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JOURNAL
of the
Academy of Natural Sciences
of
PHILADELPHIA.
THE members of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, desirous of acquiring knowledge themselves, and extending it among their fellow citizens, have for some years been accustomed to meet at leisure hours for the purpose of communicating to each other such facts and observations, as are calculated to promote the views of the society. By degrees, a collection of subjects in natural history was made, and has increased until a museum has been formed, which is already very valuable, and which is daily increasing.
In further pursuance of the objects of their institution, the Society have now determined to communicate to the public, such facts and observations as, having appeared interesting to them, are likely to be interesting to other friends of natural science. They do not profess to make any periodical communication; but well knowing how desirable it is, that persons engaged in similar pursuits, should be made acquainted as early as possible with what has been done by their fellow-labourers in the fields of science elsewhere, they mean to publish a few pages whenever it appears to them that materials worthy of pub- lication have been put in their possession. In so doing, they propose to exclude entirely all papers of mere theory,—to confine their communications as much as possible to facts—and by abridging papers too long for publication in their original state, to present the facts thus published, clothed in as few words as are consistent with perspicuous description.
Well aware that much leisure and superfluous wealth are not always found in company with an ardent love of science, they mean their proposed publication to be as cheap and as unostentatious as the nature of the subjects will admit; so that it need not encroach unnecessarily on the funds of the society, or of those who may wish to purchase it. In short, they are desirous of contributing their share to the mass of knowledge, as early in all cases, and with as little show, and as small expense as possible. The present publication will be a specimen of what they propose in future.
They invite the lovers of science generally, and particularly all those who are anxious for its encouragement in the United States, to aid in promoting the objects of this institution, and to encourage the present publication, so long as the contents of it shall prove deserving of public approbation.
All papers intended for publication in this Journal, must be post paid, and directed, under the proper signatures of the authors, to the Academy of Natural Sciences, No. 35 Arch-street, Philadelphia.
MOLLUSCA PTEROPEDEA[1].
Character. Body free; furnished with fins for swimming; head distincy.
A. Pteropodes naked.
Character. Destitute of a gelatinous, horny, or calcareous shell.
* No Tentacula.
Genus.—Firola.
Char. Jaws horny; eyes two; fins 1, 2, 3; branchia plumose, floating freely beneath the body, and grouped with the heart, around an oblong nucleus at the base of the tail.
The body is elongated, cylindrical, of a gelatinous, diaphanous consistence, and of a pale colour. Tail distinguised from it by a groove, one fourth the length of the body, compressed, more or less carinated, and laterally serrated, terminated by a lobed fin, and sometimes with a moniliform, elongated appendate. Eyes composed of a brilliant hyaline globule, supported by a small peduncle, which arises from a black concave or convex cup, placed at the junction of the rostrum with the body. Several small gelatinous points, before and above the eyes, serving probably to assist in retaining the molluscous prey in order that it may be the more easily devoured, when pressed between them and the jaws.
Rostrum one fourth the length of the body, somewhat contractile, moveable in every direction, enlarged at the tip to receive the retractile jaws; which are opposite, and armed with a series of horny curved points ranged upon each jaw like the teeth of a comb, with a row of smaller ones between them, and furnished at the base with a longitudinal lip. Immediately behind the jaws, in the interior, are two capitate threads connected by nerves; adjoining these are two palpiform biarticulate processes; first joint very short, oblique; second elongated, recurved; probably used by the animal as interior palpi.
Nervous System. A nervous ganglion of four rounded lobes is situated between the eyes and the œsophagus, giving rise to several nervous filaments; the four principal ones, arise each from the extremity of a lobe; two of them terminate in the jaw, and the other two are directed backwards to the tail, but interrupted at the base of the dorsal fin by a double, oblong, lobated, ganglion.
The centre of the first ganglion furnishes two nerves for each eye, of which one terminates at the base of the peduncle, and the other, much smaller, at the pupil. Numerous smaller nerves arise from each of these nervous ganglions, directed to different parts of the body.
Viscera. Nucleus oblong, pyriform. Colour iridescent, when at the depth of three, four, or five feet in the water, it is resplendent, diamond-like. A large cylindrical canal, more or less dilated, attached to the throat at the anterior extremity, supported near and above the eyes by a membranous diaphragm, passing loosely through a large cavity of the body, and embracing at its termination the upper part of the nucleus, with which it communicates by means of two apertures, one of which is simple and the other double.
Besides the above mentioned apertures in the nucleus, another oblong one is placed on the right side for the passage of the oviduct; and another on the opposite side, probably serving for excretion. Oviduct filiform, including small remote globules.
Vascular System. Composed of a heart, branchia, and artery. The heart is placed between, and in contact, with the branchia and artery. Branchia with from twelve to sixteen perfoliated appendages. Artery extended from the heart to its termination near the jaw, where it is surrounded by four tubercles; in its course it passes through the interstice of the double ganglion. A branch arises from this principal artery, immediately before the last mentioned ganglion, furnishing the dorsal fin with blood by means of numerous smaller anastomosing branches, exhibiting, in that fin, a reticulated appearance.
Obs. In some species of this genus a lateral vermiform organ is superadded; when this occurs, a second branch arised from the principal artery to supply it with blood.
Generative Organs. A vermiform organ is attached to the left side of the body composed of three parts; of which, one is placed above, and seems intended to protect the others; the second is short, cylindrical, straight; the third, elongated, vermicular, attached to the base of the second. This is probably the generative part of the male. The species furnished with an oviduct may be females, as this part is placed on the side opposite to that of the vermiform organ, so as to facilitate the connection between the sexes.
Organs of Locomotion. Fins two; dorsal one large, rounded, moved by twenty pair of compressed muscles, each terminating in a bifurcated point, and united in that part of the opposite muscle, confluent at base, and furnished with two radicles, which penetrate the body between the peritoneum and the exterior gelatinous substance. Caudal fin very small, lobated or rounded, including small ramose vessels, and moved by three pairs of muscles, at their extremities filiform and united in a common point. I have not been able to perceive any distinct muscles in other parts of the body, excepting those already mentioned, and numerous oblique ones between the peritoneum and the gelatinous exterior.
Amongst a great number of individuals which I have examined, the number and situation of the organs or appendages, and presence or absence of either of them, have furnished me with good specific characters. Of these I have availed myself to establish the following fix species.
1. F. mutica. No vermiform organ; no cup on the dorsal fin; no caudal appendage. Plate I. fig. 1.
Substance firm, diaphanous, tuberculated, rosaceous; tubercles irregularly placed, and of a deeper colour. Dorsal fin near the nucleus, placed in a groove. Trunk wrinkled, and with the region of the dorsal fin spotted with white. Gelatinous points six, disposed by opposite pairs in two longitudinal lines.
2. F. gibbosa. Body furnished with a vermiform organ; no cup or caudal appendage. Plate I. fig. 2.
Body gibbose above the nucleus, narrowed behind the eyes, and emarginate at the base of the dorsal fin. 
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3. F. Forskalia. Body with a vermiform organ; and a cup on the dorsal fin. No caudal appendage. Plate I. fig. 3. represented in the act of devouring a species of the genus Cymodora of Peron and Le Sueur.
Body cylindrical, subequal, with a dorsal groove. Colour pale violaceous, a later row of rosaceous tubercles, double before. Cup resembling a small basket, with four radical threads passing between the muscles of the fin; fin somewhat elongated behind. Gelatinous points, disposed as in the first species.
4. F. Cuviera. Body destitute of the vermiform organ and cup. Tail with an appendage (F. Cuviera. Peron and Le Sueur; Annales du Museum d'Histoire Nat. t. 14. p. 218, and t. 15. p. 57. Pl. 2. fig. 8.) Plate I. fig. 4.
Body subequal, larger and transversely wrinkled before; with a dorsal groove. Colour pale violaceous; tubercles rosaceous, irregularly disposed; one on each side of the dorsal fin larger and transverse, with two longitudinal ones placed upon the tail. Gelatinous points eight; four in a transverese line, surmounted by four others in two transverse lines.
5. F. Frederica. A cup on the dorsal fin, and caudal appendage. Vermiform organ none. Plate I. fig. 5.
Body very much resembling that of F. Cuviera.
6. F. Peronia. A vermiform organ, cup on the dorsal fin, and caudal appendage. Gelatinous points none. Plate I. fig. 6.
Body cylindrical, diaphanous, spotted with white at the base of the dorsal fin; tubercles none.
Account of a North American Quadruped, supposed to belong to the Genus Ovis, by George Ord.
ROCKY-MOUNTAIN SHEEP.
OVIS MONTANA.
In the Journal of Lewis and Clark, there is an account of a quadruped which appears to have not excited that attention which it merits. The following extracts are made from the above mentioned work: "Saw the skin of a mountain sheep, which the Indians say lives among the rocks in the mountains: the skin was covered with white hair, the wool long, thick and coarse, with long coarse hair on the top of the neck and the back, resembling somewhat the bristles of a goat." Vol. II. p. 49.
"The sheep is found in many places, but mostly in the timbered parts of the rocky mountains. They live in greater numbers on the chain of mountains forming the commencement of the woody country on the coast, and passing the Columbia between the falls and rapids." Vol. II. p. 169.
The latter passage was written while our travellers wintered at the mouth of the Columbia rivr. But on their return, at Brant Island, and Indian "offered two sheep skins for sale: one, which was the skin of a fullgrown sheep, was as large as that of a common deer; the second was smaller, and the head part, with the horns remaining, was made into a cap, and highly prized as an ornament by the ower. The Clahelellahs informed us that the sheep are very abundant on the heights, and among the cliffs, of the adjacent mountains; and that these two had been lately killed out of a herd of thirty-six, at no great distance from the village." Vol. ii. p. 233.
"The Indians assert, that there are great numbers of the white buffalo or mountain sheep, on the snowy heights of the mountains, west of Clark's river. They generally inhabit the rocky and most inaccessible parts of the mountain, but as they are not fleet, are easily killed by the hunters." Vol. ii. p. 331.
In the above passages we are made acquainted with the important fact, that, besides the Argali or Big-horned sheep, we have another species in North America of the genus Ovis. The smaller of the two skins, which the Indian offered to sale at Brant Island, was purchased by captain Lewis, and was presented by him to the museum of Philadelphia. It is undoubtedly the skin of a young animal; it measures three feet from the insertion of the tail to the neck, its breadth is twenty-six inches; the tail is short, but it was probably not skinned to the end; along the back there runs a ridge of coarse hair, about three inches in length, and bristled up in the manner of that of the common goat, this ridge is continued up the neck, forming a kind of mane, and is thicker, coarser, and longer there than that of the back; the whole of the skin is closely covered with short wool, of an extreme fineness, surpassing in this quality that of any breed with which I am acquainted, not excepting the wool of the Merino lamb—a coat of hair conceals this wool, but on dividing the former with the hands, the latter lies so thick that the hairs are scarcely visible; the ears are narrow, and taper to a point, they are nearly four inches long; the whole is white; the horns appear to have stood on the top of the head, somewhat in the manner of those of a goat, or of those on the figure of Shaw's Pigmy Antelope, Gen. Zool. vol. ii. plate 188, and vignette on the titlepage. But one[2] horn is now attached to the skin, and that measure's three inches and three quarters in length, on the fore part; it is slightly recurved, cylindrical and acuminated, its base is somewhat tumid, and, with its lower half, is scabrous, its upper part smooth, obsoletely striated, and of a black colour.
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We would incite the attention of our citizens to this important discovery; for although the Spanish missionaries, in 1697, made mention of this sheep, and it is again noticed in Venegas' History of California[3], yet these accounts were discredited. It is to captain Lewis to whom belongs the honour of having been the first to assure his countrymen, by the exhibition of a genuine specimen, that the animal does exist. How subservient to the wants and pleasures of mankind it may be rendered by domestication, we cannot at present declare; but there is room for conjecture, that the introduction of this new species of a race of quadrupeds immemorially ranked among the most valuable of the gifts of the Creator, will confer a lasting benefit upon the agricultural and manufacturing interests of the community.
Since writing the foregoing, I have seen the three first volumes of the Nouveau Dictionnare d'Histoire Naturelle, which work is now publishing in Paris; and in the article Antelope I find a description of an American quadruped, which is in the collection of the Linnean society of London. This description appears to have been extracted from a memoire, read before the Philomatique Society of Paris, by M. de Blainville, wherein the author proposes a new arrangement of the ruminants with hollow and persistent horns, and a subdivision of the Genus Antilope; and classes the above animal under the name of Rupicapra Americana. (Bulletin de la Societe' Philomatique, 1816, p. 80.) As I have not the satisfaction of seeing the Bulletin, I must be content with the information conveyed in the article in the Nouveau Dictionnaire. The speciment is said to be of the bigness of a middling sized goat; the body is entirely covered with long pendent hair, silky and totally white, but not curled; the head is elongated, without a muzzle or naked part, the ears of a middling size; the forehead not protuberant; the horns are short, tolerably thick, black, slightly annulated, they are round, almost straight, bent backwards, and terminated in a blunt point (pointe mousse); the legs are short, stout, and supported on short and thick hoofs; the tail is hardly perceptible, perhaps on account of the length of the hair. M. de Blainville inclined to the opinion that this animal is the same as the Pudu of Molina, Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. ii. p. 392.
It is probable that the specimen belonging to the Linnean Society is of the same species as that brought by captain Lewis; and it is further probable that M. de Blainville was not permitted to examine his subjects as closely as was requisite, otherwise the important circumstance of the thick coat of wool, beneath the outer covering of straight hair, would not have escaped his attention. As to the horns being obtuse, this may have arisen from an accident, or some other cause.
It is much to be wished that some traveller would bring a living speciment of this singular quadruped, or at least a dead specimen in such a state as should enable the naturalist to determine, with precision, its characters. From the information derived from captain Lewis, and from the descriptions above, we cannot, with propriety, arrange this animal with the Antelopes; and if it should not prove to be a true Ovis, it will, probably, constitute a new genus, and take its station, in the systems, between the sheep and the goat.
Genus CYCLOSTOMA.
A subdiscoidal or conic univalve. The aperture orbicular, with a circularly continued margin, often suddenly and widely reflected.
Species.
C. tricarinate. Shell with three volutions; three revolving, carinate, prominent lines, giving to the whorls a quadratic, instead of a cylindric appearance. Suture canaliculate, in consequence of the whorls revolving below the second carina and leaving an interval. Spire convex, apex obtuse. Umbilicus large. Carina placed, one on the upper edge of the whorl, one on the lower edge, and the third on the base beneath. Breadth one-fifth of an inch.
Inhabits the river Delaware. Rare.
Found by Mr. Le Sueuer, whose proposed name is here adopted.
C. lapidaria. Shell turreted, subumbilicate, with six volutions, which are obsoletely wrinkled across. Suture impressed. Aperture longitudinally ovate-orbicular, operculated, rather more than one-third of the length of the shell.
Length about one-fifth of an inch.
Collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Inhabitant not so long as the shell, pale; head elongated into a rostrum as long as the tentacula, and emarginate at tip; tentacula two, filiform, acuminated at tip, short; eyes prominent, situated at the external or poste- rior base of the tentacula; base or foot of the animal dilated, oval, obtuse before and behind.
Found under stones, &c. in moist situations, on the margins of rivers. Like those of the genera Lymnæa and Planorbis this animal possesses the faculty of crawling on the surface of the water, in a reversed position, the shell downward.
Genus LYMNÆA.
Shells subovate, oblong or somewhat tapering. Aperture entire, longitudinally oblong, the right lip circularly joined to the left at the base and folded back on the pillar.
SPECIES.
L. columella. Shell thin, fragile, horn-colour; whorls four, longitudinally wrinkled. Spire prominent, acute. Suture not much impressed. Aperture dilate, ovate. Columella much narrowed near the base, so that the view may be extended from the base almost to the interior apex of the shell. Length seven-tenths of an inch nearly; of the spire one-quarter of an inch.
Inhabits stagnant waters and miry places.
Collection of the Academy.
Animal aquatic, base not so long as the aperture; dusky, with small whitish spots, tentacula broad, pyramidal, compressed; eyes small, black, placed at the inner base of the tentacula.
This species is allied to L. Catascopium of the American edition of Nicholson's Encyclopedia, but the revolution of the whorls is more oblique, the shell thinner, the aperture much more dilated, and the columella differently formed. For several specimens of this shell I am indebted to Mr. Titian Peale.
Genus SUCCINEA. Drap.
Shell oval or oblong; aperture large, oblique; columella narrowed.
SPECIES.
S. ovalis. Shell suboval, pale yellowish, diaphanous, very thin and fragile, with nearly three oblique volutions. Body very large. Spire small, but little prominent, somewhat obtuse. Aperture longitudinally subovate, large. Collumella much narrowed so as almost to permit the view of the interior apex, from the base of the shell. Scarcely any calcareous deposit on the pillar lip. Length nine-twentieths of an inch, aperture seven-twentieths.
Inhabits marshy grounds in shaded situations. Common.
Collection of the Academy.
Animal longer than its shell, furnished with four tentacula, the two superior ones longer, cylindrical, supporting the eyes; inferior ones, short, conic. Colour page with minute black points, which are assembled into fascia on the sides and fillets on the neck above; neck granulate above, a black line passes each side of the neck, from the tip of the oculiferous tentacula, gradually disappearing under the shell. Front truncate, quadrate.
When the animal is living, so vitreous is the shell, that all the markings of its body are plainly discernable. So that although the shell is of a straw-colour, immaculate, it appears of a dusky hue, with a remarkable white, flexuous, longitudical vitta on the back, arising from the suture and terminated about mid way to the base, often with two or three obsolete white spots near it tip.
The characters of the inhabitant are widely distinct from the animal of the Lymnæa, and are somewhat allied to those of the inhabitatns of the Helices; it cannot however be referred to Helix with propriety, as will be evident from the specific description. I have for the present considered it as of Draparnaud's genus Succinea, though it somewhat resembles a Bulimus, particularly in its habitat, being a terrestial species, and in this respect it differs from the Succinea. It may perhaps belong to Lamarch's genus Amphibulimus.
It is hardly necessary to invite naturalists to make use of this Journal for the securing of their discoveries, as it must be obvious that a sheet, printed at short intervals, with the design of being disseminated amongst the learned at home and abroad, is a far more eligible record than a bulky volume, of limited circulation, to the completing and publishing of which, years are commonly devoted. "By withholding individual information," says Montagu, "general knowledge is suspended. Science is materially advanced by the promulgation of the sentiments of individuals, and poor indeed must be the resources of those from whom nothing is to be learned."
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BY D. HEARTT,
and sold by THOMAS DOBSON AND SON, No. 41 South Second-Street, and CALEB RICHARDSON, No. 1 North Fourth-Street.