of the mysteries, the speculations of philosophers and poets who gave the soul a destiny beyond the grave, and popular fancy1 among the Greeks as among us, placed the final goal of the spirit in the upper world, generally in the "pure serene" of the starry heaven. All this would suggest at least the probability that Vergil's Elysium is not an ultimate paradise, but a temporary abode of the good in the lower world. The general sense of the mystic conceptions of which I have tried to give a summary points to an interpretation of the passage which, I think, disposes of its difficulties without tampering with the text or rearranging the lines. It is this: Vergil's Elysium is not the final destiny of the soul but, like the "fair meadow" of the Orphic verses, the Elysium of Pindar, the intermediate heaven of Plato, it is a place where, after the death of the body, the good are sent for purification. The longa dies perfecto temporis orbe, 745, is the Orphic cycle, or the period of ten thousand years of the Phaedrus myth which must elapse before the average soul can rise from its fall and be restored to its divine estate. Those designated in the words has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, are the majority of those who come to Elysium. These, the average good, are subject to the general law of birth and rebirth. After each life of the body they come to Elysium, where they remain a thousand years before they return to earth. The rota here mentioned is evidently the Orphic wheel of life. How then about the "few" who remain in Elysium throughout the cycle? We have seen that in the mystic teaching a chosen few are in a degree made exempt from the long and wearisome cycle. They are released from the necessity of submitting themselves to the full number of incarnations. This idea Vergil treats freely, and releases the few who have merited it from the necessity of any further life in the body. While the others through the long cycle descend to Elysium and ascend to earth again and again in each recurring period of a thousand years 1 Cf. a number of epitaphs cited by Rohde II, pp. 384 ff. The purification through punishment, of ll. 739-44, is a preparation for Elysium. However, penitusque necesse est | Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris, and somewhat of the concreta labes remains to be purged away in Elysium. until they are purified and released from the wheel, the chosen few remain in Elysium until the cycle is completed and the last vestige of earthly taint is purged away. donec longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe, concretam exemit labem purumque relinquit When at length the purgation is accomplished, what becomes of the pure ethereal essence? The inevitable answer is: The pure spirit returns to its pure source. Like to like, is the law of mystic thought. The behind in its earthly and under-earthly life, and the spirit goes back to the god who gave it and the place whence it came.' ὅθεν δ ̓ ἕκαστον εἰς τὸ σῶμ' ἀφίκετο earthly taint is left ἐνταῦθ ̓ ἀπελθεῖν, πνεῦμα μὲν πρὸς αιθέρα τὸ σῶμα δ' εἰς γῆν. If it be objected that Vergil does not say this in so many words, it may be said in reply that the aim of the sixth book is not primarily to give a notion of the ultimate destiny of the soul, but to furnish a dramatic setting for Anchises' prophecy of the greatness and glory of Rome. Eurip. Suppl. 532-35; Epicharmus, fr. 35. THE FISHES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION By T. D. A. COCKERELL For class use, and in connection with my studies of the Rocky Mountain fauna, I have found it necessary to prepare an abstract of our knowledge concerning the fishes of the Rocky Mountain region. The area covered is roughly Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, but the boundaries have been somewhat extended here and there to include certain species. The fossil species are given, although it is anticipated that fresh discoveries will greatly enlarge our knowledge of these in the near future. A good series which the University Expedition of 1907 obtained in the Miocene shales of Florissant is now being studied by Dr. Eastman. The information given in this paper is compiled from the literature, with the exception of the results of a study of the fishes of Boulder County, based on material in the University of Colorado Museum, mostly collected by Mr. Chancey Juday. By far the greater part is derived from the monumental work of Jordan and Evermann on the Fishes of North and Middle America (Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Museum), which is the main source of information for all students of American ichthyology.' American Food and Game Fishes, by the same authors, but of later date (1902), has also been found exceedingly useful. The basis of our knowledge of Boulder County fishes is the paper by Professor Chancey Juday in University of Colorado Studies, Vol. II, p. 113, and Bull. U. S. Bureau of Fishes, March 17, 1905. In these papers, unfortunately, the diagnostic characters of the fishes (excepting the new Leuciscus) are not given; these I have endeavored to supply. For records of the fossil species, I am primarily indebted to the invaluable catalogue of the Fossil Vertebrata of North America, by O. P. Hay (Bull. 179, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1901). I am exceedingly indebted to Dr. B. W. Evermann, who has kindly The figures illustrating the present paper are derived from this work, with the kind permission of the authorities of the National Museum. examined the manuscript, and has made a critical examination of a Notropis which I had failed to identify. In the study of geographical distribution, especially as related to past conditions, the value of the evidence afforded by fresh-water fishes can hardly be exaggerated. Thus the following contrast between the genera of the Gila and Rio Grande basins should make those hesitate who believe in the recent depression of the continent in the region of southern New Mexico and Arizona. The case of Leuciscus, and the rather similar one of Rhinichthys, come under the head of "exceptions which prove the rule;" for the close resemblance (in Rhinichthys even identity) of species on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes, taken with the great general diversity, simply shows that these forms must have been transported in some way from one basin to another since the separation of the drainage areas. That they are ultra-conservative forms, preserving their characters while all around them has changed in the course of ages, seems scarcely possible.1 The general similarity between the fishes of the Rio Grande and Platte basins is as striking as the diversity in the other case. It is noteworthy that the trout (Salmo), which inhabit the waters of The strong and numerous fish fauna of the Mississippi valley may be thought of as spreading westward, to be checked by the Rocky Mountain chain. How recent this spread may be, and how far it has resulted in the extermination on the Atlantic slope of the mountains of specially western types, remains uncertain; adequate paleontological evidence is wanting. It is proper to remember, however, that characteristic Mississippi valley types of Mollusca occur in the Cretaceous of the Rocky Mountain region. |