152 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 
best to repair the deficiency by a bold appeal to “the possibilities 
of creation.” The result is “frightfully thrilling.” We give a few 
of the author’s statements, “Inside the earth is a hollow region 
large enough to hide the moon and to spare.” “The earth’s axis has 
two openings, one at either Poles (sic).” “Metoric swarms and 
ether are attracted through the axis, as food. One supports the 
other. The earth does not lose weight but adds to it. Internal 
combustion.” All winds and tempests originate at and from the 
Antarctic pole.” “The moon has not yet emerged into adult life. 
She will do so before long,” and it will be “a startling epoch in our 
history.” ‘The heavenly bodies will increase in number, like 
nebulae, and produce larger bodies.” The pamphlet is furnished 
with a marvellous diagram of the earth in space. We may safely 
endorse the author’s own judgment on his work, that, “ whatever its 
defects, and they are many, it cannot be said it is wanting in 
novelty, for from the first page to the last the interest is fully kept 
up. 
| THE AGE OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA 
A RELIABLE account of the geology of Panama has long been one of 
the greatest of geological desiderata, for, in spite of the surveys for 
railway and canal, and the repeated traverses of the pass of Panama, 
it has been very difficult to obtain any satisfactory information as to 
the last date at which marine deposits were laid down upon the 
summit of the isthmus. Maack’s observations have been repeatedly 
quoted as proving that Pleistocene marine shells oceurred on the 
watershed, and that therefore there was a free waterway across the 
isthmus in recent times. This view was supported by the zoo- 
logists, who, impressed by the general resemblance between the 
faunas on the two sides of the isthmus, concluded that this could 
only be explained by a recent direct communication between the 
two seas. Other workers, however, after a more detailed study of 
larger collections, have concluded that, in spite of the generic re- 
semblances, the species of the Carribbean and Pacific are almost 
entirely different, and that therefore the two oceans have been 
separated for a considerable period. All students of West Indian 
geology will therefore be very grateful to Professor Alexander 
Agassiz, who sent Professor R. T. Hill to Panama to settle 
this question by direct evidence, so that we are no longer dependent 
on the inferential methods that hitherto have been only available. 
Professor Hill’s report has been issued as one of the Budletins of the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology (vol. xxviii., No. 5), It is entitled, 
“The Geological History of the Isthmus of Panama and portions 
of Costa Rica; based upon a Reconnaissance made for Alexander 
Agassiz.” The report is accompanied by contributions from Dr 
Dall, Mr T. W. Vaughan, Mr R. M. Bagg, and others, and is illus- 
