366 



NA TURE 



[August 14, 1890 



saire pour donner naissance a la vapeur, quantity 

 toujours finie." 



The meaning is absolutely clear, the contrast being 

 between an infinitesimal, and an essentially_/f«zV^, quantity 

 of heat. What sort of notion of Carnot's reasoning can 

 he have who translates the passage as below (p. 59) ? 



"The quantity of heat necessary to raise the liquid to 

 its former temperature will be also indefinitely small and 

 unimportant relatively to that which is necessary to 

 produce steam — a quantity always limited." 



The sting is, of course, in the tail : — its proper place. 

 But this one word suffices to destroy the entire argument. 



In the translation of the foot-note (preparatory to the 

 discussion of the air-engine) where Carnot gives experi- 

 mental facts as to the temperature-effects of condensation 

 and rarefaction of gases, we have, among other blunders, 

 a really amusing one. Carnot says : — 



"... Pair qui vient toucher immddiatement la boule 

 du thermometre reprend peut-etre par son choc centre 

 cette boiile., ou plutot par I'effet du ddtour qu'il est force 

 de prendre a sa rencontre, une densite &c." 



The translator would almost seem to have thought that 

 a game at Bowls is here alluded to ; for he gives the 

 passage in the form : — 



" The air which has just touched the bowl of the ther- 

 mometer possibly takes again by its collision with this 

 bowl, or rather by the effect of the detour which it is 

 forced to make by its rencounter, a density &c." 



Since so much of this passage has been left un- 

 translated, it is to be regretted that the whole sentence 

 (and, for that matter, the whole Essay) has not been left 

 in its own strikingly original and well-chosen language. 



Many years ago we met with a book something like 

 this one. The writer was translating from Laplace, and 

 rendered the passage 



"Si Ton prend, pour unitd de temps, la seconde 

 decimale ou la cent-millieme partie du jour moyen . . ." 



in the following exquisite fashion : — 



"If we take the second decimal, or the tooOOO of the 

 mean day as the unity of time . . ." 



This is perhaps .finer than anything in Mr. Thurston's 

 translation, but he occasionally rises nearly to its level. 



We conclude, as we commenced, with a maxim of 

 Carnot's: — 



De indulgence, de I'indulgence ! 



P. G. T. 



TRIASSIC FISHES AND PLANTS. 

 Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic Rocks of 

 New fersey and the Connecticut Valley. By J. S. New- 

 berry. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 

 1888.) 



THE fourteenth of the splendid series of monographs 

 issued, and so liberally distributed, by the U.S 

 Geological Survey, is by Prof Newberry, and deals with 

 the fossil fishes and plants of the east coast Triassic areas 

 known as the Palisades and the Connecticut' Valley. 

 Their red shales, sandstones, and conglomerates occur 

 NO. 1085, VOL, 42] 



for the most part in narrow basins parallel to the coast 

 or coast ranges, intersected by sheets and dykes of 

 diabase, and average about 5000 feet in thickness. In a 

 very few spots the almost barren shales are charged with 

 carbonaceous matter, and in these plant and fish remains 

 have been met with. The two areas are separated by 

 the wide Hudson Valley tract of older rocks, and are 

 distinguished by all the Palisade beds dipping at an 

 angle of 3° to 15^ west, while the Connecticut beds dip as 

 uniformly to the east. Various theories accounting for 

 their deposition are discussed, but the simplest would be 

 to regard them as local deposits of a flat, shallow, sandy, 

 thoroughly sheltered coast-line, subjected to heavy tides. 

 With gradual and intermittent subsidence, and consequent 

 continued encroachment on the land, most extensive 

 beds of varying fineness might be formed. A dip, such 

 as that observed, would ensue, as the beds passed suc- 

 cessively under low-water mark, and fell under pressure 

 of the sea into the ordinary slopes of a shelving shore. 

 Sun cracks, ripple marks, and footprints would be formed 

 in each bed in the belt exposed between the high-water 

 marks of neap and spring tides. That the deposits 

 originally swarmed with prey is evident from the foot- 

 prints of nearly 100 varieties of animals, only a part of 

 which were perhaps amphibious, which made them their 

 promenade. Almost every trace, however, of such or- 

 ganisms as mollusca, annelids, Crustacea, and plants, 

 have disappeared. 



The second part of the memoir, relating to the fossil 

 fishes, occupies about two-thirds of the volume, and com- 

 mences with some preliminary remarks on the gradual 

 discovery of the fauna under consideration. Some of these 

 fishes were among the first fossils to attract the attention 

 of American geologists, and two species were figured and 

 described by Agassiz in his " Poissons Fossiles." To 

 Messrs. W. C. and J. H. Redfield, however, palaeontology 

 is mainly indebted for the knowledge of the fauna previous 

 to the researches of Dr. Newberry ; and their original 

 collection, now in the Yale College Museum, has furnished 

 much of the material for the present memoir. Dr. 

 Newberry himself undertook excavations at Boonton, 

 N.J., in 1866, thus obtaining a large series of specimens 

 for the Columbia College, New York ; and numerous 

 discoveries have been more recently made in other 

 localities, by various investigators, to whom the author 

 expresses indebtedness. 



The detailed descriptions of the genera and species, 

 illustrated by no less than twenty plates, form the first 

 satisfactory account of the American Triassic fish-fauna ; 

 and this will prove of great value for comparison with the 

 corresponding assemblages of fishes met with elsewhere. 

 To the Lepidosteoid family of Lepidotidas are assigned 

 Ischypterus, with eighteen species, Catopterus, with six 

 species, Acentrophorics, Dictyopyge, and Ptycholepis, each 

 with one species ; while the Crossopterygian family 

 of Coelacanthidas is represented by a peculiar genus 

 and species — Diplurus longicaudatus. Some interesting 

 general remarks upon each genus precede the more 

 detailed discussion of the various species ; and, in the 

 case at least of Ischypterus, we are inclined to agree with 

 the author when he suggests that future researches may 

 tend to reduce the number of specific types he at present 

 feels justified in recognizing. In such cases as the present. 



