July 14, 1923] 



NATURE 



67 



the work of controlling the latter species will resolve 

 itself into a study of the problems of clearing the 

 jungle, since curtailment of its food supply does not 

 appear likely to be effective. In the same journal Dr. 

 G. H. D. Carpenter contributes an article on the use 

 of artificial breeding places as a means of control 

 of Glossina palpalis. The breeding places took the 

 form of low thatched sloping roofs erected over 

 , suitable loose soil in localities where the fly is known 

 : to abound. The insects used the shelters as con- 

 venient places for depositing their larvae, which very 

 soon afterwards pupate. The result of the catches 

 from these shelters showed that in some cases they 

 were superior to the natural places selected by the 

 flies. It is concluded that, although the method 

 affords a ready means of collecting material for 

 laboratory investigations, it is ineffective as a means 

 of destroying the Glossina without other measures. 

 After very nearly a year the number of pupae de- 

 posited showed no appreciable diminution. 



Brittle-stars of the Philippines. — The Smith- 

 sonian Institution has recently published, as volume 5 

 of its Bulletin 100, a memoir by Prof. R. Koehler on 

 the Ophiurans collected by the A Ibatross in Philippine 

 and Samoan waters. Out of the 227 species discussed, 

 68 are new, and these include examples of 5 new 

 genera. Since many of the other species had 

 previously been inadequately described, they too 

 now receive full description and illustration. The 

 illustrations are entirely photographic, a method 

 which Prof. Koehler claims as the only satisfactory 

 one for the systematist. When the photographs are 

 as good and as well-reproduced as are most of Prof. 

 Koehler's, and when, as here, enlarged photographs 

 of details are provided, then, on the whole, we agree 

 with this claim. But even when all the conditions 

 are fulfilled, explanatory diagrams are a most welcome 

 addition. The classification adopted is that of 

 Matsumoto, with a few modifications of detail (but 

 why Loemophiurida instead of Laemophiurida ?). 

 The work has been translated from the French by 

 Mr. Austin H. Clark into clear and easy English • we 

 would observe only that the English for " Lyon " is 

 " Lyons." 



Fossil Bison from Central Minnesota. — From 

 a peat swamp overlying the iron ore at the Sagamore 

 Iron Mine, Riverton, Minnesota, bones of Bison 

 occidentalis have been recovered which form the subject 

 of a paper by Mr. O. P. Hay (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 

 vol. Ixiii., art. 5). The bones were at or near the 

 bottom of the peat, which overlies drift beds deter- 

 mined to be of about mid-Wisconsin age, so that 

 Bison occidentalis lived in Minnesota until the middle 

 of the last glacial stage, but how much longer cannot 

 now be determined. Whether the presence of the 

 remains of Bison bison, that also occurred in the 

 peat, indicates that the two animals were at one 

 time contemporaneous in that region, or whether 

 the existing buffalo arrived there after the other 

 had become extinct, is uncertain. 



Giant Hornless Rhinoceros from Mongolia. — 

 In 191 3 Mr. Forster Cooper described under the 

 name of Thaumastotherium (afterwards altered to 

 Baluchitherium) osborni a huge rhinoceros-like animal 

 of which he had unearthed the remains on his 

 expedition to Baluchistan. A second species, B. 

 grangeri, was discovered at Loh, central Mongolia, 

 in 1922 by the third Asiatic expedition of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. This new species is 

 now described by Prof. H. F. Osborn (Amer. Mus. 

 Novitates, No. 78), who further makes the genus the 

 type of a new subfamily — Baluchitherinae. The 



NO. 2802, VOL. I I 2] 



author considers that the Baluchitheres will prove 

 to be unique, large animals of the age (Upper 

 Oligocene, or Miocene) in which their remains occur, 

 and that they were typical browsers feeding on the 

 branches of trees as do elephants and giraffes. W'hen 

 the neck was elevated and stretched the animal 

 would have attained a height of about fifteen, or 

 possibly sixteen feet. A restoration is given which 

 shows that at the shoulder Baluchitherium was 

 twice the height of the Indian rhinoceros with which 

 it is compared. 



Late Mesozoic Batholites and Ore-deposits 

 IN Japan. — While the attention of geologists is 

 being justly redirected to the major "revolutions of 

 the globe," and to the relative rapidity of their 

 culminating episodes, it is well to note the evidence 

 of intervening epochs of unrest. The " Laramide 

 revolution " of Schuchert, which is held by many 

 to have heralded the great days of Andean crumpling, 

 can be traced back to " epeirogenetic " movements 

 in the Rocky Mountain area in late Cretaceous times ; 

 and these are now seen to have had " orogenetic " 

 analogues on the other side of the Pacific. Here we 

 may observe, as a corrective of too rigid doctrine, 

 that the folding took place on the eastern side of a 

 continental mass. Prof. T. Kato of Tokyo {Japanese 

 Journ. ofGeol. and Geogr., vol. i. p. 77, 1922) describes 

 the intrusion of huge batholites of quartz-diorite and 

 granite into Jurassic strata in central Japan, and he 

 traces the famous copper-ores of the Yamahara 

 district in the province of Mimasaka to a late Mesozoic 

 epoch of unrest. The first result of the igneous 

 intrusions was the contact-metamorphism of the 

 sedimentary series. Then, at a temperature a little 

 below the critical point of water, tourmaline and 

 fluorspar were produced ; and the sulphide ores, 

 including copper and iron pyrites, pyrrhotine, and 

 zinc-blende, followed, and permeated the invaded 

 areas. Veins of quartz and calcite mark the final 

 stage. A neat diagram on p. 99 shows the succession 

 of igneous types, closing with rhyolites that reached 

 the surface. Volcanic manifestations continued into 

 Cainozoic times ; but the epoch of maximum dis- 

 turbance is assigned to the close of the Mesozoic era. 

 The paper is written in English and is very well 

 illustrated by photographs. 



Petrography of Drill - cuttings from Oil- 

 Wells. — One of the first attempts in the United 

 States towards the intensive petrographic examina- 

 tion of rock-samples obtained while drilling oil-wells, 

 is described in an advance chapter (H) of bulletin 

 786 of the United States Geological Survey, by 

 Messrs. J. Gilluly and K. C. Heald. Their report 

 deals with the stratigraphy of the El Dorado oilfield, 

 Arkansas. Petrographic methods of correlation of 

 strata have come into prominence in England and 

 in several of the British - owned oilfields within the 

 last seven or eight years, but, so far as we know, 

 little attention has been paid by oil-geologists in 

 the United States to this phase of exploratory work. 

 The authors rely entirely on the lithological characters 

 of the samples, on their differentiation according to 

 the amounts of sand, clay, and lime present, while 

 limonite, lignite, or glauconite are specifically 

 indicated where sufficiently obvious. Any fossils 

 found are also carefully studied in conjunction with 

 this petrographic investigation, a collaboration to 

 be highly commended. It is, however, unfortunate 

 that the authors did not go a great deal further with 

 their petrographic work; the "heavy" detrital 

 minerals {i.e. those having a specific gravity greater 

 than 2-8) furnished by the samples would have 

 formed a much more definite basis of comparison 



