634 The Smithsonian Institution 



reported, there was no barometric fluctuation at the point of 

 observation at the time when the seiche was observed, the 

 explanation is doubtless, as suggested in a note by Professor 

 Henry, to be found in the occurrence of thunder-storms in 

 distant parts of the lake. 



" Geological Researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan 

 during the years 1862 to 1865," by Raphael Pumpelly (1866), 

 is an important contribution to the knowledge of a field then 

 almost untrodden by geological explorers, though destined 

 soon after to be illustrated by the more extended travels and 

 researches of Baron von Richthofen. The loess of northern 

 China is in this paper considered a lacustrine deposit, though 

 the author afterward adopted Richthofen's view of its seolian 

 origin. The wonderful migrations of the Hoang Ho River 

 over the immense confluent delta which it shares with the 

 Yang-tse-Kiang is illustrated by a most interesting series 

 of maps. Much information is given in regard to the coal of 

 Chihli and adjacent provinces of northern China, which is 

 considered Mesozoic, on the evidence of ferns, cycads, and a 

 conifer described by Professor Newberry. The coal of Chihli 

 was pronounced Jurassic by Richthofen, though in other 

 parts of China coal of Carboniferous age is extensively de- 

 veloped. 



The paper " On the Geology of Lower Louisiana and the 

 Salt Deposit on Petite Anse Island," by Eugene W. Hilgard 

 (1872), discusses a deposit whose scientific interest even ex- 

 ceeds that which arises from its economic value. The salt, 

 which is overlain by the Orange Sand, is held to be of Creta- 

 ceous age. 



The subject of the physics of the globe is treated in two 

 papers by J. G. Barnard, the first on 'T-*roblems of Rotary 

 Motion" (1872), the second "On the Internal Structure of 

 the Earth" (1877). In both papers the question is discussed 



