Collection of reports on Death Valley, the bordering region of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Reports include birds, reptiles and Batrachians, fishes, insects, mollusks, trees and shrubs, cactuses and yuccas, and list of localities in the reports.

Patent for an improved, simple, and effective car coupling that couples automatically and without anyone having to go between the cars. It consists of a drawhead with a slot on one side, upper and lower slides in the drawhead, a coupling pin that sits in the upper slide, a lever that is connected to the slide, a spring that holds the lower slide in place, and a bolt that connects the lever with the upper slide.

Patent for an improved, simple, and durable fire extinguisher that can be used quickly conveniently, and effectively to extinguish a fire in a cotton gin. The extinguisher is built into the gin. The gin has a hole in its top, a lint chute on one side, a valve that closes the hole, a valve that closes the lint chute, a connection between the valves, and a rope that connects the valves to a guide.

Patent for a combination orchard tool that gathers fruit, holds it in a bag, and can sever fruit stems in order to pick them. After severing, the fruit falls into the bag. The operator pulls a string that falls along the long handle, and the knife springs up from the bag so that it can sever the stems.

Patent for a snuff box "in which the snuff may be conveniently packed for shipment and sale; and which is also adapted to carry the brush so that it is kept out of contact with the snuff and with the clothing, and to provide means for ejecting the brush handle when the box is open so that it may be conveniently grasped and used" (lines 20-27).

Patent for an adjustable grate attachment that is meant to be used with open grates. It prevents "the falling of heated coals therefrom; also to provide for extension of the grate vertically to facilitate making of a larger fire; and further, to provide an attachment which may be used in regulating the draft to the grate proper" (lines 15-20).

Patent for a baling press that has a rebounding plunger and is meant to have "an effective and substantial tripping and catching mechanism, simple in construction, low of production, and durable and easy to trip" (lines 22-25).

Patent for a plow that has an improved land-slide that can be "expeditiously and conveniently removed from the shank plate of the plow, and to so construct the shank plate that the share when placed thereon will be firmly held in position and be prevented from slipping vertically" (lines 10-15). The land-slide and shank-plate are firmly interlocked.

Patent for an improved pneumatic cotton-picker that is meant "to produce a simple machine having a cotton receiving box or vacuum box and arranged to use both a blast and suction pipe, these pipes being oppositely arranged and the suction pipe being made to deliver into the cotton box" (lines 10-17). The cotton is sucked from the plants and delivers it into a cotton box. A guide lines the machine up with the row of cotton.

Patent for "a churn dasher to which a rotary movement shall be imparted by the resistance offered by the fluid to the dasher when the latter is given a vertical reciprocating movement in the ordinary manner, the rotary movement being constantly in one direction, irrespective of the direction of the vertical reciprocating movement" (lines 13-21).

Patent for an improved, inexpensive, and simple planter that is "adapted to plant either corn or cotton and that at predetermined distances; to so construct the machine as to adapt it readily for change from one form of planter to the other; and to improve the manner of securing the furrow-opening shovel-carrying standard and the seed tube, whereby the former and latter are prevented from breaking or becoming injured should they contact with a stone, stump, or other obstacle of sufficient size and firmness to injure them" (lines 10-21).

Patent for a simple cupsidor that attaches to the floor of railway cars and other places and can be easily cleaned. They are designed to be installed in a line and connected so they can be opened and cleaned at the same time. A valve and a tube hold and empty the contents of the cupsidor.

Patent for "an improved head rest which can be easily attached to a car seat without injuring or marring the wood work or upholstering thereof, and which will be compact in structure, light in weight and cheap and durable in general construction, and readily adjustable in height, and angle of inclination" (lines 14-21).

Patent for a device that cools wine and liquor. The device "will produce the desired results in much shorter time than is now employed by the common method and apparatus" (lines 11-14).

Patent for a clothes line that improves on a clothes line previously granted to Lane and Kelly (No. 449,480) that improves how the wire sections connect so that the clothes can be easily attached and detached because there will be less pressure on the clamping loops.

Patent for a simple and effective cotton cleaning machine that removes foreign matter from cotton before or after ginning. This enhances the cotton's worth and quality. The cotton will not get torn during this process.

Patent for a motor-propelled fan that can attach to any support, especially beds steads and other furniture. The motor is simple and can be easily manipulated.

Patent for a feeding chamber and door for baling presses that vertically extends so that "the feed material need not be tucked down by hand or foot to a level of the baling chamber, as this is accomplished by the door being closed down, a lever and weight can be attached to the door to properly depress the material to allow the door to latch, and as the door prevents the material from bulging up the compressing can be accomplished direct in the feeding chamber, the plunger need not pass but a short distance beyond the feeding chamber thus requiring less movement of the plunger and thus gaining more power" (lines 23-35).

Patent for "a new and useful improvement in pinless clothes lines" (lines 10-11) that uses spring-clamping fingers that are part of the line instead of detachable pins; including instructions and illustrations.

Patent for "a quilting-frame with equalizing bar and means for adjusting the same so that the quilting-frame shall at all times be held in a level position" (lines 8-11). This invention has a new method for suspending the quilting-frame and for supporting the rail where the traveler operates.

Patent for an improved wrench that has two movable jaws and can separate about the length of the handle. The wrench's "head or nut for operating the upper jaw is swiveled and forms a part of the handle" (lines 14-15). The wrench can be converted into a pipe-wrench.

Patent for an improved air-pipe coupling that is airtight and watertight and has a flexible union for railroad cars.

Patent for improvements in atmospheric clothes pounders: "Dividing the outer section into compartments so that air in escaping is distributed evenly from all sides of the pounder instead of escaping in a body from one side, whenever the pounder strikes a wad or knot of cloths and is tipped sidewise; it also makes the suction better" (lines 49-55).

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in grips for cable cars: "and it has for its objects among others to provide a simple and cheap grip by which the wear on the cable will be diminished to the minimum, and which shall be composed of few parts, those readily assembled and not liable t get ont of order, and in which practically all the wear comes upon the grip and not upon the cable" (line 14-21).