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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and archaeology. Among thern are those 

 of Prof. Hyatt on the "Evolution of the 

 Fauna of the Lower Lias " ; of Mr. S. H. 

 Scudder on a Palaeozoic " Cockroach Fauna " 

 at Richmond, Ohio; of Prof. Marcou on 

 " Canadian Geological Classification for the 

 Province of Quebec " ; of Mr. Alfred C. Lane 

 on the " Geology of Nahant " ; of Mr. War- 

 ren Upham on " Marine Shells and Frag- 

 ments of Shells in the Till near Boston " ; 

 of Mr. Samuel Garman on the " Evolution of 

 the Rattlesnake " ; and of Prof. Goodall on 

 the " Life and Work of Dr. Asa Gray." 



Several archaeological papers, which ap- 

 pear in this volume of the " Proceedings," are 

 also published separately by the Peabody 

 Museum of American Archaeology and Eth- 

 nology, under the title of Palceolilhic Man in 

 Eastern and Central America. They are 

 "Early Man in the Delaware Valley," in- 

 cluding an account of the lately discovered 

 " Rock Shelter " at Naaman's Creek, and 

 descriptions of Palaeolithic implements ; and 

 an account of an implement from the In- 

 diana gravel, by Hilborne T. Cresson ; Prof. 

 G. F. Wright's paper on the " Age of the 

 Philadelphia Red Gravel " ; " Water-worn 

 Implements from the Delaware River," by 

 Dr. C. C. Abbott ; and remarks on the whole 

 subject by President F. W. Putnam. Prof. 

 Wright's paper bears upon the age of the 

 rock shelter and of the implements in the 

 Delaware Valley described by Mr. Cresson, 

 which the author decides are older (perhaps 

 by a thousand years) than the deposits at 

 Trenton, N. J., Loveland and Madisonville, 

 Ohio, Little Falls, Minn., and Medora, Ind. 

 (Cresson). 



An Obsidian Implement from Pleistocene 

 Deposits in Nevada, by WJ Mc Gee, discusses 

 the age of a handsome neolithic work found 

 on Walker River, to which the author has 

 already made reference in the " Monthly " 

 (November, 1888, p. 25). The solution of the 

 question is partly dependent upon the char- 

 acter of the occurrence of the implement 

 whether it be adventitious or normally in situ. 

 The deposit being unconsolidated, this can not 

 be determined certainly without the help of 

 other human relics found in the same place 

 to keep it company ; and such have not been 

 found. But, since the implement was ob- 

 served, the discovery of other extremely an- 

 cient relics in various parts of the country 



has given color to the hypothesis that this 

 was an original deposit ; and the author now 

 inclines to that view. 



The Aborigines of the District of Colum- 

 bia and the Lower Potomac a symposium 

 in the Anthropological Society of Washing- 

 ton besides an address by Otis T. Mason, 

 introducing the subject, contains papers on 

 " The Geological Antecedents of Man in the 

 Potomac Valley," by W J McGee ; " The 

 Palaeolithic Period in the District, of Colum- 

 bia," by Thomas Wilson ; " Ancient Village 

 Sites and Aboriginal Workshops," by S. V. 

 Proudfitt ; " The Pottery and Textiles of the 

 Tide- Water Region," by W. H. Holmes; 

 "The Shell Mounds of the Potomac and 

 Micomico," by Elmer R. Reynolds ; " Indian 

 Tribes of the District," by James Mooney ; 

 and a discussion by Prof. F. W. Putnam. 



Of six additional " Bulletins " of the 

 United States Geological Survey, No. 48 is 

 On the Form and Position of the Sea-Level, 

 with special reference to its dependence on 

 superficial masses symmetrically disposed 

 about a normal to the earth's surface, by 

 Robert Simpson Woodward. The treatise is 

 mathematical, and relates to a problem of 

 peculiar difficulty, the solution of which has 

 been as yet only approached. The same 

 author's Latitudes and Longitudes of Certain 

 Points in Missouri, Kansas, and Neiv Mex- 

 ico, constituting " Bulletin No. 49," relates to 

 the processes of determination at Oswego, Elk 

 Falls, and Fort Scott, Kan. ; Springfield and 

 Bolivar, Mo. ; and Albuquerque, N. M. The 

 author has endeavored to collect, arrange, 

 and discuss the observations in such a man- 

 ner as to render their results most useful for 

 the purposes of geography and geodesy. 

 Bulletin No. 50, also by Mr. Woodward, con- 

 sists of Formulas and Tables to facilitate the 

 Construction of Maps. The tables were pre- 

 pared for the Division of Geography in 

 1885-86. Constant use since then has 

 demonstrated their utility. They have been 

 revised and extended, and are accompanied 

 by an explanatory text. Dr. Charles A. 

 Wldte gives, in Bulletin No. 51, descriptions 

 of some Invertebrate Fossils from the Pacific 

 Coast. They fall under five headings : " New 

 Mollusca from the Chico-Tejon Series of Cali- 

 fornia," representing nineteen new species and 

 one new genus ; " The Occurrence of Equiv- 

 alents of the Chico-Tejon Series in Oregon 



