mand of Captain Palliser, by James Hector, M.D., and W. S. Vaux, M.A. (2.) On the Geology of the Country between Lake Superior and the Pacific Ocean, visited by the Government Exploring Expedition under the Command of Captain Palliser (1857-60), by James Hector, M.D. (3.) On the Physical Features of the Central Part of British North America, and on its Capabilities for Settlement, 1861, by James Hector, M.D., F.G.S., &c. From James Hector, M.D. The Address of Condolence to her Majesty on the death of H.R.H. the Prince Consort, which had been agreed upon by the Council, was submitted to the meeting by Alexander Bryson, Esq.: UNTO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. May it please your Majesty, We your Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects, the Presidents, Council, and Fellows of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, humbly desire to convey to your Majesty the expression of our deepest sympathy and condolence for the irreparable loss sustained by your Majesty and the Nation, in the lamented death of your Illustrious Consort His Royal Highness Prince Albert. We beg to assure your Majesty, that we feel the loss of your Royal Consort the more deeply, as he was the enlightened Patron and earnest Student of those Sciences which we are incorporated to advance. May the Almighty God whose works we meet to study, and whose wisdom we adore, give to your Majesty and your bereaved Family that consolation and comfort which ever flow from Him alone. We remain, with the profoundest respect, MADAM, Your Majesty's most faithful subjects and dutiful Servants, Seal. EDINBURGH, 22d January 1862. JAMES M'BAIN, President. The Address was unanimously agreed to; and the Secretary was instructed to forward it to the Right Honourable Sir George Grey, Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, for presentation to Her Majesty. The following Communications were then read : 1. Notes on the Habits of the Beaver. By an Eye-witness, JAMES M KENZIE, Esq., an Officer in the Hudson's Bay Company Service Communicated by ANDREW MURRAY, Esq. The Beaver is found over a wide extent of country on the American continent, extending east and west from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and probably from Lat. 48° to 54° north; but on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where the climate is comparatively mild, he is met with much further north and south. My object, however, is not so much to define his geographical limits, as to make a few notes on his habits. Beavers build occasionally on the shores of lakes, but prefer the banks of rivers and streams. They go generally in pairs; and having selected a convenient site near the banks of the river, the two clear a circular piece of ground, generally 6 feet in diameter, carefully removing everything on the surface. This done, they carry in their arms, walking on the hind feet, 5 to 10 lbs. of strong clay from the river, and deposit it to a width of 2 feet all round the circle, thus making the diameter 4 feet; then collecting long grass or branches of willow, they mix up the whole well together, so as to form a good foundation. In this way they build the walls to a height of about 10 feet, gradually narrowing; and the whole has a rounded form, somewhat like an oven. Unless they had some means of plastering or smoothing down the mud walls, the rain would certainly wear them away in a short time; and although it is supposed that the beaver never uses his tail as a trowel, I have it from the authority of eye-witnesses that he does so-in fact, Nature has furnished the animal with the tool ready made to his hand. After he has laid the foundation, and, indeed, in process of laying it, before the clay gets dry, he uses the trowel; and when the wall is raised to a certain height, he goes round the circle, carefully plastering every load he carries from the river and lays on his house. The lodge has neither doors nor windows, and the finishing hand is not put to it till he is far advanced with his bridge, or perhaps until he has completed it. Before the house can be completed, a subterranean passage is excavated from its centre to the dam or pond, and this at a depth varying from 2 to 6 feet, depending on the difference of level between the river and house. He then strews his floor with thin strips of willow tree, cut by him in the form of carpenter's shavings, for his winter's bed. The construction of the bridge shows even more ingenuity than the construction of the house, and is of various lengths, depending on the size of the stream. When only a few feet wide, the wall goes straight from bank to bank at right angles to the current; when larger, or about 40 feet wide, it is formed of a single curve; but when the river to be bridged is from 100 to 120 feet wide, the wall is formed into a series of curves, or undulations as it were. He understands pretty well the properties of straight and curved lines in his engineering works, and knows the mode best suited to the circumstances in which he is placed. If his domicile is situated on a wide stream, he adopts that mode of construction which is best adapted to withstand the pressure of a great body of water and ice on the opening of the navi ration in the spring. The wall is about 12 feet high and 9 feet wide at bottom, but on the side exposed to the current it slopes with the stream, forming, perhaps, an angle of about 40°. At any rate, while the wall is about 9 feet wide at bottom, it is only 1 foot wide at top. He selects for the foundation pieces or logs of timber which are water-soaked; but if he cannot find enough of these, any wood, either green or dry, will do, covering them with large stones, to prevent their rising to the surface. But logs thus placed on one another across a stream could not be so well fitted together as to prevent the passage of the water between them. To meet this difficulty, he plasters the side of the wall exposed to the current with a coating of clay some 2 or 3 inches in thickness; and this clay, as he has to travel through the water with it, he carries not in his arms, as in the construction of the house, but on his head, supported by his arms. There is no doubt that the side of the wall exposed to the current is thus clayed, although I cannot well understand how it could withstand the action of the water for any length of time. If he bridged the stream in this way and clayed his bridge, it is clear that he would have always a large quantity of water flowing over the top, which would impede his operations; and, to obviate this difficulty, he leaves an opening at either end for the passage of the water, to be shut up afterwards. Having finished the wall, the next thing to be done is to collect his winter's supply of food. This consists of the bark of the ash, the bark and leaves of a certain kind of poplar, the bark and leaves of some kind of willows, and the fruit of the alder. A large poplar tree of about a foot in diameter, two beavers can cut down in half an hour's time. It is afterwards cut into lengths of about 5 feet; and when he has got enough, he makes a road to the stream from 3 to 6 feet wide, by cutting down trees or shrubs which may be in his way. If the road be inclined towards the stream, he rolls the wood down before him; but if it be level, or nearly so, he takes hold of the wood by his teeth, and carries it forward. In the water he always transports wood or branches from one spot to another in a similar manner. His wood will, of course, float in the water, and, if left to float, would soon become embedded in the ice, which in ordinary winters, in this climate, is about 5 feet in thickness; he therefore takes it to the bottom of the dam, which has a depth of water of from 10 to 12 feet, and either fastens it on end in the mud, or covers it with stones, to prevent its rising, and it will thus at all times be available for his purpose. He is now nearly ready for the long winter. There is, however, something more to be done. I have mentioned that he digs a subterranean passage from his house to his dam; on each side of this, and in some instances widely apart, he makes holes about 5 or 6 feet in the bank, generally communicating in the interior with one another, and with the main entrance to the lodge. In one of these he takes his food, for he seldom or never eats where he sleeps. The female has generally from three to six young at one time; the period of gestation is four months; and the young are produced, or first see the light, about the middle of May, and in the following August assist in building the lodge. The young and old work together. When about a year old, they start in pairs to form new settlements, provided, like the best of colonists for a new country, with nothing else but good strong limbs and a fine set of teeth. If there be an odd-fellow, he goes on his travels alone, and forms a small bachelor establishment for himself for the winter, unless, indeed, he meets a friend with kindred sentiments by the way. Sometimes two of the year-olds remain in the old house for another year, in which case the family in the following May is a large one, never, however, numbering more than twelve individuals. The usual number found in a lodge is from four to eight. They never build their lodges close together-they are generally from a quarter to half a mile apart. This no doubt arises from the circumstances that they cannot well dam the rivers or streams, and find a sufficiency of food, at shorter distances. The beaver remains shut up for the whole winter; during the day always asleep, and during the night taking his bath and his meals. In spring, however, he sometimes makes a hole in the ice to have a look at the country around him. I do not know how he manages to do without air; so far as I could discover, there are no air-holes about his premises. In the coldest weather, the top or roof of the lodge is always moist or wet, while the sides are frozen, at least outwardly. It is certain that he can remain under the water for half an hour at a time. He lives in the same lodge for two or four years, when, finding his food scarce, he removes to another locality, and builds as before. For instinct or intelligence he is at the head of the wild animals in this country, and lives longer, I believe, than any of them. Other animals, as for instance the young of the American hare or rabbit, the marten and lynx, perish by thousands in the spring, either by cold, or in seasons of high water, or from lack of their ordinary food; but it is all the same to the beaver whether the season be wet or dry, hot or cold-the shores of every lake and the banks of every river furnish him with abundance of food. I do not know whether he will thrive in Britain; at any rate, the Zoological Gardens is not the best place for him; he is fond of solitude, and does not like company. An island with a large lake would be the most eligible place for him, where, if set at large, he would soon shift for himself. Of course, his usual food would require to be found on the spot. Dr J. A. Smith said, with regard to Mr M'Kenzie's statement that he could discover no air-holes in the lodges of the beaver, and wondered how they managed to do without air; it was probable the air got access through the comparatively looser structure of the top of the lodge, which Mr M'Kenzie states is always moist or wet even in the coldest weather, while the sides are frozen outwardly. II. On an apparently New Form of Holothuria. By JOHN ANDERSON, M.D. Plate XVI. In the autumn of 1859 I dredged, from 5 fathoms of water in Bressay Sound, Shetland, the Holothuria which forms the subject of this memoir (Plate XVI. fig. 1). It was clinging to the inside of a dead and half-open Modiola vulgaris. When captured, it was of a cream-colour, slightly speckled with brown; but since it has been in confinement, it has sensibly deepened in colour. During the first months of its imprisonment it was very lively, especially at night; during the day, when exposed to the light, it always contracted itself into a little ball, confining itself to one spot, and that the one exposed to sun-light. The tentacles were always exposed at night, but were immediately retracted whenever any attempt was made to examine them. About the beginning of the second month of its confinement it became more sluggish, and remained for days contracted, never displaying its tentacles even at night. The body contracted so firmly upon itself, that many of the feet by which it was attached gave way, and were left sticking to the sides of the glass vessel in which it was confined. After remaining in this condition for some time, the integument about the centre of the body at last ruptured, and through the opening a portion of the viscera were protruded, which ultimately sloughed away; at the same time a considerable portion of the external skin desquamated, the animal not appearing to suffer much from the process, for the opening healed shortly afterwards. The animal has been kept in a small shallow vessel of sea-water, with only a little piece of sea-weed in it to keep the water in good condition. During by far the greater part of the nineteen months of its confinement it remained contracted, seldom moving from one spot. The only food it could possibly have obtained must have consisted either of microscopic animalcules or the spores of Algæ. The animal is still alive; and I am therefore not in a position to say anything regarding its internal structure. The dorsal region of the body, when the creature is contracted, is of a deep purplish-brown tint, but the ventral surface is of a paler hue. The dorsal surface, when the creature is distended, approaches very much to the colour of the ventral aspect when in a state of contraction. When contracted, it is little more than a quarter of an inch in length, and about the fifth of an inch in breadth; but when distended and moving about, it becomes double this length, and its breadth also is slightly increased. The five double rows of sucking-feet are unsymmetrical, the two dorsal rows being irregular in their distribution. The dorsal feet are much less numerous than the ventral, which they greatly exceed in size, and from which they differ very much in their undilated tips, and by their being seated in some instances upon rounded eminences or tubercles of considerable size. These feet are capable of complete retraction into the tubercles. Though the two dorsal rows of feet differ very much from the ordinary arrangement of these organs in the Holothuriadæ, we can nevertheless trace faint indications of the double character of the rows. The three double rows of ventral sucking-feet are fully developed; the feet are placed opposite to one another, and are dilated at their tips, but are only partially retractile. The animal walks upon the three well-developed rows; and if turned upon the aborted ones, it immediately recovers itself, |