points of interest and should receive the consideration of the advocates of a "circumpolar whirl." Of course, conclusions are not to be drawn from these limited data (and data taken in an expedition of this kind are necessarily limited), but they are in consonance with many other data that invite a reconsideration of prevalent theories of atmospheric circulation. When the conditions under which these observations were made are considered, their number and their nature must be regarded as a high tribute to the scientific devotion of the observer. T. C. C. The Oriskany Fauna of Becraft Mountain, Columbia County, N. Y. By J. M. CLARK, Ph.D., Mem. N. Y. St. Mus., No. 3, Vol. III. Becraft Mountain is an outlier composed chiefly of strata of early Devonian age, resting conformably upon the upturned slates of the Hudson River formation. A preliminary paper on the fauna of the Oriskany formation at this locality was published in 1899 by Professor C. E. Beecher, being accompanied by a list of the species present identified by the author of the present report. It was shown at that time that the fauna was a peculiar one, consisting of an intermingling of Helderbergian and Oriskany forms. The present report is a detailed description of the fauna accompanied by good illustrations of all the species. This discussion of the Becraft Mountain Oriskany fauna by Dr. Clark, brings clearly into view a very different conception of the faunas of Oriskany age in eastern North America from that which has become known through Volume III of the New York Paleontology. At Becraft's Mountain, and in strata extending southward through New York and into New Jersey, a calcarious facies of Oriskany sedimentation occurs, which contains a very different assembly of organisms from that of the original Oriskany sandstone, and which is considered by Dr. Clark as being the normal fauna of the period. In this connection Dr. Clark writes: "In the earlier presentation of this fauna it was regarded as of Lower Oriskany horizon, on account of the presence of many Helderbergian species, but we believe it will be more correctly construed as the representation of the proper and normal Oriskany fauna, the true fauna of this time unit inclosed in the sediments of its proper habitat." The character of the Oriskany sandstone deposits in New York from Schoharie county westward are shown to be "a series of arenaceous lenses connected by thin sheets of quartzitic sandstone." In regard to the fauna of these lenses, it is said: "The great brachiopods, Spirifer arenosus, Rensselaeria ovoides, Hipparionyx proximus, and Meristella lata, with Tentaculites elongatus, which are the species generally present in these lenses, could not have had their habitat on such a deposit and in a sea whose depth favored such deposition. We shall not be wrong in regarding these accumulations of remains in the true Oriskany sandstone as agglomérations, swept out of their facies. and away from the more calcareous, deeper water deposits of the time. To regard them as species of the sandy facies of Oriskany time would, I believe, be altogether erroneous. They appertain truly to the calcarious facies and the normal fauna of the Oriskany time." In the summation of the fauna, ninety-four clearly defined species are recognized, of which "thirty-eight represent expressions of species which began their existence in Helderbergian time; on the other hand but eighteen species of the fauna continue their existence or appear to be represented by closely allied forms beyond the close of the Oriskany sedimentation." Twenty-nine species of the fauna are recognized in the arenaceous Oriskany beds. The evidence afforded by this fauna as the true Siluro-Devonian boundary line is of much importance. No one disputes the Devonian age of the Oriskany formation, and this fauna demonstrates that there is no natural faunal break in passing from the Helderbergian to the Oriskany, as there should be if the Helderbergian was excluded from the Devonian. The closing pages of the report are devoted to somewhat minute discussion of the Silurian and Devonian characteristics of the Helderbergian fauna, both the positive and the negative elements being considered, and to a discussion of the stratigraphic argument based upon the relationships of the Maulius limestone. S. W. Recent PublICATIONS -ABBE, CLEVELAND, JR. The Physiographic Features of Maryland. [Reprinted from the Bulletin of the American Bureau of Geography, Vol. I, 1900.] —ADAMS, FRANK D. Memoir of Sir J. William Dawson. [From Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. XI, 1899.] On the Probable Occurrence of a Large Area of Nepheline-Bearing Rocks on the Northeast Coast of Lake Superior. [Reprinted from the JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, Vol. VIII, No. 4, 1900.] The University of Chicago Press. —ADAMS, F. DAWSON, and JOHN T. NICHOLSON. An Experimental Investigation into the Flow of Marble. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. CXCV, pp. 363-401. Plates 22-25. Dulau & Co., 37 Soho Square, W., London, 1901. An Experimental Investigation into the Flow of Marble (Abstract.) From the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. LXVII. Read June 21, 1900. -AMI, HENRY M. On the Geology of the Principal Cities in Eastern Canada. [From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Second Series, 1900-1, Vol. VI, section 4, Geological and Biological Sciences.] On a New or Hitherto Unrecognized Geological Formation in the Devo- Synopsis of the Geology of Canada (being a Summary of the principal —Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers, Proceedings of. Annual Meeting, Melbourne, January 1901. -British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Seventieth Meeting, held at Bradford in September 1900. John Murray, London, 1900. — BURR, HENRY T. The Structural Relations of the Amygdaloidal Melaphyr in Brookline, Newton, and Brighton, Mass. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol. XXXVIII. Geological Series, Vol. V, No. 2. With 2 plates. Cambridge, Mass., 1901. -Canadian Pleistocene Flora and Fauna. Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir J. W. Dawson (chairman), Professor D. P. Penhallow, Dr. H. Ami, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, and Professor A. P. Coleman (secretary), reappointed to continue the investigation of the Canadian Pleistocene Flora and Fauna. I. On the Pleistocene near Toronto, by Professor A. P. Coleman. II. On the Pleistocene Flora of the Don Valley, by Professor D. P. Penhallow. -CUSHING, H. P. Preliminary Report on the Geology of Franklin County, Part III. [Reprinted from the Eighteenth Report of the State Geologist.] Albany, 1900. -DALY, REGINALD A. The Physiography of Acadia. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard College, Vol. XXXVIII. Geological Series, Vol. V, No. 3. With 1 plates. Cambridge, March 1901. -Dawson, GeoRGE M. Geological Record of the Rocky Mountain Region in Canada. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. XII, pp. 57-92, February 25, 1901. (Address by the president, George M. Dawson. Read before the society December 29, 1900.) Rochester, 1901. -Dorsey, GeorGE A. An Aboriginal Quartzite Quarry in Eastern Wyoming. Field Columbian Museum, Publication 51. Anthropological Series, Vol. II, No. 4. Chicago, December 1900. -EKHOLM, DR. NILS, Stockholm. On the Variations of the Climate of the Geological and Historical Past and their Causes, [From the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. XXVII, No. 117. January 1901.] -FARRINGTON, OLIVER CUMMINGS. Observations on Indiana Caves. Field Columbian Museum, Publication 53. Geological Series, Vol. I, No. 8. Chicago, February 1900. -Field Columbian Museum, Publication 52. Annual Report of the Director to the Board of Trustees for the year 1899-1900. Report Series, Vol. I, No. 6. Chicago, October 1900. -GEIKIE, SIR ARCHIBALD. The Founders of Geology. The George Huntington Williams Memorial Lectures on the Principles of Geology, Vol. I. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1901. -Geological Society of America, Bulletin of the. Index to Vols. I to X, by Joseph Stanley-Brown. Rochester, December 1900. -HALE, GEORGE E. The New Star in Perseus. Bulletin No. 16. The Yerkes Observatory of The University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press, 1901. -HALLOCK, CHARLES. One of Canada's Explorers. [Reprinted from Forest and Stream.] Washington, 1901. –Hilgard, EUGENE W. A Historical Outline of the Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State of Mississippi. [Reprinted from Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Vol. III.] -HOLLICK, ARTHUR. Fossil Plants from Louisiana. Contributions from the Geological Department of Columbia University, Vol. IX, No. 67. -HOLST, NILS OLOF. Bidrag till Kännedomen om Östersjöns och Bottniska Vikens Postglaciala Geologi. [Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning, Ser. C, No. 180] Kungl. Boktryckeriet. P. A. Norsted & Sóner, Stockholm, 1899. -Kansas, The University Geological Survey of. Vol. VI. Paleontology, Part II, Carboniferous and Cretaceous. By Samuel W. Williston, Paleontologist; Joshua W. Beede and Alban Stewart, Assistant Paleontologists; Sydney Prentice, Artist. -KEMP, J. F. The Re-Calculation of the Chemical Analyses of Rocks, Contributions from the Geological Department of Columbia University, Vol. IX, No. 71. [Reprinted from the School of Mines Quarterly, No. 1, Vol. XXII.] -KOLDERUP, CARL FRED. Die Labradorfelse des Westlichen. I. Das Laboradorfelsgebiet bei Ekersund und Soggendal. [From the American Geologist, Vol. XXIV, August 1899.] --LEVERETT, FRANK. Old Channels of the Mississippi in Southeastern Iowa. ton, 1901. -North Dakota, Report of the Geological Survey of, for 1900. First Biennial Report. E. J. Babcock, State Geologist. Grand Forks, N. D., 1901. -PENHALLOW, D. P. Notes on the North American Species of Dadoxylon, with special reference to type material in the collections of the Peter Redpath Museum, McGill University. From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Second Series, 1900-1. Vol. VI, section 4, Geological and Biological Sciences. -Petersen, JOHANNES, Hamberg Hamm. Ueber die Krystallinen Geschiebe der Insel Sylt. [Separat-Abdruck aus dem Neuen Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaentologie. Jahrg. 1901, Bd. I. S. 99-110.] Stuttgart, E. Schweitzerbart'sche Verlagshandlung (E. Nägele), 1901. |