Animals Helping One Another.—While the ruminant animals as a rule do not seem to have made any further advance toward forming communal groups than to post sentinels while pasturing together, a few marked cases are found in which a division of labor and some system of assistance seem to have been given effect. One such instance is cited in the London Spectator as having been observed by Lord Lovat in the Highland deer, where large stags have smaller stags to attend them and serve them very much as the English school bully is attended and served by his fag. Lord Lovat tells another story of compassion manifested and help afforded by a stag to a younger animal. Of three stags on the move, two jumped the wire fence, and the third, a two-year-old, halted and would not venture the leap. The two waited for some time while the little fellow ran along the fence, till the larger of them came back to coax him, and “actually kissed him several times.” Finally, the animal gave up and went on, after which the little stag took courage and made the jump. The social organization is very far advanced with the beavers, and is quite elaborate with the rabbits, which excavate common and interlacing burrows, and with insects like ants and bees.
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Geological Formations and Forests in New Jersey.—From a study of the relation between forestry and geology in New Jersey, Arthur Hollick finds that two distinctly defined forest zones have long been recognized in the State—a deciduous and a coniferous—the contrast between the two being so obvious as to attract the attention even of superficial observers. While the deciduous zone is roughly confined to the northern part of the State and the coniferous to the southern part, yet when the line of demarcation is carefully followed up across the State and beyond its confines it is found not to coincide with any parallel of latitude or isothermal line, and not to be entirely dependent either on topography or the physiographic conditions. “If, however, a geological map of the region be examined, the line of demarcation between the two zones will be found to follow the trend of the geologic formations whose outcrops extend in a northeast direction across the State and southward beyond. A coincidence was suggested, and it became more apparent, as the investigations proceeded, that the two classes of angiosperms and gymnosperms were severally identified with certain geological formations, and also that the distribution of many species within each of the zones was capable of being similarly associated, and their limits of being more or less accurately defined. The deciduous zone is roughly located as lying north of a line between Woodbridge and Trenton, and the coniferous zone as being south of a line between Eatontown and Salem. Between these two lines is an area about sixteen miles wide where these zones overlap, which the author calls the “tension zone,” because a constant state of strain or tension in the struggle for existence prevails in it. In the deciduous zone the geological formations are numerous, with various soils and every gradation of topography, and the diversity of trees is great. Its southern line is coterminous with the southern edge of the Triassic formation. The coniferous zone presents but little diversity in geology or topography, and little variety of trees. Its northern border is coterminous with the northern border of Tertiary gravels, sands, and sandy clays. The “tension zone” includes practically the whole of the Cretaceous plastic clays, and the clay-marls and marls.
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
A conference was appointed, to be held at Wiesbaden, Germany, October 9th and 10th, to promote the formation of an International Federation of Science—a scheme which was referred to in Sir Michael Foster’s presidential address before the British Association. This idea for the establishment of an international association of great learned societies appears, the London Athenæum says, to be the outcome of discussions carried on at Göttingen in 1898. For some time past the Academies of Vienna, Munich, Göttingen, and Leipsic have been federated into an association or “Castell,” each meeting in turn at their respective headquarters to talk over scientific matters of joint interest. At two or three recent meetings questions were brought up, such as antarctic research and the cataloguing of scientific literature, which, besides being of sufficient interacademic value to come before the “Castell,” were of prime importance to English men of science. English delegates were therefore invited to attend, and did so; and out of this invitation has grown a desire for a wider international basis for the association. The adherence of the principal learned societies of the world, including our National Academy, is said to have been secured to the movement.
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The thirteenth season of the Department of Botany at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Holl, Mass., will open July 5th and continue till August 16th. Three laboratory courses are provided, accompanied by lectures, including the subjects of cryptogamic botany, plant physiology, and plant cytology and micro-technique. The principal instructors are Dr. Bradley R. Davis, Mr. George T. Moore, and Dr. Rodney H. True. The department extends a special welcome to investigators, and desires their co-operation in the development of the laboratory. Woods Holl offers great attractions in variety of material and facilities for biological research, and is proposed as an excellent center of resort where the botanists of the country may meet for a few weeks. A six weeks’ course in Nature study, including both animals and plants, and consisting largely of field work, is a new feature offered this year for the first time.
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On Friday, March 9th, occurred the death of two of the six surviving founders of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—Dr. Charles E. West, of Brooklyn, and Professor Oliver Payson Hubbard, of Manhattan. Both were distinguished teachers. Dr. West was born in Washington, Mass., in 1809, and after being graduated from Union College, began his career as a teacher in the Albany Female Academy. He was afterward principal of the Rutgers Female Institute, the Buffalo Female Seminary, and the Brooklyn Heights Seminary, where he remained twenty-nine years. He also assisted in preparing the original courses of instruction of Vassar Female College. He was one of the founders of the Long Island Historical Society; was a fellow of the Royal Antiquarian Society of Denmark; and was a member of the American Ethnological, the American Philosophical, and the New York and the Long Island Historical Societies. Professor Hubbard was born at Pomfret, Conn., in 1809, was graduated from Yale College in 1828, and was appointed Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Mineralogy at Dartmouth College in 1836. He remained there, with an interval, from 1866 till 1871, in which he devoted himself to lecturing, till 1883, when he became professor emeritus. He was made in 1871 overseer of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and he was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1863 and 1864. Only four of the founders of the American Association are now living—namely, Dr. Martin H. Boye, of Cooperstown, Pa.; Prof. Walcott Gibbs, of Harvard; Dr. Samuel L. Abbot; and Epes Dixwell.