articulate with the scaphoid, while in the Perissodactyla it sustains the scaphoid, while the lunar rests extensively on the unciform. As compared with the three groups named, Phenacodus stands intermediate between the Amblypoda and the Proboscidea, and agrees with the Hyracoidea in the slight posterior articulation of the unciform with the lunar bone. The peculiar carpus characteristic of the Perissodactyla is seen in the genera Triplopus and Hyrachyus, and in the older Hyracotherium, which is the cotemporary of Phenacodus. There seems to be no sufficient ground for separating the latter from the Proboscidea as a full order, so I combine the two groups in one, under the name of Taxeopoda. The Taxeopoda is the primitive type of Ungulata in having the carpal and tarsal bones arranged in linear series. In the more specialized orders of Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla, the second series of these bones has been rotated inwards one place. The Amblypoda has the fore foot of the primitive type, and the hind foot of the more specialized type.

The group of Ungulata, whatever rank it may have, will then be divided into the following orders or sub-orders:

I. Os magnum supporting os lunare, and not articulating with os scaphoideum.
Astragalus articulating only with navicular.

Fibala with interlocking articulation with astragalus.
Fibula with lateral contact only with astragalus....

aa. Astragalus uniting with both navicular and cuboid.

Hyracoidea.
Taxeopoda.

Lunar uniting with unciform; fibula only in contact with astragalus....Amblypoda. 11. Os magnum supporting os scaphoideum; lunar supported in part by unciform. Astragalus uniting with both cuboid and navicular.

Astragalus truncate distally; median digit longest.....

Astragalus ginglymoid distally; two median digits equal..

Perissodactyla. ...Artiodactyla.

The Taxeopoda are naturally divided into two sub-orders, the

Proboscidea and Condylarthra, as follows.

No postglenoid process, nor third trochanter of femur. facet of the calcaneum...

Fibula articulating with a
Proboscidea.

A postglenoid process, and a third trochanter of the femur; no calcaneal facet for

houla.

....Condylarthra.

It is probable that the Toxodontia form a third division of the Taxeopoda. It is also probable that the Hyracoidea should be reduced to the position of a subdivision of the Taxeopoda―E. D. Cope.

GEOLOGICAL NEWS. In the Geological Magazine for March, Mr. A. S. Lucas discusses the age of the Headen Beds of the Isle of Wight, and M. J. E. Lee notes a peculiarity in the structure of a Pteraspidean plate found in the Eifel. This plate shows a repetition of the usually supposed outer corrugated layer, one of which Is placed between two honey-comb layers, and an absence of the nacreous layer, thus throwing some doubt upon the received order of the occurrence of these layers. Mr. E. T. Newton gives a list of seventeen species of fishes, the remains of which have been

found in the Forest-bed series of the east of England.-—At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London, Professor Owen described Notochelys costata, an extinct Chelonian from Blinder's river, Queensland. It is the first known Australian fossil turtle, and is of a generalized type between the Chelydrians and marine turtles. At the next meeting of the same society (Feb. 8, 1882), Mr. J. W. Hulke described Iguanodon Seelyi from a bed between the clays and gravel of the cliff in Brook bay, Isle of Wight.--Various and prolific seams of anthracite and bituminous coal, some of them 10 ft. or 12 ft. in thickness, have been found in Natal.-Professor Marsh contributes to the American Journal of Science, an article upon the wings of Pterodactyles, with a full size plate of Rhamphorhynchus phyllurus Marsh. The specimen described was found in the lithographic states of Bavaria, and shows very perfect impressions of the volant membranes of both wings, as well as of a separate. vertical rudder at the end of the long tail. The membrane was similar to that of bats.—In the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Nat. History, Mr. S. A. Miller describes some new species and genera of Paleozoic fossils. He also gives a well-merited criticism of Professor Nicholson's book on Monticulipora, showing the extensive ignorance of its author of American writings on the subject. We performed the same duty for the same writer's manual of Palæontology a year or two ago.

MINERALOGY.'

TWO NEW GUANO MINERALS.-Professor C. U. Shepard has described two new minerals which have originated in the guano formation covering the islands of Moneta and Mona, near Porto Rico, W. I., and to which he gives the names Monetite and Monite. They were found lining the walls of cavities in the rock guano, and, though undoubtedly formed through the action of percolating waters, contain no organic matter.

Monetite occurs in crystals having the form of rather thin rhomboids, often interpenetrating each other to form complex groups. Mr. E. S. Dana refers them to the triclinic system. Their greatest length is betweenth andth of an inch.

The mineral has an uneven fracture, a vitreous lustre, a pale, yellowish-white color, and is semi-transparent; hardness 3.5. specific gravity about 2.75. Heated before the blow-pipe in the forceps, it turns white and melts into a globule with crystalline facets.

It has the following composition (mean of two analyses by C. U. Shepard, Jr.):

Lime

40.255

Phosphoric acid
47.100

Sulphuric acid
4.550

Water.
8.175

100.080

'Edited by Professor HENRY CARVILL LEWIS, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, to whom communications, papers for review, etc., should be sent. ' American Journal Sciences and Arts, May, 1882, p. 400.

On subtracting the gypsum and hygroscopic water, and raising the percentage to 100, there was obtained:

52.28

CaO 41.14

H2O 6.58 = 100 giving the formula 2CaO, H2O, P2O. It is associated with crystallized gypsum and calcite, and with the following species.

Monie is massive, slightly coherent, and wholly uncrystalline. It is snow-white, earthy and dull, with hardness below 2, and specific gravity about 2.1. In the closed tube it emits much moisture, and in the blow-pipe flame melts with difficulty to an opaque white enamel.

A mean of analyses, after deducting an admixture of gypsum,

gave

P2O1 41.92

CaO 51.15

corresponding to Ca,P2O8+H2O.

H2O
6.93

It resembles kaolinite, and is a hydrated tricalcic phosphate.

URANOTHALLITE.-Schrauf1 has named the variety of Liebigite from Joachimsthal, analyzed long ago by Vogl and Lincacker, Uranothallite. It contains more lime than Liebigite, and its composition may be represented by the formula Ca2UC4012 +10 aq. It occurs in minute aggregated crystals and grains, often scaly, and has a green color and streak. It is translucent, has a vitreous lustre except on the cleavage face, where it is pearly, and is soluble in acids. The crystals are too imperfect to give satisfactory measurements.

CHIOLITE AND CHODNEFFITE.-Professor P. Groth, of Strassburg, has undertaken the revision of the natural compounds of fluoric acid, the analysis being performed by Mr. Brantl, of Munich, and, as one of the first results, announces the identification of Chodneffite with Chiolite. Three analyses of perfectly pure Chiolite gave:

yielding the formula 5NaF+3AIF3.

The former analyses of Rammelsberg were made upon massive uncrystallized fragments, some of which had a composition like that given above, but from which the formula 3NaF+2AIF, was deduced; other portions, however, being richer in sodium and poorer in aluminium, and for these the formula 2NaF+AIF3 was constructed and the name Chodneffite given.

Professor Groth now shows that these latter analyses of Ram1Zeits. f. Kryst, 1882, vi. 4, 410.

melsberg were made upon material containing cryolite as an im purity, it being impossible to separate cryolite from chiolite in the massive state. Professor Von Jeremejew has examined the crystals of chiolite and finds them to be tetragonal.

Chodneffite is merely an impure chiolite, and must be stricken from the list of minerals.

RHODIZITE.-Rhodizite, an extremely rare mineral, occurring in minute crystals upon some red tourmalines in the Ural moun tains, and supposed to be a borate of lime, has been the subjec of two recent communications by Bertrand to the Mineralogica Society of France. The crystals present the form of a dodeca hedron, modified generally by tetrahedral faces. Bertrand con cludes, from an examination of their optical properties, that the crystals are to be considered pseudo-isometric, and are composed of twelve elementary monoclinic crystals twinned symmetrically around a point. He has been able, moreover, actually to separat these elementary crystals by cleavage. The elementary crysta of Rhodizite consists, he holds, of an oblique monoclinic prisn of 120°, of which the height is equal to the width, and of which the obliquity is 54° 44′.

CROSBY'S COMMON MINERALS AND ROCKS.-The twelfth num ber of the "Guides for Science Teaching," issued by the Boston Society of Natural History for the use of teachers, has been pre pared by Mr. W. O. Crosby, whose contributions to the geol ogy and lithology of Massachusetts have been of great value It is entitled "Common Minerals and Rocks," and is an ele mentary sketch treated in a familiar way, admirably serving the purpose intended. About twenty-five of the rock-formin minerals are described, special stress being laid upon their acid: or basic relations and their associations. The triclinic felspar for example, are stated to occur with basic minerals, while ortho clase is acidic in its associations. The silicates are divided int the two groups of basic and acidic; all species containing sixt per cent, or less of silica being classed as basic, while those con taining more than sixty per cent. of silica are acidic. The basi silicates are dark colored and heavy, the acidic being light i color and weight, and the two classes of silicates belong to di tinct rocks.

The little treatise is written from the lithologist's standpoin and the larger portion of it treats of the origin and physical d ferences of rocks. The author classifies rocks according to the geological origin.

MARTITE.-O. A. Derby1 has examined a large number octahedral crystals of Martite from Brazil, and concludes the while a portion of them have resulted from the decomposition 1 Am. Journ. Sc. and Arts, May, 1882, 373.

pyrite, a large proportion should be considered as produced by the alteration of magnetite. Nearly half the crystals examined were attractable by the magnet, and all possible gradation between typical magnetite and hematite, both in magnetism and composition, were observed.

SMALTITE FROM COLORADO.-Smaltite1 has been discovered in Gunnison Co., Colorado, in sufficient quantities to lead to the belief that it will be a commercial source for cobalt. It is associated with calcite, erythrite, and occasionally pyrite and spongy leaflets of native silver. A sample from the surface gave M. W. Iles the following result:

Co Fe As Sio, Pb S Bi Cu Ni Ag

11.59 11.99 63.82 2.60 2.05 1.55 1.13 0.16 trace trace = = 98.89

NEW MINERAL RESINS.-Muckite. This is a resin found in cretaceous lignite in Moravia, and named by Schröckinger. It has the formula C2H2O2. Neudorfite. This is a resin associated with the above, and probably a mixture.

28

THE SAND OF THE DESERT OF SAHARA.-A mineralogical study of the sand of the desert of Sahara has brought out some particulars of interest. The sand is of a yellow color. The quartz grains, which constitute ninety per cent. of the sand are remarkably rounded and not so angular as those of sea sand; a fact evidently due to attrition by the action of the wind. It is found that more than nine per cent. of the sand is composed of grains of felspar. Other minerals which exist in small proportions are chalk, clay, halite, sylvite, magnetite, chromite, garnet, olivine, amphibole and pyroxene.

MINERALOGICAL NOTES.-Beauxite, a substance recently shown by Fischer to be a mixture, frequently contains considerable quantities of titanium and vanadium. It has been concluded by Dieulafait that beauxite originates from the decay of primitive granitic rocks, and that if so, these rocks should contain titanium. and vanadium. In a recent paper in the Comptes Rendus, he demonstrates that this is the case, and that these elements are widely diffused throughout the older formations.—Certain zoned crystals of blende possess, in addition to the six characteristic cleavages of ordinary blende, three other planes of equally ready cleavage, which have recently been studied,by Hautefeuille. -Conarite, or more properly, Comarite, has been shown by Bertrand to be probably hexagonal.-M. W. Iles has detected a vanadium. mineral, probably Dechenite, forming red and yellow incrustations at some mines in Lea Iville, Col. An analysis of the incrustation was as follows: SiO, 36.86, PbO 38.51, ZnO 9.07, V2O5 11. c., 380.