64 Miscellaneous. 



tion, had explored in other places on the Amazons, and found 

 fossils in abundance near Cochaquinas, on the south side of 

 the Marauon. " The shells," writes Prof. Orton, " are all 

 found in the coloured plastic clays*, which stretch unbroken 

 from the foot of the Andes to the Atlantic." .... He adds, 

 " The forms are all very singular and unique ; and from their 

 extermination, especially of one genus {Pachydon) with all its 

 representatives, we infer that the formation cannot be late 

 Tertiary, and may be Miocene. 



" The species indicate fresh- or brackish-water life ; and the 

 perfect preservation of the most delicate parts, some specimens 

 retaining even the epidermis, shows a quiet lake or estuary. 

 There certainly are no indications of a ' grinding glacier.' " 



Under date of Oct. 10, 1870, Prof. Conrad publishes, " in 

 advance of the 'American Journal of Conchology,' descriptions 

 of new fossil shells of the Upper Amazon," some of which 

 had been previously described and figured in the fourth volume 

 of the same journal by Mr. Gabb. Having since had the 

 opportunity of examining many hundreds of these shells sent 

 home by Mr. Hauxwell to Mr. Janson (Museum Street), I 

 ventm'e to append a few notes thereon. 



[To be continued.] 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Notes on Arctic Zoology. By Dr. Robeet Beown, M.A., F.R.G.S. 



(In a letter to Dr. J. E. Geat.) 



4 Gladstone Ten-ace, Hope Park, Edinburgh, 

 November 23, 1870. 



My deae Sie, — I am at present working at the distribution of the 

 Nort-west American faunas and floras, with a view to eventually 

 producing a physical atlas of that region, and therefore venture to 

 trouble you with this note to inquire if you have ever examined the 

 skull of the Phocania from Queen Charlotte's Islands, which the 

 British Museum acquired from my collections ; and if so, whether it 

 is identical with any species of porpoise from the Atlantic. I re- 

 member that at the time (April 1868) you were inchned to believe 

 that it was identical with P. communis. [I can see no difference in 

 the skulls. — J. E. G.] If so, the fact would be rather interesting. 



AVhile I am at it, I may as well mention a few facts connected 

 with arctic zoology, which you may find worthj- of a notice in the 

 ' Annals.' In a paper of mine on the arctic seals, in the ' Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society ' for 1868, p. 425 (also translated in 

 Petcrmann's ' Geographische Mittheilungen ' for 1869), I discussed 



• This is evidently Bed II. of Prof. Agassiz's section. 



