POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



861 



and its times. The diprotodon was in 'some 

 respects like a wombat, but seems to have 

 been less capable of rapid motion. The 

 spongy texture of the bones of the skeleton 

 indicates that it frequented lakes and marshes. 

 Two species of the fossil have been found in 

 central Australia one about six feet high 

 and ten feet long, and the other about five 

 feet high and eight feet long. The arid 

 central plains of the present were occupied 

 in diprotodon times by vast extents of lux- 

 uriant forest and richly vegetated districts, 

 well watered by wide rivers. The marsupials 

 were even then the dominant type of life in 

 Australia ; lizards were also numerous, and 

 some were of unusually large proportions ; 

 megalania, for example, are extinct " guana," 

 from eighteen to twenty feet in length. Alli- 

 gators and turtles of forms now extinct in- 

 fested the waters, and among the fishes was 

 the still existing ceratodus. The remains of 

 a varied bird fauna have been preserved in 

 the same deposits. This fauna included 

 some ancestral forms connecting, on the one 

 hand, the wingless birds of New Zealand 

 with the Australian emus, and on the other 

 hand the Australian birds with the New 

 Zealand apteryx. The author was inclined 

 to attribute the disappearance of so many of 

 these forms of ancient life quite as much to 

 senile decay as to altered climatic influences. 



Waters of the Colorado Coal Field. The 



water supply of the Colorado coal field of 

 Texas, though not abundant as a whole, is 

 represented in the report of Messrs. N. F. 

 Drake and R. A. Thompson, of the State 

 Geological Survey, as usually ample and suf- 

 ficient for all demands and purposes. Nu- 

 merous springs burst forth from the strata 

 and many overflowing rivers and creeks 

 traverse the breadth of the region, which 

 afford water unsurpassed for wholesomeness 

 and purity. When sufficient care is exercised 

 in their location, water for drinking purposes 

 can be obtained from wells in nearly all parts 

 of the area, though when bored to excessive 

 depths the water contained is, as a rule, con- 

 taminated with salt, oil, and other impurities 

 that exist in the strata. The Colorado, 

 Coucho, and San Saba are the only rivers 

 flowing through the district. The Colorado, 

 having for its origin the great springs flow- 

 ing out from the eastern slope of the Staked 



Plains, and being re-enforced at every point 

 of its course, furnishes an unsurpassed supply 

 of water to its riparian inhabitants. Except 

 in times of what is called the " red rises," its 

 water is pure and clear. These red rises are 

 caused by heavy rainfalls in the region of 

 the Red Beds of the Permian and Triassic in 

 which the Colorado heads. The beds consist 

 of conglomerates, fine-grained sandstones, and 

 impervious arenaceous and highly calcareous 

 red clays and shales, which disintegrate rap- 

 idly under the action of rainfall, and the 

 disintegrated material is borne down by the 

 rapid current of the river. Owing to the 

 fine-grained and impervious nature, especially 

 of the clays, they do not silt rapidly, and the 

 material is held in suspension by the water 

 long after it has passed the limits of the 

 Red Beds. The Colorado flows over numer- 

 ous little falls and rapids while pursuing its 

 course across the heavy beds of limestone 

 and sandstone which extend from the 

 western boundary of the Permian to the 

 southern limit of the Upper Cretaceous. 

 This shifting turns its every particle again 

 and again to the purifying action of the at- 

 mosphere, and the immense beds of stiff and 

 tenacious clays and shales do not impair its 

 clearness. The water flowing over the lime- 

 stone becomes highly charged with carbonic 

 dioxide in solution, which oxidizes much of 

 the organic matter that may contaminate it, 

 and thus renders it purer. The water of the 

 Concho River is of the same character as that 

 of the Colorado. The San Saba runs about 

 forty miles through the carboniferous forma- 

 tion. Few of the creeks or smaller streams 

 are ever-running, but the majority of them 

 flow except in the driest seasons. Water is 

 obtained in them from numerous large, deep 

 holes, the majority of which remain filled 

 through the year, and in which it does not 

 become stagnant. 



St. Gregory of Nyssa and the Nebular 

 Hypothesis. In a study, in the American 

 Ecclesiastical Review, of the exegeses by the 

 early Christian writers, especially those of 

 Alexandria and Caesarea, the Rev. John A. 

 Zahm, of the University of Notre Dame, sets 

 forth that they were the first to propose or 

 develop a true theory of the origin of the 

 world, and to lay the foundations of cosmo- 

 ganic doctrines that are usually credited to 



