A more remarkable case has come under my observation, which is worthy of mention.
Dr. Veatch, a member of this Academy, visited Cerros or Cedros Island, opposite the west coast of Lower California, and upon his return, in the year 1859, brought home, among other shells, a species of Helix, supposed to be new, described by Dr. Newcomb, of Oakland, and to which the latter gave the name of Helix Veatchii; many specimens of this species were obtained, and some of them were given by Dr. Veatch to the late Thomas Bridges. Mr. Bridges died in September, 1865, and in December of the same year a portion of his collection passed into my hands, including the same specimens of Helix Veatchii to which I have before alluded. Judge of my surprise, when one day, upon a careful examination, I detected a living specimen, which, after being placed in a box of moist earth, in a short time commenced crawling about, apparently as well as ever. Fearing from its activity that by some accident it might crawl away, and I might thus lose it, after a fortnight’s furlough from its long imprisonment, I placed it in a pill-box, marking the date of its reimprisonment upon the cover, in order that at some future time I may examine it, and ascertain possibly, if it does not outlive me, how long a snail can live without rations.
Here is an instance of a snail living at least six years—in Californian parlance, without a single “square meal.”
Mr. Bolander made some remarks in regard to the botanical collections of Mr. Alphonso Wood, in California and Oregon, in 1866.
Mr. Wood claims to have collected in five months, in California, 1,490 species of flowering plants, as appears by a letter over his own signature in the San Francisco Bulletin; furthermore, he also asserts, that during his whole journey in California and Oregon he collected 15,000 specimens, representing 2,794 species of plants. This journey occupied about eleven months, including the time spent in coming from and returning to the East. The route of Mr. Wood was from San Diego north, through the regions which have been most thoroughly collected over and studied by botanists, namely, along the stage road to Los Angeles and San Bernardino, then to San Louis Obispo, Santa Cruz, and north through the Sacramento Valley, past the base of Mount Shasta, and along the stage road to the Columbia River. Mr. Bolander considered it probable that there were not over 500 species of flowering plants actually existing in that part of California explored by Mr. Wood, and in which he professes to have collected 1,490 species. According to Professor Brewer’s careful investigations, it appears that over fifty botanists have collected in California and Oregon, during a period extending back for more than seventy years. Some of these collectors were engaged for years in the business, and had far greater facilities at their command than those enjoyed by Mr. Wood, and they have jointly thoroughly explored a far greater area than that even hastily passed over by him. Yet, the sum total of all the species obtained, up to the time of Mr. Wood’s visit, is only about 1,800 species, while he claims to have found 2,794; that is to say, nearly 1,000 species more than had been brought to light by fifty persons in seventy years. The absurdity of Mr. Wood’s claims is self-evident. But, a comparison of his figures with those of Eastern botanists will throw still further light on this subject. Professor Gray enumerates, in his manual, only 2,426 species of plants as occurring in the eighteen Northern United States and Canada East, embracing an area of no less than 600,000 square miles. The whole of California and Oregon includes only about 250,000 square miles, only a very small portion of which could have been thoroughly explored by Mr. Wood; how unlikely, then, that he should have actually obtained, in nine months, 368 species more on 250,000 square miles, than all the botanists of the East have found on more than double that area. Mr. Bolander also brought forward ample evidence to show that Mr. Wood was not competent to determine how many new species he had collected, proving by the written statements of Dr. Kellogg, and others, that he was not acquainted with some of the most common and easily recognized genera of this coast.
Dr. Gibbons made some remarks on the rain-fall of this region during the last seventeen years.
Mr. Gutzkow exhibited a sheet of metallic silver of three feet in diameter, and about three ounces Troy weight, which had the appearance and consistency of white writing paper. It was taken from the surface of a lead-lined tank, in which a solution of protoxide of iron was saturated, near the boiling point, with sulphate of silver. If the temperature of the solution is maintained at a certain height, sheet after sheet can be stripped off from the surface. The silver thus obtained, is, after washing with muriatic acid to free it from the iron solution, chemically pure, and by its peculiar shape and purity, well adapted to serve as proof silver for assaying purposes. The experiment will work only when operating on a rather large scale, so as to prevent the too sudden cooling of the solution. The chemical action to which it is due is the oxydation of the protoxide of iron into sesquioxide at the expense of the oxygen combined with the silver. This oxydation, which is known to precipitate the silver as a whitish powder, begins to take place only at a certain temperature below the boiling point, and is made, in the above experiment, to act on the crystals of sulphate of silver separating on the surface of the slowly cooling solution.