has earned a claim to help. Without a fund, and mostly by the labors of the curator, the college had accumulated one of the best collections in the West.

- A committee, of which Professor Asa Gray is chairman and Alexander Agassiz is treasurer, has been requested by the English executive committee of the Darwin Memorial to join them in obtaining subscriptions from those in America who may wish to join in this tribute to the memory of Darwin. The form which the memorial is to take has not yet been decided; it will probably include an endowment for a scholarship to carry on biological research.

. Subscriptions may be sent to Alexander Agassiz, Cambridge, Mass., who will acknowledge the same and forward them to the treasurer of the English executive committee of the Darwin Memorial.

- Mr. S. A. Forbes, of Normal, Ill., the founder of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, and who has added so much to our knowledge of the food and habits of our birds and fishes, has been appointed State Entomologist in place of Professor Cyrus Thomas, resigned. The appointment is a most fitting one. -The number of fellows of the Zoological Society, of London, is 3213. The total receipts for 1881 amounted to £25,810, while the number of visitors in 1881 were 648,604, and the number of animals were 2294.

-The Hon. George P. Marsh, well known to many of our readers as the author of "Man and Nature," and of a government report on the camel, died in Italy, July 24th. He was born in Vermont in ISO1.

— Gen. G. K. Warren, U. S. A. Engineer Corps, who died at Newport, Aug. 8th, was not only a distinguished general, but, in connection with his work published several valuable memoirs on the physical geography of the United States, particularly of the Upper Mississippi. He also commanded several important Government exploring expeditions. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VOL. XVI. OCTOBER, 1882. No. 10.

SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY IN THE YEARS 1880-1881.

THE

BY W. N. LOCKINGTON,

HE amount of ichthyological work that has been done in the United States during the years 1880 and 1881 is exceptionally large. The greater portion of this work consists of descriptions of new species and additions to our knowledge of the geographical and bathymetrical range, habits, food and other data of economic value. A considerable portion of this work is the results of the U. S. Fish Commission conjoined with the census. Upon the Atlantic coast the steamer Fish-hawk has been engaged in Credging in the deeper waters, and among the resulting crowd of forms new to science, have been several fishes. Upon the Pacific coast, the special commissioners sent out, although unprovided with dredging apparatus, and dependent for their specimens entirely upon the supplies obtained by fishermen, and what they could themselves collect with the simple appliances at hand, have added vastly to the number of species known, and have conclusively proved that the Pacific shores are at least as rich in animal life as the Atlantic. Great additions to the fauna of our western coast may again be looked for whenever research in the deep waters is commenced. Unexpected additions to the fresh-water fish fauna have also been made in various parts of the country, and numerous species from Lower California and the more southern parts of the west coast of Mexico have been described. Comparatively few have, during this period, worked in systematic, anatomical and embryological ichthyology. The tempting harvest of new forms still detains many of our naturalists in the easier walks of descriptive zoology, and the knowledge that the

work of description is far from exhausted, has a deterrent effect upon monographers.

At least 124 species hitherto unknown to science have been added to the faunal lists of our Nearctic continent during the past two years, and the probabilities are that the actual numbers exceed this, for so rapidly is the work proceeded with, and so extensive is the field, that it is not unlikely that some species have been described in advance sheets of the proceedings of societies, which have as yet not issued their completed volume, and thus have escaped the notice of the writer.

The Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum for 1880, are almost entirely occupied with ichthyological papers. The principal contributors are Professor D. S. Jordan and his coadjutor, Mr. C. H. Gilbert, Professor G. B. Goode, W. N. Lockington and Professor O. P. Hay. The two former ichthyologists have no less than thirty-seven papers, in which forty-nine new species are described, all from the Pacific coast, U. S. The total number of fishes enumerated from that coast is 270, of which all but fifteen were obtained by the writers, who during 1880 represented the U. S. Fish Commission in California. Seventeen previously known species were added to the fauna of California, principally sharks, making a total of twenty-eight species common to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the preparation of this list priority of publication has been strictly regarded, and we thus regretfully witness the substitution of Scomberomorus for Cybium, of Tylosurus for Belone, and of Stolephorus for Engraulis, while the familiar quinnat or Californian salmon is exchanged for the "tshawytcha" or "chouicha." The species of Sebastichthys or rock cod, are twenty-five, fifteen of which are new. Eight species are added to the flat fishes, three to the Embiotocidæ and six to the rays, while the Paralepidæ and their relations are increased from one to five. Several nominal species are eliminated from the Lophobranchs, Gasterosteidæ and Petromyzontida. Among the most interesting discoveries may be mentioned that of a true sole (Aphoristia atricauda), a "puffer" shark (Catulus ventriosus Garman), three Blennidæ of the genera Xiphister and Apodichthys, a cottoid devoid of ventral fins (Ascelichthys rhodorus) and Nemichthys avocetta.

In "Notes on a collection of Fishes from Utah lake," the same writers describe three new species of fishes.

The Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1881, contains descriptions of forty new species from Mazatlan, thirty from Panama and a few others from the Gulf coast, all by the same hard-working ichthyologists.

In the same volume Mr. C. L. Mackay reviews the genera and species of Centrarchidæ, and describes a new species of Lepomis.

W. N. Lockington (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880) describes ten new species of fishes from various parts of the Pacific coast, the most noticeable of which are Prionotus stephanophrys, taken near San Francisco; Myriolepis zonifer, a singular Chiroid, and the curious soft-boned Icosteus ænigmaticus, for the reception of which and his own Icichthys lockingtoni, Professor Jordan subsequently instituted the family Icosteida. In the long low dorsal and anal, as well as in the extreme flexibility of the skeleton, these species agree, but while Icosteus is scaleless, with groups of spinules along the lateral line and spinules upon the fins, Icicthys is entirely scaly and without spinules.

The same writer (Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci.) describes some new species from the Gulf of California, and a Catostomus from the Gila.

Miss Rosa Smith describes a Cremnobates and a Gobiesox from Southern California.

Dr. T. H. Bean (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880) describes a new hake from South Carolina, and in the same volume S. Garman. gives a synopsis of the American Rhinobatidæ, and Professor Jordan notices a new Caranx from S. Carolina.

S. Th. Cattie, of Arnheim, Holland, also contributes some information respecting the structure of the organ of Syrski in the male eel, and the external characters of the sexes in that fish and Professor O. P. Hay describes fifteen new species from t eastern part of the State of Mississippi, from affluents of Mississippi and Tombigbee, and from the Chickasawha. F of these species (including the new genus Opsopoodus) are rinidæ, the remaining seven Etheostomatida.

The U. S. Coast Survey Steamer Yukon proceeded,. along the coast of Alaska, calling at various points to n lections. The expedition was accompanied by Dr. V and Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, the latter of whom made collection of fishes, of which he gives a preliminary