Gray Mountain Research Articles

Study and conservation of biodiversity of honey bees in Russia

Middle Russian, Bashkir, Carpathian, Gray Mountain Caucasian and Far Eastern bees are bred in Russia. As a result of selection based on selected material, the following breed types were reared: “Priokskiy”, “Orlovskiy”, “Tatarskiy” and “Burzyanskaya Bortevaya” of Middle Russian; “Maykopskiy” and “Moskovskiy” of Сarpathian; and “Krasnopolyanskiy” of Gray Mountain Caucasian breeds. Work was carried out at farms-originators of breed types “Priokskiy” on the apiaries of Federal beekeeping research centre, “Tatarskiy” – selective centre “Tatarskiy”, “Burzyanskaya Bortevaya” – State nature reserve “Shulgan-Tash”, “Krasnopolyanskiy” – Krasnopolyanskya Experimental station of Beekeeping. The materials of approbation of breeding achievements of the Bashkir and Far Eastern breeds and breed types “Orlovskiy”, “Maikopskiy” and “Moskovskiy” were analyzed. The research was guided by the “Method of conducting tests for distinctness, uniformity and stability”. Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.)” and “Methods of research work in beekeeping”. The characteristics of the morphometric features of bees, queens and drones, as well as the ethological features of bee colonies of reared breeds and breed types are presented. Reserves, sanctuaries and breeding farms are indicated that are engaged in the conservation, selection improvement and reproduction of selected queen bees and families of a certain origin, as well as their sale in breeding zones for further reproduction. To conduct breeding work in beekeeping, a number of documents have been prepared: Regulations on the state nature reserve for the conservation of the gene pool of the native breed (population) of the honey bee, the Rules for classifying farms engaged in breeding bees as breeding farms, the National standard for the queen bee, the Interstate standard for the bee colony. The study of the gene pool of breeds, types and populations of bees, the control of their purity are the main conditions for its conservation and rational use.

Morphometric evaluation of the male bee of the selection and breeding group of the Kabakhtapa population of the Gray Mountain Caucasian breed (<i>Apis mellifera caucasica Gorb.</i>)

Relevance. The gene pool of bees in Azerbaijan consists of two bee breeds — the Gray Mountain Caucasian and the Yellow Caucasian bees. These breeds combine 5 populations. Among these populations, the Kabakhtapa population stands out, which is considered the “golden bee” of the gene pool of Azerbaijan. In order to protect and improve the gene pool of bees, in Azerbaijan conditions were carried out researchesrelated to the creation of a new highly productive selection and breeding group through mass, individual selection and selection in bee colonies of the Kabakhtapa population of the Gray Mountain Caucasian breed.Methods. Biometric analysis of the collected materials, compilation of a series of variations, starting with correction of the variation curve, mean (M), standard deviation (d), coefficient of variation (V), error of mean (m), reliability criterion (t) were definedas key indicators.Results. In the spring, when bee colonies have been provided with additional bee growth and feeding for the hive, it is possible to grow high-quality male bees, as in the summer season. Bee colonies which were given growth and feed were able to grow male bees, that were bigger by 4,8% in the length, by1,2% — in the length of the upper part of the third joint and by1,1% — in the length of the lower part of the third joint, by1,0% — in the wing length, by1,0% — in the wing width; the cubital index was also bigger by2,0% .

Exterior and performance evaluation bees of the gray mountain caucasus and italian breeds at sunflower pollination

Exterior and performance evaluation bees of the gray mountain caucasus and italian breeds at sunflower pollination

РАЗВИТИЕ ПЛЕМЕННОГО ДЕЛА В ПЧЕЛОВОДСТВЕ

The theoretical basis of breeding is the biology of honey bees and, first of all, genetics. Scientists of the Moscow State University have made a great contribution to the study of the honey bee. Under the leadership of Professor of Moscow State University G. A. Kozhevnikov, F. A. Tyunin took place, who in 1919 created the Tula Experimental Beekeeping Station, and on its basis in 1930 the Scientific Research Institute of Beekeeping was organized. P. M. Komarov enriched science with his research on the physiology of honey bees, breeding and reproduction of queen bees. V. V. Alpatov's research intraspecific variability of bees served as the basis for the development of a classical methodology for biometric assessment of the exterior features of bees of various breeds. At the Tula experimental beekeeping station, A. S. Mikhailov was the first in Russia to manufacture equipment for instrumental insemination of queen bees and revealed the nature of inheritance of a number of traits in bees. In the 50s, an employee of the Research Institute of Beekeeping V. V. Shakes discovered the phenomenon of polyandry, improved the design of the apparatus for instrumental insemination of queen bees and revealed patterns of inheritance of exterior and interior features in bees. The work planned and carried out during 1964-1975 on the comparative study of the main bee breeds in specific beekeeping zones of the country under the leadership of the Research Institute of Beekeeping was completed by the preparation of the first plan for the breed zoning of bees in 1979 in 1992. according to the results of the approbation, the order of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia approved the breeding achievement of the breed type "Prioksky", bred by the staff of the Research Institute of Beekeeping on the basis of crossing the gray mountain Caucasian and Central Russian breeds. The work on the breeding and testing of bees was carried out, as a result of which the Bashkir (2006), Far Eastern (2016), breed types Orlovsky (2008), Tatar (2010), Burzyanskaya Bortevaya (2011) of the Central Russian breed were approved and entered into the register of breeding achievements, "Krasnopolyansky (2008) gray mountain Caucasian, "Maykop" (2006), "Moscow" (2017) Carpathian breeds. Improved technologies of reproduction of high-quality queens with the use of modern inventory and equipment are proposed, the use of which allows to increase the productivity of bee colonies by 10-15%, and the yield of royal jelly by two times. In the 90s, according to the results of research by the staff of the Research Institute of Beekeeping and the Institute of General Genetics, the technology of deep freezing of drone sperm in liquid nitrogen at t-196 0C was patented. According to the results of selection and breeding work, the leading farms in Russia are recognized: for the gray mountain Caucasian breed - Krasnopolyanskaya experimental station of beekeeping, and for the Carpathian - "Maikopskoye", which are currently branches of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "FNC of Beekeeping". The Oryol Experimental Beekeeping Station was specialized in breeding Central Russian bees. Along with classical methods, the Research Institute of Beekeeping, in cooperation with the Institute of General Genetics and the Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, has begun work on the use of molecular genetic methods for identifying breeds of bees in Russia. The accumulated knowledge and experience in genetics, breeding and reproduction of bees is summarized in a number of publications and is widely covered in periodicals. The Research Institute of Beekeeping is approved by the breeding and information center for bee breeds and performs scientific and methodological guidance, as well as coordination of breeding work in the country. To this end, the necessary regulatory documents have been developed and a number of methodological recommendations have been issued for conducting breeding work in beekeeping.

Conditions and factors of humus formation in soils of mountain and foothill

On the basis of information on the climatic factor, the intensity of humus formation in the soil was estimated. It was revealed that as the transition from the plain to the foothills and low mountains due to changes in atmospheric precipitation and hydrothermal regime, the period of biological activity (PBA) of the soil increases from the plain to the mountains. The balance of annual radiation in the foothill plain is 47 kcal/cm2, in the high-mountain belt - 53 kcal/cm2. As the transition from the plain to the mountainous part of the relief, an increase in soil PBA was revealed and, in accordance with this, the content and reserves of humus, as well as labile humic substances in the humus composition, increase. By the type of humus, light gray soils are humate-fulvate and fulvate; typical, dark gray soils and mountain brown soils, fulvate-humate; light brown meadow-steppe soils, and humate. It also provides information on the energy reserves of humus for the considered soils. The correlations between the indicators of PBA and humus for horizon “A” in the studied soils were calculated.

PHOSPHORUS AND POTASSIUM RESERVES IN THE MAIN TYPES OF ZONAL SOILS OF THE CHELYABINSK REGION

One of the most important tasks of land monitoring is to control the content of gross and mobile forms of basic nutrients in soils. The phosphate-potassium regime of the soil depends not only on its type and the geochemical composition of the soil-forming rock, but also on the landscape and the level of chemicalization of the soil. The low content of phosphorus in the soil in the main area of agricultural land limits the productivity of agrocenoses. The reserves of potassium in the soils of the region are quite high. However, monitoring of this indicator is still important. A comparative assessment of the phosphate-potassium regime of arable land and virgin lands under the same soilforming process is of scientific and practical interest. According to the research results, it has been established that black soils have the highest reserves level of gross and mobile forms of phosphorus. Dark gray mountain-forest soils have the lowest one. A widespread decrease in the reserves of mobile phosphorus in agricultural soils was revealed. This tendency is especially pronounced in dark gray mountain forest soils, ordinary and southern black soils. According to the results of monitoring, it was revealed that the reserves of exchangeable potassium in the main area of arable land and virgin land are gradually increased. In the dark gray mountain-forest soils, as well as leached black soils for five rounds of the survey, the reserves of exchangeable potassium decreased. It is necessary to adjust the dose of fertilizers into the farms with updated information on the agrochemical properties of the soil, taking into account the content of phosphorus and potassium in the arable layer. Also it is of great importance to take into account their removal with the crop and the utilization rate of nutrients from the soil and fertilizers.

New trends in collocability based on the English collocations in fiction

The language of fiction is probably not the most dynamically but still changing. These new trends in collacability are of a great interest to us. The definition of collocation is present in the text; the authors also distinguish the concepts of collocation and lexical function. This article will discuss the trends considered in synchrony and diachrony, which were highlighted on the material of John Grisham “Gray Mountain”, which is relatively new English-language material (2014), and a bit dated J. D. Salinger “Nine Stories” (1953 ) to track trends and their development in the language. 150 examples were reviewed and analyzed. 5 trends were highlighted on a given case. The authors use dictionaries, linguistic search on the Internet, the COCA (Grisham and Salinger are both from the USA). The authors conclude that the trends that have been considered are the most frequent for the language of fiction and deserve the attention of the researchers due to their productivity. The reasons why stable word combinations change: the emergence of new realities and the need for a new nomination and (which is more typical for the prose) the search for the new forms of self-expression of the writers.

Morphometric variability of wild honey bees of the mountain forest zone of Crimea as a material for breeding

The results of studies of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) from two points are presented: from a bee colony captured near the Tankovoye village (this swarm was found by a local resident an entrepreneur, the owner of the private nursery “Orekhovod – practitioner” I.S. Emirsinov) and bees captured in the vicinity of Sugut-Oba mountain (Burus) from a swarm captured about 25 km to the southeast of Belogorsk and west of the Feodosia height. Measurements of morphometric features were carried out using the method of V.V. Alpatov (1948), the method of F. Ruttner (2006) was used to identify the morphotypes and the width of the hairline of worker bees. The phenotypic homogeneity of bee colonies from the Tankovoye village was revealed by morphotypes and the width of the hairline on the abdomen of worker bees in the presence of a variety of classical morphometric characters. At the same time, one phenotype characterized by morphotype O (light brown coloration of chitinous integuments on the abdomen) and a narrow hairline f was registered. The presence of this phenotype characterizes the compliance with the breed standards of Apis mellifera caucasica (gray mountain Caucasian), Apis mellifera carpatica (Carpathian) or Apis mellifera carnica (Carniolan), i.e. breeds with a gray abdomen. Molecular genetic analysis of the mtDNA COI site showed the homogeneity of the sample of wild bees captured near the Tankovoye village and their proximity to the Vuchkovskaya line of the Carpathian breed.

Black lung is still a threat

Black lung is still a threat

DEPENDENCE OF SEASONAL BROODING DYNAMICS OF THE BEES ON THE SPECIES COMPOSITION OF NECTARIFEROUS PLANTS

Aim. The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between the collection of pollen, nectar and seasonal brooding dynamics of the bees of the gray mountain Caucasian family; to study their behavior when changing the floristic composition, and also the honey production of honey plants. Methods. Using the frame-grid method, we succeeded to calculate the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. Also, the study allowed comparing the collection of nectar and pollen from each species of honey plants; the species composition of plants and honey content were studied as well. Results. We identified the number of bees that bring pollen and nectar to the hive. The activity of pollen gatherers is associated with the pulse of the queen bee to lay eggs and a large number of sealed brood in the hives. Were also determined the duration of flowering, the potential of honey-yielding plants and the dynamics of the collection of nectar and pollen for the season of 2013. Conclusion. The findings obtained make it possible to present a more specific picture of species diversity, honey production, ecology and the distribution of the melliferous resources of the studied area. The analysis of the obtained findings allows concluding that the daily dynamics of pollen gatherers increases in the spring period by May and June, and the queen bee lays eggs more effectively during this period.

Формирование современного облика медоносных пчел и их воспроизводство в Республике Дагестан

Grey mountain Caucasian bees are of great interest for the selection, as a valuable gene pool of different populations of this race is supported by high mountains and inaccessible gorges of Dagestan, while serving as an isolated mountainous natural breeding areas. The studies were conducted in three different climatic conditions of the republic: the plains, foothills and mountainous areas. In the area of natural dispersal of gray mountain Caucasian bees in Dagestan released several local populations and different backgrounds. Characteristics of the main morphological features of honey bees are the length of proboscis, wing and width of the third tergite and others. These features bees vary, depending on the habitat population. Numerous studies of Dagestan honeybees showed, that the longest proboscis inherent in bees of mountain zone (6.85 ± 0.03 mm). The plain bees have a smaller proboscis (up to 6.71 ± 0.01 mm), and in the foothills bees the proboscis occupies an intermediate position (from 6.69 ± 0.01 to 6.83 ± 0.01 mm). Two other peculiarities (wing length and the third tergite) are subject to variation, depending on the altitude above sea level.

Nova Gold, and: Cloud Patrol

Nova Gold Witty, aren't the stars? Tabulating their own rates. They can't look up through their own hair to see another star crossing. Silver wires coming down to set their light. We bought them when they were worth almost nothing. We walked hand in hand in the neighborhood, playing games: he covered my eyes as he led me past all the cracks in the sidewalk, and the shrubbery I had known. We thought it wouldn't last at all. I hulked under blankets. He drove. The car swift across the countryside. Sand flats. Cypress. So far south, noon tilted like amber sunset, heavy-strained through ambivalence. The turns in the clock are a given, but my skull and teeth are so close to the gravel. It's flimsy floorboard between me and road shooting past, eighty miles per hour. The starlight blanked out as soon as it fell to the grass. It shimmered. We tried to catch the feeling of love. In the old days, they didn't know it caused the green and red scarves in northern skies. Slow flames leaping about. Flames cool and large enough to light the mind, but not burn it. [End Page 134] Cloud Patrol There is a long distance ahead of us, so immeasurable I don't see why anyone ever fusses about history. A dark magnetic field presses down over the house, against the windows. I've cooked. My mother away in Paris speaks to her mother. Or my mother will have watched all night out a window at a lurking pine. Maybe a fauteuil that Mimie, my grandmother, will slump in, not rimming her lids with black anymore, or wearing the fox head-stole that will have disintegrated by next century's end. Never mind about the picture in which I can be held on a hip, those foxes and snow clinging where I doubt I'll ever be again. Who sits down to Bach floating out of the kitchen? My mother stepped off a bus to clean her mother's rooms. To haul bags of her father's letters, her mother's diploma to the dumpster. She thought, "Pretend there was a fire." Step down I was saying, picturing her tomorrow, and come back. I suggest a beard I know my brother will never grow. The rain hits the windshield. He gives me the finger as we ride: [End Page 135] Did you know at Agincourt the French archers had their necessary third fingers chopped by the English (who then won)? To antagonize the frogs, the English held up their middle and index fingers. Isn't that crazy? Years ago, I was standing in the kitchen with a letter from Lt. Mark C. to my brother. David said, "Read this," then went to lie on his bed. The basket case, the body-bagged man with the head tucked in near the bits of feet, I was sick - Mark had watched for clouds with my brother on Mount Sinai. Gulf War. The zipper may have split to give view to the salad of organs. Limbs come back to the base. There were only seventeen minutes of rain in fifteen months on Mount Sinai. At the top of a sandy ridge, four men stood watch as cloud patrol and sent up rowdy whoops when one cumulus, a dinner roll or tube of white, fumed into view. What would be formed clear on the desert, on its coasts of constant future. Sand drifted up, mingled with the blue screen, whipped its back like a cat in the desert. Waves of heat, days my brother insists, he read like white lessons of "after." As in, "After this I'll . . ." It's not true that no one really knows what he wants. [End Page 136] On Mount Everest, it wasn't a search for clouds but heights. A winded climber sat among patches of snow, feasting on blue & white and gray mountain vistas. Suddenly, his gaze released circulating clouds, and took up a strangely white...

Civic life in Gray Mountain: sizing up the legacy of New England’s blue-collar middle class

When President Clinton took Congressional and business leaders on a tour early this summer to places where chronic poverty has persisted despite the nation’s booming economy, they visited Appalachia’s coalfields, the Mississippi Delta, the Pine Ridge Indian reservation and inner-city neighborhoods in East St. Louis and Los Angeles. They did not visit New England. Not that New England’s inner cities aren’t plagued with poverty and social problems; they are. And many poor families are struggling to get by in rural Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Yet the notoriously bad conditions that took the president to the nation’s “poverty pockets” are exceedingly rare in the six-state region. Why? Why have poverty rates stayed so high in the South compared with New England? And what can the region expect in the future? The answers lie in the kind of civic culture generated by each community’s economy and social structure. Chronically poor places are divided by race and class and saddled with corrupt politics, ineffective schools, and self-interested elites. Distrustful of one another, people in these places look out only for their own families. Escaping poverty is possible only for the lucky few who have a kind relative, caring teacher, or coach who pushes and inspires them to finish school and aim high. But most stay trapped in the same poor conditions their parents and perhaps grandparents knew. In contrast, when communities have a large middle class, the poor are less likely to be cut off from the mainstream. And they are more likely to have the set of contacts, habits and skills—the cultural tool kit—they need to leave poverty behind. More importantly, the community institutions that poor families rely upon are more likely to be effective because the middle class is committed to them. The poor can get ahead without relying solely on personal intervention from a mentor or other benefactor. During the 1990s, I studied poverty and community change in three remote, rural communities: a poor Appalachian coal county I call “Blackwell,” a poor Mississippi Delta plantation community I call “Dahlia” and a more stable and economically diverse northern New England mill community, “Gray Mountain.” The idea was to learn why poverty persisted generation after generation in Appalachia and the Delta, what made the difference when people did achieve upward mobility, and why it was so hard to bring about change. I examined 100 years of Census data detailing changes in population, patterns of work, income distribution and education. I read histories of each region, as well as the local weekly newspapers. But the heart of the study is the 350 in-depth interviews colleagues and I conducted with people living in these communities—not only the poor, but also the rich and those in between. These open-ended conversations revealed how each community’s civic culture—its level of trust, participation and investment—shapes opportunities for both individual mobility and social change.

Wupatkiite from the Cameron Uranium District, Arizona, a new member of the halotrichite group

AbstractWupatkiite (Co,Mg,Ni)Al2(SO4)4.22H2O is a new member of the halotrichite group. It occurs 8 miles ESE of Gray Mountain, Arizona, near the prehistoric pueblo dwelling Wupatki. It occurs as cross-fibre veinlets with fibres up to 8mm long. Colour: empire rose (RHS48C), streak white, H. = 1 ½. G = 1.92, D(calc) = 1.87g/cm3. Nonpleochroic with α = 1.477, γ = 1.484, Z^fibre axis = 12°. Wet chemistry gave MgO 1.63, CaO 0.10, MnO 0.17, FeO 0.15, NiO 0.52, CuO 0.12, CoO 3.41, Al2O3 11.30, SO3 35.97, H2O 42.26 (total 95.63%); rem. = montmorillonite and quartz. Parameters refinedo from the powder pattern are close to those of halotrichite. Wupatkiite is monoclinic P21/c with a = 6.189 Å, b = 24.23 Å, c = 21.20 Å, β = 100.33°. Strongest lines are 4.790, 100 (024); 4.295, 27 (140); 3.945, 26 (025); 3.768, 33 (062); 3.494, 92 (124, 063).

Rock magnetic study of the lower massive sandstone, moenkopi formation (triassic), gray mountain area, Arizona : Larson, E E; Walker, T E J Geophys Res, V87, NB6, 10 June 1982, P4819–4836

Rock magnetic study of the lower massive sandstone, moenkopi formation (triassic), gray mountain area, Arizona : Larson, E E; Walker, T E J Geophys Res, V87, NB6, 10 June 1982, P4819–4836

A rock magnetic study of the lower massive sandstone, Moenkopi Formation (Triassic), Gray Mountain Area, Arizona

This paper describes the results of rock magnetic and petrographic studies of the Lower Massive sandstone of the Moenkopi Formation, north central Arizona, which heretofore has been considered to be a reliable magnetostratigraphic unit. The rock‐magnetic studies included stepwise thermal demagnetization of samples of intraformational mudstone clasts and a deformed shale lens, both of which occur within the lower part of the sandstone, and stepwise thermal and selective destructive demagnetization (SDD) of samples of the sandstone containing black sand laminae composed largely of opaque grains. In samples both from the claystone clasts and deformed shale lens two secondary components, one of modern normal polarity and one of Triassic normal polarity, were unambiguously identified, and a third CRM component of Triassic reversed polarity was tentatively identified. There is no evidence in samples of either the claystone clasts or deformed shale lens of a remanence acquired prior to deposition or to deformation, respectively. SDD, by means of which the small‐scale homogeneity of remanence within samples of the Lower Massive sandstone containing black sand laminae could be assessed, shows that each sample primarily contains a heterogeneous three‐dimensional mixture of Triassic normal and reversed components. The Triassic normal direction that is characteristic of the Lower Massive sandstone is a vector resultant of almost balanced proportions of the two nearly antiparallel components, averaging about 55 to 60% normal and 45 to 40% reversed. The local variability in both direction and intensity of remanence within and between individual black sand laminae confirms that acquisition of the remanence took place over a geologic time interval that spanned at least two and probably several polarity intervals and that, on a small scale, the remanence was sporadically acquired more or less randomly, probably in response to local conditions in the interstitial physicochemical environment that affected the growth of authigenic hematite. No primary component of remanence acquired at or soon after deposition could be identified. The remanence in the black sand‐bearing Lower Massive sandstone is largely carried by the black sand grains which, as determined from reflected‐light petrographic studies, are primarily martite (67%) and altered ilmenite grains (20%) composed of complex intergrowths of hematite and iron‐titanium minerals. These data strongly suggest that these grains, deposited initially as unaltered to only moderately altered magnetite and ilmenite, subsequently underwent oxidation during which they acquired their remanence.

Early acquisition of characteristic magnetization in red beds of the Moenkopi Formation (Triassic), Gray Mountain, Arizona

Four discrete magnetizations associated with events occurring during deposition, early diagenesis, recent weathering, and cloud to ground lightning have been identified in rocks of the Moenkopi Formation at Gray Mountain, Arizona. A paleomagnetic study of more than 800 samples tied closely to the physical stratigraphy of the Moenkopi indicates that most of the magnetization remaining after partial alternating field and thermal demagnetization was acquired during and shortly after deposition. Directions of this remaining (characteristic) magnetization, in both normally and reversely magnetized rock, are closely similar to directions reported for the Moenkopi elsewhere on the Colorado Plateau. Sampling across the Moenkopi Formation at Gray Mountain has revealed two reversed magnetozones separating three normal magnetozones. Generally sharp boundaries of the magnetozones, their close concordance with physical stratigraphic units, and the rarity of anomalous directions of magnetization within the magnetozones indicate that most of the secondary components of the characteristic magnetization were acquired within 104–105 years after deposition. A conglomerate test based on siltstone clasts in sandstone shows highly scattered but not completely random directions of magnetization following partial thermal demagnetization. A secondary Triassic normal magnetization appears to be superimposed on some of the clasts, as suggested by the approximate coincidence of the resultant magnetic vector from the clasts with a Triassic normal direction. A fold test based on samples from highly deformed silty clay stone and sandstone in an intraformational landslide shows that these rocks acquired most of their stable magnetization before folding. A component of Triassic normal magnetization acquired after deformation also occurs in some of these rocks.

Detrital magnetization in red beds of the Moenkopi Formation (Triassic), Gray Mountain, Arizona

Specularite, apparently formed and in part altered to red hematite before deposition, carries much of the stable magnetization in sandstone, siltstone, and claystone of the Moenkopi Formation (Lower Triassic) at Gray Mountain, northern Arizona. High‐temperature exsolution textures seen in polished section indicate that some, if not much, of the specularite is detrital. Progressive thermal and chemical demagnetization analyses indicate that the most stable magnetization resides in specularite. Last, a systematic depositional inclination ‘error’ is seen in both normally and reversely polarized sandstone. Part of its cause was the deposition along fine bedding laminations of subtabular grains of specularite carrying a strong direction of magnetization in the plane of tabularity. Magnetic inclinations are significantly shallower in sandstone than in siltstone, and the amount and sense of inclination error are controlled in detail by the dip of the horizontal and cross laminations. The foregoing leads to the conclusion that the stable magnetization is a detrital magnetization acquired during the course of deposition and that the Moenkopi Formation thus is suitable for magnetostratigraphy. Neither the formation of specularite nor the acquisition of the stable magnetization appears to be the consequence of prolonged and complicated postdepositional chemical alteration, a process invoked by some workers for formation and magnetization of ancient red beds. Because specularite is common in other ancient red bed sequences, their stable magnetizations also may be partly or largely detrital.

Moss Habitats of the Western Catskills

My own collections of Catskill Mountain mosses, which are in process of being identified, have been made on one old homestead located near the head of a narrow valley about three miles from the village of Andes, which is situated in Delaware County in the western Catskills. Within a short distance are two peaks, Gray's Mountain, which is over 2000 feet in elevation, and Mt. Pisgah, which is between 3ooo and 4000 feet. Since this farm provides several typical moss habitats which can be easily duplicated in many places in the western Catskills, a description of these may serve also for other collecting grounds. The elevation which forms the head of the valley is a part of the water-shed between the east and west branches of the Delaware river. The hills bordering the valley extend from this upland and run nearly parallel for several miles. One slope is very steep; the other is much more gradual; both are forest covered on the upper half. The farm, like so many others in this region, extends from hilltop to hilltop. In the early days a sawmill was located on the little stream which flows through the farm, but for many years timber has been removed only for fuel and for the small amount of lumber needed on the place. So while the conditions are in no real sense primeval there has been little destruction of timber in recent years. Much of the bottom land and of the more gently sloping hillside is under cultivation.