June 28, 1883] 



NA TURE 



213 



shed of the Sok and Sheshma, and the Volga, as an island 

 extending from north-east to south-west, and covered on its 

 b orders by mottled marls. The former is closely mingled with 

 the latter, as it extends also in the shape of thinner intermediate 

 deposits among the marls ; but on the whole it substantially 

 differs from them by its fauna, undoubtedly belonging to the 

 Zechstein. As to the mottled marls, they contain the Unio 

 umbonafus, Fisch., the Estheria sp. (Posydonomia minuta, 

 Bronn.), the Lingiila orienlalis, Golowkinsky, scales of Acrolepis 

 macrodeima, Eichw., and Calamites. The Post-Pliocene de- 

 posits are spread everywhere, and we notice the find of Caspian 

 shells of Cardixm, together with Dreissena, at the sources of 

 the Cherem-han river (left tributary of the Volga, namely, at 

 lialandino, ten miles from the Cheremshanskaya fort). This 

 i nportant find proves thus that the Caspim formerly extended 

 at least as far north as 54° 4°' north latitude. As to the Permian 

 formation to the west of Kazan, M. Krotoff, who includes in 

 this formation both the Zechstein and the mottled marls, calcu- 

 lates that it has a thickness of 810 to 860 feet. Showing 

 further that the fauna of the mottled marls but slightly differs 

 from that of the Zechstein (a complete list of its fossils being 

 given by the author), and that the fossils that are characteristic of 

 these marls ( Unio u mbonatus, Fisch., Unio castor, Eichw., Estheria 

 sp., Cytktrt sp., remains of fishes, and Calamites) were found 

 elsewhere, either in company with purely Zechstein forms or in 

 deposits subordinate to the Zechstein deposits, he concludes — 

 perhaps too soon — that there is no ground to consider them as 

 Triassic. 



Anthropology and archaeology are represented by several 

 interesting papers : — M. Krotoff publishes his researches into the 

 age of the stone implements found in the basin of the Oka, and 

 M. Ivanoff on the Perm region.— M. Malieff publishes the.results 

 of his most interesting measurements of the Old Bulgarian skulls 

 dug out from the Babiy Bugor, at the Bulgarian village situated 

 on the left bank of the Volga, close to Tetushi, and his paper 

 is accompanied by sixteen photographs of fmr skulls. He 

 measured the best preserved twenty-five skulls, all belonging to 

 full-grown males. They are all much like one another, but 

 could be subdivided into three groups : fourteen dolichocephalic, 

 with indexes varying from 71 '4 to 77"i ; five mesatycephalic, 

 their indexes varying from 77 '8 to 79'8 ; and five subbrachi- 

 cephalic, whose indexes vary from 81 'i to 821. The average 

 size of the horizontal circumference of the twenty-five skulls is 

 515 millimetres, with a maximum of 555 millimetres and a mini- 

 mum of 490; the average capacity is 13S1 cu'iic centimetres. 

 They completely differ from the skulls of other inhabitants of the 

 same region : not only Kaluiuks, or Bashkirs, but also from the 

 Russian, Tartar, or Mordovian skulls. Without expressing a 

 definitive opinion until a comparison of these skulls wiih those of 

 Bulgarians from the Balkan peninsula is made, the author points 

 out that they are very much like those of the Kuorgan in- 

 habitants of the Government of Moscow, who seem to be Old- 

 Sclavonic, and certainly are not Finnish, as results from an 

 inquiry made on 120 skulls by Prof. A. Bogdanoff. They are 

 similar also to the skulls of the old inhabitants of Kieff and to 

 those of the Scythes of Southern Russii. M. Malieff's com- 

 panion in these researches, who gives in the same periodical a 

 sketch of the Old Bulgarian buryingplace at Babiy Bugor, adds 

 that the skeletons they dug out had their heads towards the west, 

 and were lying on the left side, looking towards the north 

 (towards the Volga). Masses of pieces of earthenware were 

 found together with the skeletons, and the pottery was of the 

 roughest kind, made by hand, and burned very incompletely. 

 He argues with much probability that this burying-place did not 

 belong to a Mussulman people, but to idolaters, and supposes 

 that its antiquity may be traced as far back as tl.e Stone period. 

 In any case, the customs of burying, as shown by this burying- 

 place, seem to have been very much like those of the Scla- 

 vonians before their conversion. As to the burying-places at 

 Chulpanovka and Ukrech, in the districts of Christopol and 

 Laisher, explored by MM. Malieff and Vysotsky and de- 

 scribed by the latter in his second "Anthropological Sketch of 

 the Explorations of the Year 1880," and by M. Malieff in his 

 just-mentioned paper, both explorers agree in considering them as 

 belonging to Chuvashes. The craniological measurements which 

 M. Malieff made on twenty skulls show that six of them belong 

 to the mesatycephalic type, the average cephalic index of which is 

 74'5, and the others are either dolichocephalic, or belong to 

 women and children, or afford a most pronounced asymmetry, 

 and cannot thus give reliable figures. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The alumni and other friends of the University of St. 

 Andrews have been roused to action by the threat (now 

 withdrawn) of its possible dissolution, in consequence of in- 

 sufficient endowment. An "Appeal" which has just been 

 issued shows that 2700/. (in sums of from 100/. to 1000/.) has 

 been already subscribed towards the better endowment of the 

 Professorial Chairs ; and a scheme has been set on foot amongst 

 the younger graduates for the no less essential object of secur- 

 ing the augmentation of the open bursaries. Upwards of 

 2co/. (in sums of from I/, to 50/.) has been already promised 

 towards this special fund, and an appeal from the Committee 

 appointed for this purpose will shortly be circulated. There is 

 good reason to believe that the withdrawal of the obnoxious 

 clause has been partly occasioned by the practical shape which 

 the defence of the oldest Scottish University has thus assumed. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



THE American Journal of Science, June, 1883. — On the nature 

 of the induration in the St. Peter's and Potsdam sandstones and 

 in certain Archaean quartzites, in Wisconsin, by R. D. Irving. 

 The author extends the conclusions already arrived at by Sorby in 

 several important respects. — On the existence of a deposit in North - 

 Eastern Montana and North-Western Dakota, that is possibly 

 equivalent with the Green River group, by Charles A. White. 

 The paper embodies a detailed description of the new extinct 

 genu; and species of Percidse occurring in the Dakota rocks, by 

 Prof. E. D. Cope. — On the peculiar concretions occurring in 

 meteoric irons, by J. Lawrence Smith. These concretions are 

 found to contain sul'phuret of iron, schreibersite (phosphuret of 

 iron and nickel), graphite, daubreelite, chromite, lawrencite, 

 aragonite. — On mineral vein formation now in progress at 

 Steamboat Springs compared with the same at Sulphur Bank, 

 by Joseph Le Co .te. — Observations on the transit of Venus, 

 December 6, 1S82, at the Vanderbilt University Observatory, 

 Nashville, Tennessee, by Olin H. Landreth. — On the fauna 

 found at Lime Creek, Iowa, and its relation to other 

 geological fauna, by S. Calvin. A complete catalogue 

 is given of the Lime Creek fauna which are compared 

 with those of the Niagara, Cinderhook, and other Devonian 

 rocks. — Observations on stratified drift in Delaware, by F. D. 

 Chester. — On the western discharge of the flooded Connecticut, or 

 that through the Farmington Valley to New Haven Bay, by James 

 D. Dana. — Results of some experiments made to determine the 

 variations in length of certain bars at the temperature of melting 

 ice, by R. S. Woodward, E. S. Wheeler, A. R. Flint, and W. 

 Voigt. The experiments are chiefly made with zinc and steel 

 bars, and the authors found that zinc is the least reliable metal for 

 the components of a metallic thermometer and standard of length, 

 while steel, copper, and brass do not vary appreciably at any 

 ordinary temperature.— On Scovillite, a new phosphate of didy- 

 miuin, yttrium, and other rare earths, from Salisbury, Connecti- 

 cut, by George J. Brush and Samuel L. Penfield. 



Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for April, 1883, 

 contains : — On five new Floscules, with a note on Prof. Leidy's 

 genera, Acyclus and Dictyophora, by Dr. C. T. Hudson (Plates 

 3 and 4).— The President's (Prof. P. M. Duncan) address. — The 

 action of tannin on the cilia of Infusoria, with remarks on the 

 use of a solution of sulphurous oxide in alcohol, by H. J. 

 Waddington. — Summary of recent literature.— Proceedings of 

 the Society. 



Journal of the Russian Chemical and Physical Society, vol. XV. 

 fasc. 4.— On solutions, by W. Alexeyeff; being an inquiry into 

 the mutual solutions of liquids, as depending upon temperature. 

 The experiments carried out on aniline, amyl and isobutyl 

 alcohols, phenol, &c, lead to the following conclusions : — The 

 hypothesis of Person as to the liquefaction of bodies before 

 solution is not confirmed. The solubility depends upon the 

 molecular cohesion, and increases as this last becomes feebler. 

 Thus, at the same temperature, more of liquid than of solid 

 salicylic acid is dissolved. The solutions are quite different from 

 chemical compounds, and the liquid mixtures are different from 

 solutions. — On the specific volumes of elements in liquid com- 

 pounds ; second paper, by M. Shalfeyeff. The conclusions of 

 these valuable researches are : — The compounds of the fat series 

 are derived from the uneven-atomic carbon ; and those of the 



