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Abundance of Mesozoic Animals in the 

 Western Territories of America.— Professor 

 Huxley, in his address before the British Association 

 at York, stated that Professor Marsh had informed 

 him that, within two years, remains of more than 

 one hundred and sixty distinct individuals of mammals, 

 belonging to twenty species and nine genera had 

 been found in a space not larger than the floor of 

 a good-sized room ; while beds of the same age have 

 yielded three hundred reptiles, varying in size from 

 sixty or eighty feet to the dimensions of a rabbit. 



Jurassic Birds and tueir Allies.— Professor 

 O. C. Marsh (Harvard University, U.S.) delivered 

 a lecture on " Jurassic Birds and their Allies" before 

 the Biological section of the British Association. 

 Just twenty years ago, he said, two very important 

 fossils were discovered in the lithograph slates of 

 America, one of which was the Arch^opteryx, now 

 in the British Museum, and the other the skeleton 

 of Consummatus, preserved in the Royal Museum, 

 Munich. He gave an elaborate explanation and 

 description of the different points of interest observ- 

 able in the two specimens. In the course of his 

 remarks he referred to a work which he had recently 

 published on the teeth-birds of America, and in 

 Avhich he had endeavoured to throw some light on 

 the origin of birds. If, however, asked to state the 

 difference between a bird and a reptile he should be 

 puzzled to explain the difference, for if the bones of 

 each were crushed and scattered together as they 

 found them, it would be extremely difficult to say 

 which was the bird and which the reptile. That he 

 held to be a point of importance, and one which 

 naturalists who had been engaged on Deinosaurus 

 would fully appreciate. It appeared to him that 

 feathers might have played a very important part 

 in the transformation of the reptile into the bird. 

 ^Yhen they came to consider the four oldest known 

 birds, they found them to be as distinct from each 

 other as any of the birds of the present day. That 

 fact of itself, therefore, showed that in order to get 

 at the origin of birds they would have to look further 

 back in the history of the world. 



Fossil Corals. — A capital paper by Mr. James 

 Thomson, F.G.S., has just been published, accom- 

 panied with very beautiful illustrations, on " the 

 genus Alveolites, Amplexus, and Zaphrentis," from the 

 carboniferous system of Scotland. 



Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 

 — No. 2 of vol. vii. is to hand, containing papers by 

 Professor Bonney on a " Proposed Classification of 

 Rocks," and the " Formation of Basalt ; " "Notes on 

 the IMicroscopical Structure of Basalt," by J. Slade ; 

 " A Geological Trip in Colorado," by S. R. Pattison ; 

 and descriptive of various excursions to jDlaces of 

 geological interest. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Aerial Disturbances. — About four o'clock on 

 Saturday afternoon, the 23rd of July, a remarkable 

 aerial disturbance passed over this district, sweeping 

 along the ground for the space of a furlong in length, 

 and about thirty yards in width. About a mile S.W. 

 by S, and S.E. of Pomeroy there was a sound like that 

 of the noise of a number of railway trains as it were 

 running in the air ! As the disturbance passed over 

 the townland of Gortnagarn, cut turf was lifted out of 

 the bogs and carried in the air. Some large pieces 

 of bog timber were lifted, and thrown with great 

 force against the turf banks, the water was scooped 

 clean out of a flax steeping-hole in the townland of 

 Killeagh, the wooden roof of offices at the farm 

 residence of Mr. Reid, and almost all the roofs of 

 Mr. Noble's houses in the same townland were lifted. 

 In the townland of the Bawn a wooden house was 

 taken clean away from the residence of Mr. Trimble, 

 the timber and boards were hurled in the air, then 

 let down like a shower mostly in pieces. There 

 seemed to be a violent commotion in the air as a 

 smoke went up as from the chimney of a factory. 

 Many people who saw it thought it was the end of 

 the world. Torrents of rain fell on either side, while 

 the sun was shining strangely bright sparks of fire 

 issued from the column of smoke, a man felt so 

 scorched that he had to flee for his life, and a boy 

 was carried off his feet for some distance. No doubt 

 some of your readers will explain this apparent 

 electrical disturbance, and oblige your subscriber 

 from the commencement of Science-Gossip. — S. A. 

 Brenan, Pomeroy, co, Tyrone. 



Meteoric Dust. — I notice in a recent number of 

 Science-Gossip, an interesting summary of Professor 

 Jacchini's researches on the meteoric dust of the 

 sirocco. His conclusion that it is transported by a 

 cyclone from the Sahara is certainly novel, and it 

 will be legitimate if it can be shown that metallic 

 iron, oxide of nickel, &c., are constituents of the sand 

 of the African desert. RI. von Lasaulx, the eminent 

 mineralogist, has recently examined the Sicilian dust, 

 and also some found in the snow near Kiel. The 

 former was found to consist of argillaceous particles, 

 quartz splinters and granules, calcite, gypsum, metallic 

 iron, plagioclase, augite, olivine, and microcline, 

 the particles of the four last substances being very 

 few. The latter contained quartz, red and yellow 

 argillaceous particles, felspar, mica, hornblende, 

 magnetite, and some dark particles which were not 

 attracted by the magnet, and which gave a manganese 

 reaction. The only constituent of both these dust- 

 masses which need be referred to a cosmic origin is 

 the metallic iron, and M. von Lasaulx is of opinion 

 that the iron might arise from terrestrial sources. 

 Hence he concludes that atmospheric dust is simply 

 detritus. Dr. Reichenbach, of Vienna, has shown 

 that the dust which covers the tops of mountains 

 contains nickel, cobalt, phosphorus, and magnesia, 

 so this detritus would seem to impregnate the 

 atmosphere throughout its whole mass. But if we 

 adojjt the conclusions of M. von Lasaulx, it seems to 

 me that the origin of aerolites becomes wrapped 

 in more impenetrable mystery than ever. Are we 

 to revive Playfair's theory, or rather a modification of 

 it, and assume meteoric stones to be masses of 

 atmospheric dust consolidated by some electric action ? 

 Or shall we go back still further, and discover in the 

 writings of Aristotle the true explanation of the phe- 

 nomenon, that the masses are raised by the wind ? 



