[From the American Journal op Science and Arts, Vol. XVII, June, 18*?9.] 



Notice of Recent Scientific Pahlicalions in Brazil. — 0. A. Derby on 

 the Oeohgy of the Lower Amazonas ; by Richard Rathbun. 



The Archives of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, 

 which were started in 1876, and of which only a single volume 

 was published regularly, have again made their appearance. 

 The numbers recently received, and issued only in the early 

 part of this year, comprise volume II complete, for 1877, and 

 the first half of volume III, for 1878. They are accompanied 

 by numerous plates, some of which seem to have been carefully 

 executed. The cause of the delay in the publication of this 

 annual, the only one devoted to natural history memoirs in 

 Brazil, is not given, but the high character of several of the 

 articles contained in the present volumes, partially compen- 

 sates for their late issue. 



Dr. Fritz Miiller, of Santa Catharina, contributes to both 

 volumes interesting papers on certain structural points among 

 insects, principally on the scent-bearing organs of several spe- 

 cies of Lepidoptera, and, in volume II, treats of the correlation 

 of the versicolored flowers of a species of Latana^ of Santa 

 Catharina, and the insects which fertilize them. Dr. Lacerda, 

 of the Museum, gives the results of his experiments with the 

 poison of Bothrops jararaca and Bufo iclericus on several domes- 

 tic animals. The second volume also contains "Notes on the 

 Localities of Antiquities (Ceramios) of Para," by S. Ferreira 

 Penna, and an extended memoir, entitled " Notes on the Stone 

 Lip-ornaments of the Archaeological Collection of the National 

 Museum," by Dr. Ladislau Netto, the director of that institu- 

 tion. In the tliird volume are two short geological and min- 

 eralogical studies of small sections in the province of Minas 

 Geraes, by members of the School of Mines of Ouro Preto. 



The paper of greatest interest to North Americans, however, 

 is " A Contribution to the Geology of the Lower Amazonas,"* 

 by Mr. Orville A. Derby, formerly of the Geological Commis- 

 . sion of Brazil, but recently appointed geologist in the National 

 Museum at Rio de Janeiro. This memoir, which occupies consid- 

 erable space in volume II, is a resum^ of the principal results of 

 the explorations of the late Prof. Ch. Fred. Hartt, Mr. Derby 

 and others, in the Amazonian valley, and adds many important 

 facts and generalizations to those hitherto published. 



The first portion of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the 

 topography and hydrography of the basin of the Amazonas, and 

 of the relations of the great river and its many large tributaries 



* The English version of this paper was published in the Proceedings of the 

 American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, for February, 1879. 



