36o 



NATURE 



\_AugMst I, 1878 



the south-east of Europe and Turkey-in-Asia, as re- 

 adjusted by the Berlin Congress. 



The Buenos Ayres Standard iwrvix^ts some particulars 

 of interest concerning Don Francisco P. Moreno's ex- 

 plorations in Southern Patagonia. The River Gallegos, 

 it appears, has a mean velocity of four to five miles an 

 hour, and is fed by the snows which fall in winter on the 

 volcanic lands. It has two sources, which unite after a 

 short distance, and two small tributaries to the south. 

 The valley could be utilised for agriculture ; on both 

 banks mounds of lava are met with towards the south, 

 forming black rocks with broken fragments like columns, 

 wearing an appearance of an ancient city in ruins. All 

 these peaks as far as Cape Virgin are extinguished vol- 

 canoes, of an average height of 860 feet. Don F. Moreno 

 believes these eruptions to have been entirely inde- 

 pendent of the Andine volcanoes. Between Gallegos and 

 the banks of the San Gregorio, where these peaks are 

 found, they have risen more irregularly than in other 

 parts of Patagonia. The road winds capriciously through 

 low valleys, watered by pools and rivulets, then through 

 sterile tracts, and now and again over grassy elevations. 

 At the confines of the Meseta (table-land) the face of the 

 country changes. To the right the blue and white line of 

 the snow-clad mountains stands out in relief. To the left 

 is seen the summit of San Gregorio, then the narrow 

 Straits, and further off the Fuegian Plains, enveloped in 

 fog and lurid fires. At the Brunswick Peninsula on the 

 Straits the landscape is particularly verdant and undu- 

 lating, with mineral veins here and there and small woods 

 of the " Calafate" {Bcrberis), which produces a delicious 

 frtiit. With regard to the climate of these southern 

 regions, in the western part rain and storms are continual, 

 and it would be difficult to populate it, but on the east the 

 climate is more favourable, and those sudden and terrible 

 atmospheric changes that cause so many shipwrecks are 

 unknown. Don F. Moreno is of opinion that the 

 -climate from the River Santa Cruz to Cape Horn may 

 fairly be compared to that of Great Britain, from the 

 English Channel to the north of Scotland. On the high 

 lands it is dry, with night dews, but little rain. In winter 

 snow falls, but in spring, summer, and autumn, the 

 climate is delightful, with some few days of intense heat. 



The new part of Appalachia, the journal of the Appa- 

 lachian Mountain Club, contains Prof. Scudder's presi- 

 dential address, an exhaustive summary of the various 

 North American surveys, and explorations during the 

 previous years. There are other valuable papers con- 

 nected with the exploration of the Appalachians ; one by 

 Prof. C. H. Hitchcock gives an account of a large 

 number of glacial markings in the White Mountains. 



A WORK of great interest is now in course of pub- 

 lication at Vienna (Hartleben) : " Die Sahara — von Oase 

 zu Oase," by Dr. Joseph Chavanne. Up to this date 

 twelve parts have appeared ; they give excellent descrip- 

 tions of the great African desert itself and of the tribes 

 frequenting it. The scientific materials are worked out 

 into attractive pictures with considerable skill ; the reader 

 travels in thought through the Oasis of Ziban, then 

 makes the acquaintance of Biskra and its people, the 

 so-called Paris of the desert, passing across the El 

 Arnat and through the land of the Beni Mzab as far as 

 In Salah and Tafilet. Numerous well-drawn illustrations 

 add considerably to the attractions of the work. 



A NEW book of special interest at the present time has 

 just been published by Cotta, of Stuttgart. Its title is 

 " Cypern, Reiseberichte und Landschaft, Volk und Ge- 

 schichte." The author is Herr Franz von Loeher. 



Letters have been received in Holland from Vardo, 

 reporting that every one on board the Wilhcm Baretitz, 

 the schooner of the Dutch Arctic Expedition, was in ex- 

 cellent health, and that hitherto the vessel had behaved 

 admirably. 



ON PREHISTORIC REMAINS IN 

 BRUNSWICK' 



A LARGE quantity of prehistoric remains have been 

 -^~*- found in the diluvial loam of Thiede and Weste- 

 regeln, in the Duchy of Brunswick. This fossil fauna of 

 Thiede numbers about thirty species — the common loess 

 molluscs {Helix hispida, Pjcpa muscorum, Succinea 

 oblongd), together with remains of horse, reindeer, 

 Rhinoceros iichoriiius, Elephas primigenius, some car- 

 nivora, and rodents (as lemming, Myodes torquatus, 

 Arvicola gregalis, &c.). The lemmings appear especially 

 in the lowermost beds, with some few remains of reindeer 

 and Arctic fox ; in the middle beds they are associated 

 with remains of horse, rhinoceros, and elephant, and 

 gradually disappear in the higher horizons. 



The fossil fauna at Westeregeln, numbering more than 

 thirty species of mammals alone, is far more abundant 

 and more varied. The mammals are bat, shrew, hyena, 

 lion, wolf, Arctic fox, bear, badger, and especially rodents, 

 all of them (the hare excepted), such as habitually live in 

 holes underground, in steppe-like regions. Among them 

 is Arctomys bobak. The remains of Spermophilus altaicus, 

 of Dipus, and of several species o{ Arvicola, are extremely 

 abundant. Lemming, hare, and lagomys are also met 

 with. The presence of horse, reindeer, bos, and antelope 

 has been ascertained, together with some few bones of 

 Elephas primigenius and Rhinoceros merld. A well- 

 developed trapezium of a peculiar horse may be possibly 

 interpreted as a connecting form between Eqjiiis and 

 Hipparion. The dental system of Spermophilus offers 

 likewise some remarkable particularities. The birds are 

 represented by eleven species — ducks, Gallinacea, pigeon, 

 lark, bustard, vulture, and largely by species of Fri^i^illa 

 and Hirundo. Remains of bactrachians {Bnfo, Rana^ 

 and Hyla) abound in certain localities. Of fishes only 

 one-half of a pike' s lower jaw has been met with. The 

 number of molluscous species amounts to seven. The 

 co-existence of insects may be inferred from the presence 

 of many insectivorous mammals and birds. 



Man's co-existence is attested at Thiede by axes of the 

 stone period, found immediately beneath the humus; also 

 by flint implements, and traces of fire-places in the lower 

 beds of the loess. At Westeregeln splinters of flint, 

 small fragments of charcoal, and broken bones of animals, 

 indicate the presence of human beings, either permanent 

 or occasional, during hunting excursions. According to 

 Mr. A. Nehring, the discoverer of these deposits, their 

 fauna approximates to the Steppe fauna of south-west 

 Siberia, and is co-eval with the post-glacial period, when 

 Northern Europe had an extreme continental climate. In 

 the neolithic period, this fauna, as indicated by the 

 remains of deer, bear, and beaver, assumed a sylvan 

 character, persisting down to the times of Ceesar and 

 Tacitus. 



Mr. Nehring supposes the loam in question to have 

 been transported and deposited by water, admitting, how- 

 ever, the occasional transport of materials by storm 

 winds. Dr. Tietze thinks that the presence of fishes and 

 batrachians offers no objection to the sub-aerial, or wind- 

 origin, of this loess, as fishes, frogs, lizards, and tortoises, 

 live on the steppes of Persia, and are even characteristic 

 of their fauna ; and fishes are also found in the artesian 

 wells of the Sahara. Some known facts support the idea 

 of the sab-aerial origin of deposits in localities having 

 nothing in common with steppes. In 1866, the wind 

 blowing from the south, the snow was covered with a 

 stratum of yellow dust; the same phenomenon was 

 observed at Kasan in 1872. Mr. D. Stur ascribes to the 

 action of winds the recent thin layers of quartzose and 

 micaceous particles accumulated on the slopes of the 

 limestone Alps. 



' By Ar. A. Nehring and Dr. Tietze. {Proc. Imper. Geol. Instlt., Vifcina 

 March s, 1878.) 



