Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/386

372 the public speedily the results of his explorations, have now reached the completion of their third volume. The last number is mainly of interest to entomologists, containing an account of the first discovered traces of fossil insects in the American Tertiaries, by Mr. S. H. Scudder. This paper, of 20 pages, is a complete statement of past and present investigations, showing a record of forty-six described fossil species, of which more than half belong to the Diptera. Mr. Scudder also describes two species of Carabidæ from interglacial deposits near Toronto, C. W. The remaining papers in the number are a description of a new crawfish (Cambarus Couesi) from Dakota, by Dr. Thomas H. Streets; and three paleontological papers, by Prof. E. D. Cope, upon reptiles and fishes from Colorado and Wyoming. A very minute index to the whole volume concludes this number.

first of these handsome pamphlets consists chiefly of tables giving the results of the daily observations at the park, as to the heights of the barometer; force and direction of the wind; rainfall; temperature, etc. The value of a single volume of this kind is very small, but the great importance of such records when extending over a great length of time and a wide area is beginning to be duly appreciated, not only by scientific men, but by the business community generally, being often consulted, Director Draper tells us, for legal and other purposes.

Last year the director was engaged in examining the question, "Has there been in late years any change in the rainfall of New York City, or its vicinity, to affect seriously its water-supply?" His conclusions are, that for a series of years, up to 1869, the rainfall was increasing; "it then showed a tendency to decrease. There are, undoubtedly, cycles of rainfall, as there are cycles in sun-spots and other astronomical phenomena, occupying years for their completion." No predictions are ventured as to the date when the diminution will have reached its minimum and the ascent recommence, the observations being too incomplete for that purpose.

The "Report on the Menagerie" does not show that feature of the park to be in a growing condition. During the year 1876 but nineteen dollars was expended for the purchase of animals, while additions by donation, births, exchanges, and losses, have all fallen oil'. The number of animals on exhibition at the close of 1876 was: mammals, 184; birds, 394; reptiles, 5: total, 583. The value of those owned by the department is $15,554; owned by exhibitors, $47,390. This result is doubtless due to a reduction in appropriations. It would seem that the menagerie was deserving of a little more fostering care, for that it is a feature which largely interests the public is shown by the great number of visitors, estimated at 3,000,000 for the year.

object of the first of these papers is to call attention to the importance of improving all opportunities for research, in the region of the National Park on the Yellowstone, concerning the rare phenomena presented by the geysers. These striking features are rapidly waning, and must be studied soon if studied at all.

The "Two-Ocean Water" is, it would seem, a verity, the fact having been established by the expedition of Captain W. F. Jones in 1873. Between Flat Mountain and the Yellowstone Range, and near the headwaters of the Snake and the Upper Yellowstone Rivers, there is a rivulet which was found to divide, "one portion gliding silently into the river behind us, to find its way at last into the Gulf of Mexico, while the other branch descended in front to join the westward-flowing waters of the Columbia, via Snake River, finally reaching the Pacific Ocean." The stream bears the name of "Two-Ocean Creek," and its two branches are named respectively Atlantic and Pacific Creeks.