328 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



ence in the Far West, where it is found to contain quite numerous well-pre- 

 served fossils, as Lingula (L. antiqua), Trilobites, etc., similar or identical 

 with those characterizing the same formation in Minnesota and New York. 



New Fossils from the Potsdam Sandstone. At a recent meeting of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History, Mr. Daniels, State Geologist of Wiscon- 

 sin, presented some minute Trilobites, and other fossils, from the base of the 

 Potsdam Sandstone of Wisconsin. The localities were various : the valley 

 of the Black River, in the north-western part of the State, the mouth of 

 Black River, and a spot sixty miles up the same river. He stated that they 

 were interesting, being the oldest fossil forms yet found in this country, the 

 sandstone resting directly upon the upturned edges of the Azoic rocks. 

 Upon a small island in Black River he had found perfect impressions of 

 Crustaceans, consisting of double rows of parallel tracks, precisely like 

 those in Montreal. 



PERMIAN ROCKS IN KANSAS. 



According to the researches of Prof. Swallow, of Missouri, the Permian 

 rocks of Kansas are 820 feet thick 263 of the whole being separated as the 

 upper Permian, and the rest the lower Permian. The rocks are limestones, 

 with some shales or clay layers, some of the limestones also containing horn- 

 stone. Above the Permian, in Kansas, there are 420 feet of sandstone, with 

 some calcareous and argillaceous layers, and occasional beds of gypsum. 

 These rocks are referred, with a query, to the Triassic, but may be Jurassic 

 or Cretaceous. A trilobate exogenous leaf is mentioned as the only observed 

 fossil plant, and this would favor the last conclusion. Above these beds, 

 there are in the section two feet of Cretaceous rocks, and 109 of " Quarter- 

 nary." 



The Permian is a direct continuation, apparently, of the Coal Measures, 

 without unconformability. The Carboniferous rocks have a thickness in 

 Kansas of 1070 feet, and are supposed to be higher in the series than the 

 Upper Coal Series of Missouri. Between the Permian and the overlying 

 strata there appears to be an entire unconformability. 



Of the seventy-five species of fossils found in the Permian rocks, and pub- 

 lished by Prof. Swallow, only sixteen occur also in the Carboniferous ; yet, 

 while the majority of the species are peculiar to the Permian, the majority of 

 the individuals are Carboniferous. 



THE TERTIARY CLIMATE. 



Professor Unger, of Vienna, has found genuine reef-forming Corallidoe in 

 the Tertiary strata of the Pannonian basin (south-east from Vienna) in lati- 

 tude 47, while at present the northern limit of such corals in the Red Sea 

 and Persian Gulf is at 29, thus furnishing a new proof of the higher tem- 

 perature which prevailed in Europe at the Tertiary period. Edin. New 

 Phil. Jour. 



ON THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE GENUS ELEPHAS. 



The following is an abstract of a paper recently read before the Geological 

 Society, London, by Dr. Falconer, on the remains of elephants and other 



