which mention is made of the result of excavations in "the Carpenteria." These excavations led to the discovery of a large mass of human bones, domestic implements, trinkets, and other objects, which were at first supposed to be "prehistoric." The ardor of the explorers was, however, much dampened when they found among the treasure-trove such modern articles as glass beads and glass wine-bottles, and the conclusion was inevitable that the curiosity seekers had simply struck "a big graveyard of the native population, whom the missionary padres found and taught here eighty or one hundred years ago." A letter of inquiry having been addressed to Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft, author of "The Native Races of the Pacific States," that gentleman expressed in the following terms his opinion of the supposed prehistoric character of the Carpenteria "find:"
"There is no evidence whatever in California of a race older or more civilized than that found by Europeans a century or so ago. In Mexico and Central America the case is very different. There are a few material remains in Northern Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico, but nothing, so far as I have been able to discover, north of these points."
Rare Minerals in Colorado.—Writing of rare minerals found in Colorado, Mr. T. F. Van Wagenen, in the Engineering and Mining Journal, says that thallium, indium, and cadmium, have lately been detected in ores from that State. Of the rarer metals there have been found in Colorado, besides the three mentioned above, nickel, cobalt, selenium, tellurium, uranium, bismuth, molybdenum, and platinum, and there is scarcely a doubt that columbium, thorium, titanium, and vanadium, will be recognized as soon as proper search is made. A belt of tellureted veins is believed to traverse the entire State from north to south. Two years ago, sylvanite and altaite were found in San Juan County. The principal locality for bismuth-ores is in Geneva, where two mines are being worked that carry a considerable quantity of schirmerite. Sulphide and carbonate of bismuth occur on Sugarloaf Mountain, Boulder County. Nuggets of native bismuth are common in the upper gulches of the Blue Valley; the same metal has been found also in the Arkansas Valley. Nickel-ore, ranging from two to five per cent., has been found in three localities. Among the mineralogical curiosities of the tellurium belt may be mentioned a telluride of mercury found in the Mountain Lion mine. Native mercury and amalgams of both gold and silver have also been found at several points along this belt.
The Vienna Scientific Club.—In January, 1876, the project of founding a Scientific Club in Vienna was considered at a meeting of the Geographical Society of that city. It was very favorably received by the members, and measures were taken to carry it into execution. Before many weeks the club was organized, and suitable quarters provided for it in the house occupied by the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. There the club finds ample accommodation for the social gatherings of its members, as also for its regular Thursday-evening meetings for scientific discussion, and its more public entertainments. In March, the number of members was nearly 700, and it was steadily increasing. The yearly dues of members of the club amount to only sixteen florins—less than eight dollars—and there is an entrance-fee of five florins. The club has a growing library and reading-rooms, with a very large number of periodicals, scientific and literary, on file. If such clubs as this, and equally inexpensive, were founded in our large American cities, they would afford a much-needed means of communication between workers in different branches of science. Further, they would give something like organization to the body scientific, and perhaps add weight to scientific opinion.
Steel-Bronze Cannon.—Uchatius's invention of "steel-bronze" cannon rests, says Nature, on the observation that all metals (lead and zinc excepted) gain an increase of elasticity, after undergoing a continuous weighting above their first limit of elasticity. Later experiments by the inventor of the steel-bronze cannon appear to show that even homogeneous bronze is capable of a great increase of its elasticity through simple stretching without condensation. It is only a stretching of the metals above
