Leidy observes that the greater number of specimens belong to a species of Oreodon larger than any before described, and as large as Merycochorus proprius, with which species it may be identical. He names it Oreodon superbus. There are also a few fragments of jaws of O. Culbertsoni, Agriochoerus antiquus, Leptomeryx Evansi, Anchitherium Bairdi. The above are from "the Big-bottom of the John Day river." From Bridge Creek, a tributary of the John Day, there are remains of Lophiodon occidentalis?, an animal about the size of Tapirus terrestris, two species of Rhinoceros, one the R. occidentalis?, another R. hesperius?, Elotherium superbum?, a Peccary as large as Dicotyles torquatus, an Anchitherium larger than A. Bairdi, called A. Cordoni.

9. Cretaceous and Tertiary Reptilia and Fishes. In the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Prof. Cope describes 4 species of Saurocephalus from the Cretaceous of Kansas, 1 of Icthyodectes (n. gen. near Saurocephalus) same locality, and several new fishes, chiefly Cyprinidæ, from a freshwater Tertiary deposit in Idaho discovered by Capt. C. King. Dr. Leidy has observed among mammalian remains from the same beds, portions of Mastodon mirificus and Equus excelsus, species that occur in the Niobrara beds and which have been referred to the Pliocene. The Mollusks of the beds, according to Meek, are different specifically, and some generically, from all others hitherto described from the West. Prof. Cope, in view of the characters of the fishes, says that there is great probability of the beds being later than Miocene, and nothing to conflict with their being Pliocene.

10. Geological Survey of Ohio. Part I, Report of Progress in 1869, by J. S. NEWBERRY, Chief Geologist. Part II, Report of Progress in the Second District, by E. B. ANDREWS, Assistant Geologist. Part III, Report on Geology of Montgomery County, by EDWARD ORTON, Assistant Geologist. 164 pp. 8vo, with a colored geological map of the state, and sections. Columbus, 1870.-Much interest attaches to the Geological Survey of Ohio, because of the position of the state between New York and the states of the Mississippi basin. The work already done by Dr. Newberry and his able associates has thrown much light on the connection between the two regions, besides adding many new facts with regard to the coal and coal beds of the state. We propose to notice the results at some length in our next number.

11. Gas Wells in Ohio.--Dr. NEWBERRY states in a paper in the American Chemist for December, that the two gas wells bored by Mr. P. Neff in the valley of the Kokosing have been flowing gas in apparently undiminished volume to the present time. Other wells have since been opened. Near Millwood where the rocks are much disturbed, two wells give out oil, one three and the other eight gallons per day; two or three miles below, near the mouth of the Kokosing, the augur, on reaching the depth of 600 feet, struck into vertical crevices and sunk several feet without resistance; and from two crevices a volume of carburetted hydrogen issued which was unparalleled in all the oil explorations made. in the country; the wells give out salt water intermittently, throw

ing it to a height of over one hundred feet. The gas of one of the wells, lighted at the end of a pipe two inches in the clear set in the well head, produced a jet of flame 20 feet long and as large as a hogshead. By fixing a stop-cock in the pipe the gas was made to accumulate until, measured by a steam gauge, the pressure amounted to 180 pounds to the square inch. The gas appears to be pure and the volume sufficient to light a large city.

12. Linnæan Hypothesis of the Derivation of species.-Ludwig von Hohenbühel-Heufler contributes an article to the Botanische Zeitung for Sept. 9, 1870, in which he claims for Linnæus the origination of the theory of the derivation of species,-founding the claim upon the paragraphs which Linnæus appended to the sixth edition of his Genera Plantarum, published in 1764, viz:

1. "Creator T. O. in primordio vestiit Vegetabile Medullare principiis constitutivis diversi Corticalis, unde tot difformia individua, quot Ordines Naturales, prognata.

2. Classicas has (1) plantas Omnipotens miscuit inter se, unde tot Genera ordinum, quot inde plantæ.

3. Genericas has (2) miscuit Natura, unde tot species congeneres, quot hodie existunt.

4. Species has (3) miscuit Casus, unde totidem, quot passim occurrunt, Varietates.

5. Suadent hæc (1-4) Creatoris leges a simplicibus ad composita. Natura leges generationis in hybridis. Hominis leges ex observatis a posteriori.

Whatever meaning be put upon these somewhat enigmatical propositions, they certainly show that Linnæus (as a naturalist of his turn of mind was not unlikely to do) had thought of a derivative origin of species as not improbable, and had formed some idea of an hypothesis concerning it,-perhaps as definite as his idea of natural orders,-a problem he could suggest rather than solve. And it is interesting to note the scale of operating powers,Chance sufficing for the production of varieties, Nature for genera, the Omnipotent directly for the mightier work of producing orders.

In a subsequent number of the Bot. Zeitung, that for November 18, the veteran senior editor, Von Mohl, takes up the subject. and maintains, with much reason, that the theory of Linnæus, whatever it amounts to, has no special likeness to the modern "Descendenztheorie," in any important particular. For, he concludes that the "a simplicibus ad composita" of Linnæus did not involve the idea of a rise in organization from a plant or plants of lowest to those of higher grade, nor did he imagine the diversification to have been a consequence of the inherent powers of the plants themselves, or to be still proceeding, so that the present is any representation of the past. But he thought it necessary to admit a direct interference of the Creator twice, once in the origination of plants representing the natural orders, and then in the supernatural diversification of these by crossing, to produce the genera; and only the genera are supposed to have mingled by crossing in virtue of the natural laws of propagation, so as to result

in the formation of the existing species, which species Mohl thinks, were regarded by Linnæus as unchangeable since their first appearance, excepting the mere accident of variation by hybridation, etc. So that Linnæus might with full consistency retain his well known definition or axiom: "Species tot sunt, quot diversas et constantes formas in hoc globo prodixit Infinitum Ens," etc., and so this axiom holds its place in the Ratio Operis of the same volume to which, at the close, this hypothesis of the diversification of species is appended. But we can hardly suppose that a philosopher like Linnæus would attribute this diversification as to species to natural causes, and then imagine that existent natural causes had ceased to operate; and he would certainly have seen that the continued crossing of the species of a genus would soon have resulted in the total obscuration of species. If he thought at all of harmonizing his practical definition with his suggested hypothesis, he probably regarded species as having only a relative stability, so as to be essentially unchanged for any period within human ken, whatever their origin or progress in the long run.

To throw some light upon Linnæus's enunciation, which appears so obscure, of an essential medullary substance, invested with an accessory cortical substance in all plants, Von Mohl makes a long extract from the dissertation of Linnæus upon Generatio Ambigena, published in the 6th vol. of the Amoenitates Academicæ,a curious speculation which would take some time to explain, one to which Linnæus elsewhere refers, especially in explaining the nature of the blossom, and in which doubtless, as Mohl supposes, is to be found the key to the understanding of his derivative hypothesis.

A. G.

13. Monograph of the Ranunculace of the Dominion of Canada; by Prof. GEO. LAWSON, Dalhousie College, Halifax, contributed to the Canadian Naturalist.-A full account of this family, with ample details as to geographical distribution, etc. In the character of the tribes the position of the seed is omitted, probably as too difficult for popular apprehension, though it is really easy enough. Pulsatilla is kept as a genus, but not Atvagene, yet the two would seem to stand or fall together, and Hepatica is reduced to Anemone. Of the latter genus, the name A. dichotoma replaces A. Pennsylvanica, “because the latter suggests erroneous ideas of the plant's distribution." We can adduce a far better reason, viz: that it is of almost twenty years later date. In the admission of Thalictrum clavatum as a Canadian plant, Prof. Lawson shows that he has not followed up the history of this species, nor noted that in the Manual its northern limit is said to be S. Virginia. He should substitute the name T. sparsiflorum, and see, for authority, Planta Wrightianae, ii, p. 8, and this Journal, xlii, p. 17, as well as 33, new series, in the account of Dr. Parry's collection. The first and last of these references will throw light also upon the notable peculiarity mentioned in the geographical distribution of Delphinium exaltatum, which species, if at all Canadian, is likely to inhabit only the most southern latitude.

A. G.

14. Ersted on characters furnished by the styles in Cupuliferæ and Juglander, etc.-In the Copenhagen Videnskabelige Meddelelser a few years ago Prof. Ersted very fully worked out and displayed the high systematic importance of the form of the styles and stigmas in Quercus and the other Cupulifera. To the same publication, for the year 1869, he has contributed a brief article on the same subject in relation to the Californian Holly Oak (Quercus agrifolia), in Danish, of which at the close of the volume he has kindly given a French translation. Ile shows that this oak, with the port of Q. Ilex, has the styles and calyx as well as the ovules of the mainly Asiatic subgenus Erythrobalanus, in which he forms for it a separate section.

To the volume for 1870, Ersted contributes an analogous note upon Juglandea, in which, by the way, he points out the fact that Pterocarya differs from Juglans and Carya in having foliaceous four-parted cotyledons which rise out of ground in germination; and he proceeds to show that his Oreonumoa, from Central America, which in the Prodromus had been made a section of the Asiatic genus Engelhardtia, is remarkably distinguished by its styles and less so by its embryo. Both papers conclude with remarks upon the geographical distribution of these genera, etc., as related to recent geological changes. Noting that Juglans, Carya, and Engelhardtia were all three well represented in Europe during the Miocene period, he infers that America was thence supplied with Juglans and Carya by way of the west, and with the representative of Engelhardtia by the east. We think that all the known facts conspire to show that both came by the east and north. In the structure of the styles of Quercus agrifolia Ersted detects an oriental origin; and he speculates suggestively upon the Asiatic elements in the Californian flora (which we think are few) and upon what he calls its insular character, meaning by this, probably, only its marked distinction from the eastern N. American flora. And he appears to attribute this to the Sierra Nevada, which he terms the maritime Alps of California. But a different and more efficient way of separation may readily be suggested.

III. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

A. G.

1. Meteorological Observations on Mt. Washington. - The meteorological observatory, as it may be called, on Mt. Washington, which Prof. C. HITCHCOCK, the head of the Geological Survey of New Hampshire, and Prof. J. H. HUNTINGTON have been the means of establishing, has for its observers Prof. Huntington, Mr. S. A. Nelson of Georgetown, Mass., and Sergeant Theodore Smith. The latter is also telegrapher, and was appointed to the station by General Myer, head of the "Bureau of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce," recently established by Congress. In addition, Messrs. A. F. Clough and H. A. Kimball are the photographers. Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, at Hanover, has telegraphic connection with the summit, and occasionally joins the observers.

Gen. Myer ordered the laying of the telegraphic wire to the summit, so that a daily statement of the observations might be sent to Washington and to the rest of the country. The house occupied by the observers is the depot of the Mt. Washington railroad. The party has two barometers, thermometers, a hydrometer, Robinson's self-registering anemometer, and an anemoscope. Three daily telegraphic reports are sent out, two to the Bureau of Telegrams at Washington, and one to the New England Associated Press, Boston. The party give their time and labor without remuneration. The expenses, apart from those of the agent of the Bureau of Telegrams, have been assumed by Prof. Hitchcock, he depending on the public for its return. He states in a letter dated December 31st, that two hundred dollars more are needed to carry them through the season. Part of the expenses come from the necessity of keeping a watch for the telegraph wire in the windy region between Littlefield and the mountains.

2. Unusual exhibition of halos.--On the morning of Dec. 21, 1870, there was observed at Galesburg, Illinois, an unusual exhibition of halos. The phenomenon began when the sun rose, and continued till nearly noon, though after ten o'clock nothing was seen but the common halo of 22° radius. About 45 minutes after sunrise, there was seen the halo of 22° radius; that of 46° radius; a parhelic circle through the sun, parallel to the horizon; two parhelia on each side of the sun near the intersection of the parhelic circle with the two halos; a contact arch near the highest point of each of the halos; and a vertical column passing through the sun. All these phenomena are represented by figures in Loomis's Treatise on Meteorology, pages 216-219. Besides these appearances there were also noticed lines of illumination nearly vertical, but somewhat concave toward the sun, about five or six degrees in length, touching the circle of 46° radius at the points. where it was intersected by the parhelic circle. These arcs are of unusual occurrence. They are, however, noticed by Prof. Bravais in his Memoir on Halos in the Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique, t. 18, p. 112.

The temperature at the time of these halos was about zero, and the air was full of frost, driven sometimes in light clouds before a brisk N.W. breeze. For the above information we are indebted to a letter from Prof. M. L. Comstock of Knox College.

3. Head Waters of the Amazon.— Observations on the Geography and Archaeology of Peru; by E. G. SQUIER. 28 pp. 8vo. (Read before the Amer. Geogr. Soc., Feb., 1870).-In the course of this interesting Memoir, Mr. Squier discusses the question whether the river Marañon or the Ucayali, (the two rivers which unite to form the Amazon), should be considered the main head of the Amazon. He observes that the Ucayali exceeds the Marañon by several hundreds of miles, whether its longest branch be the Urubamba or Vilcamayo rising at the lake of La Raza, or the Apurimac rising in the department of Arequipa. As regards volume, he cites Dr. Tavara, a member of the Hydrographic Commission of 1868, under the Peruvian government, who says