e impregnated with the
petroleum, and these strata are lifted up on the mountain sides, so
that a well bored at a low point in the valley would be supplied from a
reservoir some thousands of feet high. The wells will have to be about
three thousand feet deep.

The naturalists of the survey noted many singular phenomena of animal
life. On the islands off the coast there is a race of liliputian foxes
which is supposed to have been derived from the Gray fox, its small
size and perfect fearlessness, together with its insect diet, being due
to its confinement to the islands. This animal is so small that even
the sheep breeders do not fear it. It lies under the cactus plants for
its noonday nap, and to this fact must be due the remarkable
circumstance noticed in skinning a number of them. In every instance
the interior surface of the hide was perforated by cactus spines, and
in one individual the hide was fairly coated within by these spines,
some of which had become soft with age. There were so many that a knife
could not have pierced the hide without touching the spines!

Another fact developed was that the great dread of the grizzly bear is
resulting in his rapid extinction. Strychnine is considered
indispensable to the outfit of a California shepherd, and the grizzlies
have been killed or forced to the mountains, where they still linger in
considerable numbers in the chapparal. It is noticeable that the Rocky
mountain grizzly is a tame creature compared with his brother of the
Sierra Nevada, who does not hesitate to take the initiative in a combat
with man.

* * * * *

A GERMAN SAVANT AMONG THE SIOUX.

Prof. Virchow lately informed the Berlin Anthropological Society that
an intrepid young German traveller, Herr von Horn von der Horck, is now
(January, 1877) living among the Sioux Indians busily engaged in taking
plaster casts for craniological studies. Von der Horck made a journey
to the Polar sea last summer, returning by way of Lapland, where he
made enormous collections of bones, skulls, and casts. Prof. Virchow
says these collections are more complete in Scandinavian ethnology than
all that European museums outside of Scandinavia contain. One result of
this journey was the discovery of a continuous water way between the
Gulf of Bothnia and the Polar sea, though not one that is capable of
navigation. A lake, called Wawalo Lampi, lies on the divide between
these two bodies