October 15, 1903] 



NATURE 



575 



of tremendous explosions, like those which truncated 

 Papandayang in Java and shattered Rakata in 

 Krakatoa, or the cone may have collapsed and been 

 engulfed; mother earth, like the fabled Saturn, 

 devouring her own offspring — which has happened on 

 a smaller scale at Kilauea. Mr. Diller, after a dis- 

 cussion of the rival hypotheses, follows Captain 

 Dutton in preferring the latter. Space does not 

 allow of a full discussion of the reasons, but it may 

 be enough to say that the explosive destruction of a 

 great central cone might be expected to have piled 

 up the fragments more or less symmetrically around 

 the margin of the void ; but, though much fragmental 

 volcanic material has been scattered over not a few 

 square miles of the surrounding region, this does not 

 exhibit any such arrangement, and its presence may 

 be explained by eruptions posterior to the formation 

 of the caldera, such as that which built up Wizard 

 Island. It must, however, be admitted that such a 

 vast engulfment seems to demand the withdrawal of 

 a corresponding quantity of lava from beneath the 

 cone, and its discharge — as in the Kilauea eruption 

 of 1S40 — from some distant vent, of which at present 

 ' evidence has been found. It is thus possible that 

 h hypothesis is in part correct, for engulfment 



n Border of Crater Lake with Wizard Island 



and explosion may have cooperated in the work of 

 destruction, vast blocks of the ruined cone tum- 

 bling inwards to be blown out in shattered fragments 

 and distributed over many miles of country — so that 

 the volcano practically became an automatic muzzle- 

 loader. But that Mount Mazama was not destroyed 

 merely by an explosion like that of a colossal powder 

 magazine, seems to be evident. 



In the second part of the memoir Mr. Patton gives us 

 a careful petrographical study of the materials of 

 Mount Mazama. They are mostly, as is so usual with 

 the volcanoes of the great mountain chains of the two 

 •Americas, andesites, among which the hypersthene- 

 bearing varieties are common, though on the one 

 hand dacites, and on the other basalts, are to be found. 

 Full descriptions of these and their included minerals 

 are given, as well as of certain portions of a rather 

 different mineral character, which Mr. Patton regards 

 as secretions. It is difficult to form an opinion with- 

 out an actual study of the rock specimens and slices, 

 but we venture to suggest that they may rather be 

 inclusions — that is to say, material which, though it 

 may have been originally separated by some kind of 

 differential action, and might so far be called a secre- 



NO. 1772, VOL. 68] 



tion, owes its present position to being caught up 

 and carried away by the general mass of molten 

 material. This, however, is a very small criticism. 

 The memoir is a most valuable one, and its printing 

 and illustrations maintain the usual high standard of 

 the publications of the United States Geological 

 Survey. T. G. Bonney. 



THE BRUSSELS AND TERVUEREN 

 MUSEUMS. 



FOR many years past the Royal Brussels Museum 

 of Natural History has presented attractions for 

 the vertebrate palaeontologist which can be rivalled by 

 few and excelled by none of the institutions of a 

 similar nature in Europe. But those who have not 

 had an opportunity of seeing the collections recently 

 will scarcely fail to be surprised at the vast increase 

 which has been made in the exhibited series, and at the 

 excellent manner in which the specimens are displayed 

 even in the limited space at present available. A still 

 greater degree of astonishment, and, we may add, of 

 admiration, will be expressed by the visitor when he 

 is shown the new buildings, now nearing completion, 

 designed for the housing of the 

 entire recent and fossil fauna of the 

 countrv. , 



When the present writer (some 

 twelve or fifteen years ago) last saw 

 the collection, on'lv a single skeleton 

 of the far-famed Bernissart iguano- 

 dons was mounted in the exhibition 

 galleries. Now there are no less 

 than five such skeletons set up in 

 their natural posture, while a sixth 

 is shown lying on a mass of Wealden 

 rock as it was exhumed from the 

 quarry. A more magnificent dis- 

 play than the one presented by the 

 skeletons of these mighty dinosaurs 

 can scarcely be imagined. 



Next in importance to the un- 

 rivalled iguanodons and associated 

 reptiles from the Bernissart Wealden 

 may probably be ranked the mag- 

 nificent series of mosasaurian re- 

 mains which have been obtained in 

 working the phosphatic beds of the 

 Upper Cretaceous strata of the 

 Maastricht district and other parts 

 of the country. In addition to several more or less 

 imperfect skulls and other parts of the skeleton of the 

 typical Mosasaurus, the collection includes remains of 

 several other generic types, some of which, such as 

 Hainosaurus, are peculiar to Belgian territory. Un- 

 like so many European fossil vertebrates of large size, 

 most or all of these generic types are represented by 

 skeletons so nearly perfect as to admit of their being 

 set up like those of recent animals. One of the 

 treasures of the museum is the skeleton of the fore- 

 paddle of a representative of these gigantic marine 

 lizards, this specimen being believed to be the only 

 known example of this part of the mosasaurian skele- 

 ton hitherto discovered in Europe. Another note- 

 worthy specimen in this group is the skull of Pro- 

 gnathosaurus, remarkable for the exquisite state of 

 preservation of the bones of the elongated muzzle. 

 The turtles of the Upper Cretaceous, as represented 

 by the well-known Chelone hoffmanni, and a still more 

 gigantic unnamed species characterised by the extreme 

 flatness of the carapace, likewise form a large and 

 interesting exhibit. 



Much more might be written about the Mesozoic 

 vertebrates, but, from exigencies of space, it must 



