362 i Scientific Intelligence— Zoology. 
Ehrenberg first draws attention to the results of his former researches, 
that the Rocky Mountains are a more powerful barrier between the 
two sides of America, than the Pacific Ocean between America and 
China; the infusorial forms of Oregon and California being wholly 
different from those on the east side of the mountains, while they 
are partly identical with Siberian species. This fact is evnfirmed by 
his examinations of the earth from the gold region of California, and 
from the Chutes river of Oregon, obtained by Fremont. The latter 
deposit is situated at an elevation of 700 to 800 feet, and constitutes 
a bed 500 feet thick of porcelain clay. It is overlaid by a layer of 
basalt 100 feet thick. 
Prof. Bailey, who examined this material for Fremont, reported 
that it consisted of fresh-water infusoria, and many species were dis- 
tinguished.* Ehrenberg, on farther investigation, has made out 
seventy-two species of Polygastrica with siliceous shells, sixteen spe- 
cies of Phytolithuriens, and three of crystalline forms. ‘lhe more pre- 
valent species are Discoplea oregonica, Gallionella granulata, G. 
erenata, Eunotia Westermanni, Cocconema asperum, &c. ‘The 
Discoplea and Raphoneis oregonica are the only two species charac- 
teristic of the locality. The beds are more recent than those of the 
Klakamus river, a few miles from the Falls of the Willammet.— 
(American Journal of Science and Arts, vol ix., No, 25, Second 
Series, p. 140.) 
ZOOLOGY 
5. Low State of Development of Mammals and Birds in Aus- 
tralia and New Zealand,—Geological researches into the structure 
of the globe, shew that a succession of physical changes have modi- 
fied its surface from the earliest period up to the present time, and 
that these changes have been accompanied with variations not only 
in the phases of animal and vegetable life, but often in the develop- 
ment also of organization ; and as these changes cannot be supposed 
to have been operating uniformly over the entire surface of the globe 
in the same periods of time, we should naturally be prepared for 
finding the now existing fauna of some regions exhibiting a higher 
state of development than that of others; accordingly, if we con- 
trast the fauna of the old continents of geographers with the zoology 
of Australia and New Zealand, we find a wide difference in the de- 
gree of organization which creation has reached in these respec- 
tive regions. In New Zealand, with the exception of a Vespertilio 
and a Mus which latter is said to exist there, but which has not 
yet been sent to this country, the most highly organized animal 
* Fremont’s Second Expedition, p. 302, 
