Extinct Animals of North America. In a lecture | figure where it should be, and see it return apparently of recently delivered before the Leeds (England) Philosophical and Literary Society, Professor W. H. Flower, F.R.S., described some late discoveries in certain districts of North America the district chiefly noticed is that between the Mississippi River and the Pacific, a wide region but lately opened to scientific exploration. The Professor states that, though only three or four scientists have labored there, and they only for from five to six years, they have already brought to light almost as many strange kinds of fossil animals as all those put together which had previously been found in every other part of the world. The discoveries thus made included some which dated so far back as the eocene epoch of the tertiary period. At one place the deposits were found fully a mile in depth, upon what must have been in some remote age the bottom of a great fresh-water lake. Common as we thought the horse, donkey, or zebra, this species was remarkably specialized—unlike all other animals now existing and wonderfully adapted for its own particular functions. Amongst these North American remains there were found remains which seem to represent an animal not much larger than a fox, and possessing the principal anatomical character-point downward to 6. In the intermediate sideward posiistics of the horse, but with some differences in teeth and hoofs. Later remains of succeeding epochs appeared to show the same animal of larger size, first the size of a sheep, and then as large as a donkey, whilst at the same time the minor distinctions which differentiated it from the horse of our own period gradually disappeared. The same cxplora tions had shown that once upon a time there were in North America many curious kinds of rhinoceros, similar to those of Africa and Asia, where alone these animals are now found.

itself to its place. Some (and we confess we were at first of this number) hastily conclude that the clock is run by electricity, though no connection with any electric motor is seen. A close inspection, however, shows that the explanation is scarcely less strange than the mystery: the whole secret is in the counterpoise of the hands, each of which has a heavy arrow point at the long end, and at the short end a hollow round box. In this box are the works of a watch, which are so placed as to leave an annular space between them and the circumference of the box; and in this space is a counterpoise which is connected with the works so as to revolve once in twelve hours for the hour hand, and once in an hour for the minute hand; the revolution of the counterpoise inside the box shifts the centre of gravity of the hand, so as to give the hand, successively, the necessary direction. Thus, when the counterpoise is the farthest from the axis, it brings the centre of gravity opposite the arrow point, and the hand will point upward to 12; when, on the contrary, the counterpoise is between the axis and the arrow point, the centre of gravity will be there, and the arrow will

There had also been found there the remains of some creatures apparently intermediate in their character between the sheep and the pig. The elephant was an extremely specialized animal, which seemed to have no relations now amongst existing creatures. These investigations into past life disclosed, however, that the elephant was not so isolated as we supposed, in illustration of which Professor Flower described the singular resemblances discovered in the now extinct uintatherium. Generally, there was scarcely any group of animals now existing of which some representatives had not been found in these North American excavations, whilst there were likewise found many which we could not classify with any existing order. Of all birds at present existing, none were known to have teeth; but there had now been found, amongst the remains in the chalk formation, distinct traces of two or three kinds of large water birds which had long rows of true teeth. There had also been found, in the same productive field an enormous and interesting fossil vegetation, opening up to the botanist as well as the naturalist something like a new world of past life.

Mysterious or Magic Clocks.-Doubtless many of our readers have seen in store windows in our larger cities clocks which appear to go by magic, having no works visible and no apparent connection with works. All that is seen is a glass disc with the hours indicated near the edge and the hour and minute hand moving on a pivot in the centre; the mystery is the greater when we move either hand from the

tion of this revolving counterpoise, the centre of gravity of the whole will be displaced sideways, and the hand point at 8, 9, 10, or 2, 3, 4, according to the shifting.

The Scientific American informs us that this clock was patented in this country on September 1, 1874, by Henry Robert, a clockmaker of Paris, France. Lately, Mr. Robert has considerably improved on the plan, especially by using very light and very heavy metals in combination, so as to have a sufficient contrast in weight for obtaining the right effect. The hidden counterpoise, moving in the hollow box, is of platinum, so as to take up as little room as possible, and the hand with its arrow point is of aluminum, the lightest known metal.

Nature of Electricity. We learn that a new hypothesis as to the nature of electricity has been offered by Professor Rénard of Nancy. He considers an electric current to be produced by longitudinal motion of the ether particles, which at the same time have a general forward motion. When the molecules of a body are surrounded by a greater ether atmosphere than the normal, the body is in the condition which we call positively electric; when the ether atmosphere about each molecule is less than the normal, the body is negatively electric. He has sought to explain various electrical phenomena thus: for example, the magnetization of steel needles by electrical discharges; regarding which Savary has shown that, according to the position of the needle, it acts in one direction or the other.

Charles Sainte-Claire Deville, the eminent French geologist, is dead. A native of the island of St. Thomas, he studied at the Paris School of Mines; he investigated the geology of the Antilles and published the result of his researches in 1856. Subsequently, he was Professor of Geology in the College of France. He was also an earnest student of meteorology, and is credited with a leading influence in the establishment of the Mont-Souris Meteorological Observatory.

GOSSIP AND NOTE BOOK.

tion by him. The cause is understood to have been incompatibility, originating in his moroseness, occasioned by longcontinued ill health. There was an equitable division of property, the wife receiving an unincumbered aggregate of $2,500,000, and Mr. Hayward retaining mining and other

Abraham Lincoln Swapping Horses.-When Abra- | twenty-five years' union, the application only alleging decerham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he and the Judge unce got to bantering one another about trading horses; and it was agreed that the next morning at 9 o'clock they should make a trade, the horses to be unseen up to that hour, and no backing out, under a forfeiture of $25. At the hour appointed the Judge came up, leading the sorriest-property worth in all not far from $4,000,000. He is one of looking specimen of a horse ever seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr. Lincoln was seen approaching with a wooden saw-horse upon his shoulders. Great were the shouts and the laughter of the crowd, and both were greatly increased when Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the Judge's animal, set down his saw-horse, exclaiming: "Well, Judge, this is the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade."

It has been stated that Colonel John Winthrop is the only living descendant of the first Governor of Massachusetts; but he is merely the sole living descendant of the Governor by his third wife, Margaret Tyndall. The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop is a descendant by the Governor's first wife, Mary Forth.

A Happy Woman.—What spectacle more pleasing does the earth afford than a happy woman contented in her sphere, ready at all times to benefit her special world by her exertions, and ever transforming the briars and thorns of life into roses of Paradise by the magic of her touch? There are those who are thus happy because they cannot help itno misfortunes check their sweet smiles, and they diffuse a cheerful glow about them, as they pursue the even tenor of their way. They have the secret of contentment, whose value is above the philosopher's stone; for without seeking the baser exchange of gold, which may buy some sorts of pleasure, they convert everything they touch into joy. What their condition is makes no difference. They may be rich or poor, admired or forsaken by the fickle world; but the sparkling fountain of happiness bubbles up in their hearts, and makes them radiantly beautiful. Though they live in a log cabin, they make it shine with a lustre that kings and queens may covet, and they make wealth a fountain of blessings to the children of poverty.

Women Students.-President Angell, of Michigan University, said of women students, in his recent annual report: "These are distributed as follows: medicine, thirtyseven; law, two; homoeopathy, two; literature, sixty. The experience of the last year confirms the opinion we have been led to form by the experience of previous years, that women who come here in good health are able to complete our collegiate or professional courses of study without detriment to their health."

Trying Again.-San Francisco papers chronicle the recent remarriage of Mr. Alvinza Hayward, of that city, to his former wife. They were divorced in January last, after

the mining kings of California.

General Sherman must anticipate a long life, if it be true, as stated in some of the newspapers, that, in a letter to the New England Society of New York, he hoped that the dinners of the Society might be repeated for hundreds of years, and that he should have the pleasure of sharing them.

lumbia College graduated in 1758 and contained seven men, the first class in the Medical School graduated in 1769, the first in the Law in 1860, and the first in the School of Mines in 1867. The whole number of graduates is as follows: in Art, 2,242; in Medicine, 1,437; in Law, 1,546; in the School of Mines, 115; recipients of honorary degrees, 336; total, 5,706.

Columbia College Graduates.-The first class, in Co

Rather Severe. In a late number The Independeut makes the following sharp criticism, which is not unjust: M. D. Conway says, in a recent letter to the Cincinnati Commercial: "At a hotel table in Munich once a haughty English lord asked me what was the best paper in America of the order of the Saturday Review, of London. The Nation,' I said. Yes,' he replied; but you have forty millions of people and England only forty, and you have but one paper of this class."" But one of the kind is quite enough, and rather more than is needed. It would be suffi cient if we were eighty millions, instead of forty. We do not quite understand why Mr. Conway should compare The Nation to the Saturday Review, the only point of resem blance between them being that one is thoroughly English and the other tries to be.

If heaviness of style were evidence of a profound intellect well stocked with information, the editor of The Nation would be recognized by readers capable of appreciating such profundity and vast attainments as a journalistic prodigy.

Valuable Gossip for Housekeepers.-Sometimes one may learn useful things from one's "hired help;" a lady has noted the following that she has learned:

The other day Mary was ironing and asked for a piece of sand-paper to rub her irons on. I was astonished that I never heard of it before; it is so nice, removes every bit of starch or anything else, and makes them so smooth.

One girl taught me that old corsets made the best stovecloths. Just one-half at a time is a convenient size. They are ready made and much better, when folded, to take hold of anything with than a made holder, and much easier to wash. Just throw them in with the brown towels, as many as you happen to get during the week, and they come out clean and ready to use again.