above Square Island. A number of specimens of various kind were taken, but the greater part of the time was spent in hand dredging. The results have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution, and will soon be published. Mr. Stearns is about publishing a work on Labrador that will probably combine the greater part of our present information on that subject. It will be uniform with his New England Bird Life, the second volume of which will soon appear, and probably come out under the name of the same publishers, Messrs. Lee & Shepard, of Boston, Mass.

MICROSCOPY.1

MICROSCOPY AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.-The first meeting of the new section of Histology and Microscopy, during the Montreal meeting of the American Association, fully justified the recent action of the Association in thus enlarging the scope and prominence of its former subsection of microscopy. Large and interesting sessions were held on four days during the week of the meeting, and many important papers were read. Easily first among the attractions of the meeting was the presence of the honored leader in microscopy, Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, of London, and many microscopists who have heretofore only admired his judgment and skill as an author, found new pleasure in his genial presence, and in his thoughtful, suggestive and conclusive remarks. His rational and conservative views in regard to angular aperture were received with evident approval by the audience.

MARTIN'S UNMOUNTED OBJECTS.-The unmounted material from the laboratory of the late Mr. John Martin, of Maidstone, England, has been forwarded by his family to the Natural Science establishment of Professor Henry A. Ward, of Rochester, N. Y. It consists of a variety of hairs, scales, feathers, spines, spicules, seeds, pollens, sections of skin, hoofs and horns, infusorial earth, diatoms, foraminifera, etc. The specimens are folded in papers, and packed in small pill boxes. They are offered for sale at ten cents per box.

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SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

-Professors Silliman, Johnson and Brewer, of the National Academy's committee on sorghum culture, have been visiting Rio Grande, near Cape May, New Jersey, for the purpose of inspecting Mr. Hilgard's sugar works there. They consider the success of the method there adopted, as assured. The sorghum crop has long been an important one in this country, and its true status will now be more generally known, through the labors of Mr. Collyer and this committee.

-Dr. W. Kowalevsky of Moscow is at present in this country, and is studying the fossil vertebrata of Prof. Cope's collection in Philadelphia.

1 This department is edited by Dr. R. H. WARD, Troy, N. Y.

-Professor Owen has dubbed the anti-vivisectionists, bestiarians, to distinguish them from the humanitarians.

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. The following is a list of the papers read in the biological section:

SECTION F-BIOLOGY.

The fertilization of Yucca. Thomas Meehan.

Demonstration of a series of Brains prepared by Giacomin's method. William
Osler.

Description of a new species of Alcyonoid Polyp. Robt. E. C. Stearns.
On the Polymorphism of Lycana pseudargiolus.

W. H. Edwards.

Note on the sterility of the Canada thistle at Yellow Springs, Ohio. E. W. Claypole.

On the mouth of the larva of Chrysopa. Wm Saunders.

Some remarks on the flora of North America. Professor Asa Gray.

Achænodon from the Bridger Eocene beds. Henry F. Osborn.

The Placental development in Mammals. Henry O. Marcy.

The motion of roots and radicles of Indian corn and beans. W. S. Beal.

Observations on the fertilization of Yucca, and on structural and anatomical peculiarities in Pronuba and Prodoxus. C. V. Riley.

A sketch of the history of our knowledge of the Budding of Salpa. W. K. Brooks.

Fritz Müller and the Nauplius of Decapods. W. K. Brooks.

Examination of some controverted points of the physiology of voice. T. Wesley Mills.

Illusions of motions, with exhibition of apparatus. H. P. Bowditch.

Cross Heredity from sex to sex. Mrs. A. B. Blackwell.

Achenial hairs and fibers of Compositæ. G. Macloskie.

Blastesis tridens: a pear-tree fungus. Wm. H. Seamen.

On a recent species of Heteropora from the strait of Juan de Fuca. J. F. Whiteaves.

Insects versus flowers in the matter of Fertilization. E. W. Claypole.

On the Gall-mites. W. A. Buckhout.

A sketch of the history of our knowledge of the budding of Salpa. W. K. Brooks. Fritz Müller and the Nauplius of Decapods. W. K. Brooks.

A new sexual character in the pupa of some Lepidoptera. J. A. Lintner.

On the position of the Gamopetala.

Note on the occurrence of traces of a northern flora in Southwestern Ohio. E. W. Claypole.

Progressive growth of dermoid coat of the membrana tympani. Clarence J. Blake. The morphology of arteries. Frank Baker.

Emulsions of petroleum and their value as insecticides. C. V. Riley.

The Jessup collection to illustrate American forestry in the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, N. Y. Albert S. Bickmore.

The hibernation of Aletia xylina in the U. S. a settled fact. C. V. Riley. Observations on the elm-leaf beetle (Galeruca xanthomelana). G. Macloskie. The organic compounds in their relation to life. Lester F. Ward.

The primary divisions of the Ungulata. Edward D. Cope.

On the habits of Cryptobranchus. Burt G Wilder.

Classification of organisms. Lester F. Ward.

Some observations on the action of frost upon leaf-cells. C. E. Bessey.
The fauna of the Puerco Eocene. Edward D. Cope.

Remarks on the Turbellaria. Wyllis A. Silliman.

On an egg parasite of the currant saw-fly, Nematus ventricosus. J. A. Lintner. Monograph of the Clematidae of the United States. Joseph F. James.

Notes on the flora of the Rocky mountains. Sereno Watson.

THE pyramids of Teotihuacan are situated in a beautiful valley adjoining that of Mexico on the Northeast, and possessing greater beauty and fertility than its more famous neighbor. To reach these ruins, we left the city by the six o'clock morning train, for the station of San Juan Teotihuacan. Our party consisted of four Americans, one a resident of Mexico. As the sun. had not risen, we found the air chilly and penetrating, and overcoats very comfortable. Our leader prudently carried an umbrella, not to keep off the rain, for it never rains here in March, but to protect himself from the fierce rays of the sun, which in the clear atmosphere of this altitude are very effective at midday.

About eight o'clock we alight from the train to be besieged by numerous small boys, who offer for sale various relics from the ruins. After engaging the services of four Indian boys as guides, we set off afoot to visit the ruins.

Accounts differ as to the origin of these works. We are informed by Ixtlilxochitl that they were built by the Toltecs after their migration from Hue Hue Hapalan.

Mr. Bancroft places this event in the fifth or sixth century, Professor Short thinks that the evidence in favor of the fourth century is fully as good. On the other hand, Mons. Charnay's recent excavations have led him to believe that the works at Tula were built about A. D. 660, and as the Teotihuacan works are of very much the same character, and at no great distance from Tula, the presumption is that their age is about the same.

In selecting their site, the builders certainly exercised better

judgment than did the later race, who built the wonderful city on the shore of Lake Tezcuco-a lake whose only outlet is the atmosphere. In fact, the government has finally been compelled to attempt the artificial drainage of this lake; a contract for the construction of a canal for this purpose having been already made.

The principal works at Teotihuacan consist of two truncated pyramids the "Mound of the Sun" and the "Mound of the Moon." The first measures 761 by 722 feet at the base, 216 feet in height, and its platform measures 59 by 105 feet, according to the figures of Señor Garcia y Cubas.

From a distance a zigzag pathway leading up its eastern side is plainly discernible, but from either its foot or its summit the pathway is not noticed. In the centre of the platform stands a pillar of stone and cement, five feet in diameter, and four and a half feet high. Two explanations of this pillar may be offered. In case the pyramid was a religious structure, the pillar may have been used as an altar, or a pedestal for some sculptured image. If the pyramid was an astronomical structure, a possibility by no means remote when we remember the knowledge of astronomy possessed by this race, the pillar was doubtless a part of the apparatus employed in observing the movements of the heavenly bodies.

From this summit we look to the north and see a series of beautifully rounded hills which look as if they might have been made by the hand of man, so regular are their outlines. To the west is the hill which hides from our view the lovely valley of Mexico.

In the distance, toward the south, are the white peaks of Popocatapetl, Ixtacihuatl and Malinche, while at our feet we may see the villages of San Juan, San Sebastian, San Martin and Santa Maria, so near that we can catch the sound of their bells as they ring out from the white tower of the Spanish-built churches.

The "Mound of the Moon," according to our former authority, measures 512 by 426 feet at the base, 137 feet in height, and has a platform 19% feet square. In addition there is a step or platform about half way from base to summit. From near this mound extends an avenue between two rows of singular ruins to the Rio San Juan, a distance of more than a mile. This is called the "Path of the Dead," and passes by the "Mound of the Sun" on the west. These ruins have the appearance of immense houses which have been totally destroyed, leaving only great masses of

material with no recognizable structure, and now largely overgrown with vegetation.

The pyramids themselves are very regular in shape, but are covered with loose fragments of volcanic rock varying in size from six to eighteen inches. Amongst these rocks have grown up numerous shrubs, flowers and cactuses. These give a very ragged appearance to the structures.

Near the "Path of the Dead" is the mouth of a cave of unknown depth, which has ramifications to the right and left. There

Monolith near the Pyramids of Teotihuacan.

is a tradition that a subterranean passage exists between the pyramids. If this is true the cave is probably connected with this passage. As our party had not prepared to explore any caves our investigations ceased when we had exhausted the stock of wax matches we happened to have in our pockets. At the mouth of this cave stands the huge monolith described by Almaraz (Apuntes, pp. 354-5), which he says "was found among the débris of a tlaltel" or mound. It is about five and a half feet wide and thick, and according to the above author, ten and a half feet high, and weighs over fifteen tons. At present, however, it stands only six feet above ground, and is surrounded by the small volcanic rocks which cover the surface in all directions. An at