January 4, 1906] 



A\ I TURE 



229 



more flexed and diverging position to enable the head 

 of the animal in browsing to approach nearer to the 

 ground. The bonv cores on the skull were sheathed 

 "in horn as well as the beaks, and there is evidence 

 of a dermal armature of bosses and spines which 

 once covered the dorsal and lateral region of the 

 creature's body. Mr. Charles R. Knight has given 

 a spirited restoration of this animal in the Century 

 Magazine (1S97, p. 18). A life-size papier-machi re- 

 production of Triccratops has been made in America 

 by Mr. Lucas, and it is to be hoped a copy may 

 shortly be secured for the Natural History Museum 

 in Cromwell Road. H. W. 



NOTES. 

 The King has conferred the honour of Knighthood upon 

 Prut. A. Pedler, CLE., F.R.S., Director of Public In- 

 struction, Bengal, and Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta 

 University. 



We are requested to announce that the endowment fund 

 now being raised for the family of the late Prof. G. B. 

 Howes, F.R.S., will be closed shortly, and all intending 

 contributors are asked to send their contributions without 

 delay to the treasurer, Mr. Frank Crisp, at 17 Throg- 

 morton Avenue, London, E.C. 



At a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia on December 5, 1905, Dr. Dixon announced 

 that Mr. D. M. Barringer and Mr. B. C. Tilghman, 

 members of the academy, had notified him of their dis- 

 covery that the crater of Coon Mountain, or Coon Butte, 

 in northern Arizona, twelve miles south-cast of Canon 

 Diablo station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

 Railway, is an impact crater, and not a crater produced 

 by a steam explosion, as has been supposed since the ex- 

 amination made of it by members of the United States 

 Geological Survey. It appears from their work that the 

 large crater and elevation known as Coon Mountain is the 

 result of a collision with the earth of a very large meteorite 

 or possibly a small asteroid, fragments of which are well 

 known to the scientific world by the name of the Canon 

 Diablo siderites. The investigations show (1) that the 

 formation of the crater and the deposition of the meteoritic 

 material were simultaneous ; (2) that meteoritic material has 

 been found 500 feet below the surface of the centre of the 

 crater ; (3) that sandstone supposed to be in place exists 

 less than 1000 feet below the surface of the centre of the 

 crater. The authors have presented to the academy for 

 publication two comprehensive papers in which they set 

 forth in full their reasons for the above statements. 



A copy of the programme of the excursions arranged in 

 connection with the International Geological Congress, to 

 be held in Mexico during next September, has just reached 

 us. Excursions will take place before, during, and after 

 the congress. Before the business meetings actually begin, 

 four excursions are provided for visitors. The first 

 excursion, which will last four days and be confined to 250 

 persons, is to be to the east from Mexico through Jalapa 

 to Vera Cruz, returning to Mexico through Esperanza. The 

 second excursion to the south is to extend to eight davs. 

 and is limited to 40 persons. Arriving at Esperanza, in- 

 cluded in the first trip, the party will proceed to Tehuacan 

 and thence to Oaxaca. Puebla will be taken on the return 

 journey. The third excursion, confined to 30 members, 

 will include visits to the volcanoes of Toluca, San Andres, 

 and Jorullo, and will last fourteen days, nine of which 

 will oe on horseback. The last of these trips is to the 

 NO. 1888, VOL. 73] 



geyser district of Ixtlan and to the volcano, Colima. 

 During the progress of the congress short joum 

 be made to Pachuca, to Cuernavaca, and other places near 

 Mexico. At the close of the conferences an excursion to 

 the north, of twenty days, will take place. Salamanca, 

 Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Mapimf, Conejos, Ciudad, Parras, 

 and other localities will be visited. Another excursion after 

 the meeting will be to the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The 

 following subjects will be discussed at the congress : — 

 (1) Climatic conditions during the geological epochs, when 

 Messrs. G. Boehm, T. C. Chamberlin, VV. B. Clark, 

 W. II. Hall, VV. M. Davis, A. Heilprin, V. Uhlig, and 

 S. W. Williston will take part. (2) The relations between 

 tectonics and eruptive masses : Messrs. A. Bergeat, 

 A. Dannenberg, G. K. Gilbert, J. P. Iddings, A. Karpinski, 

 A. Lacroix, and E. Naumann will speak. (3) The genesis 

 of metalliferous veins : Messrs. B. von Inkey, F. Klock- 

 mann, VV. Lindgren, VV. B. Phillips, J. E. Spurr, and 

 \Y. II. Weed will participate. (4) The classification and 

 nomenclature of rocks : Messrs. Wh. Cross, J. P. Iddings, 

 A. Karpinski, A. Lacroix, A. Osann, VV. B. Phillips, H. S. 

 Washington, and F. Zirkel will take part in the discussion. 

 Communications may be addressed to the general secretary, 

 M. Ezequiel Ord6nez, 5a del Cipres, No. 2728, Mexico, D. F. 



The stone implements of the Zambesi valley near 

 Victoria Falls, noted by Mr. Lamplugh in his report on 

 the district (see Nature, p. 112), and more fully described 

 by Colonel Feilden in a letter recently printed in Nature 

 (P- 7/), possess much interest in view of their possib 1 

 high antiquity. At a meeting of the Geological Society of 

 South Africa on October 30, 1905, Mr. J. P. Johnson, of 

 Johannesburg, in giving an account of a further collection 

 ■ if these implements which he had made during a recent 

 visit to the falls, stated that some of the specimens appear 

 to show the transitional stage between the Eolithic and 

 Palaeolithic cultures. In the same paper the occurrence of 

 implements of the " pygmy " type near Bulawayo is 

 recorded. 



Is the second part of the Bergen's Museums Aarbog 

 for 1905, Mr. P. Bjerkan describes the asciclians collected 

 by the Norwegian fishery-steamer Michael Sars from 1000 

 10 1,104, while Mr. H. Brock does the same for the hydroid 

 polyps obtained during the last two years. Three ascidians 

 regarded as new are named by the former author, one of 

 these representing a new genus ; but all the hydroids appear- 

 to be identified with previously known forms. The 

 organisation of Cephalodiscus has been recently fully in- 

 vestigated by Dr. H. Schepotieff, who records thi results 

 of his studies in a third article ; while Mr. O. Bidenkap 

 supplies a list of Arctic bryozoans. 



To the October issue of the Proceedings of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Sciences Dr. J. W. Haishberger 

 contributes two interesting papers on the flora of the 

 Bermudas. In the first of these the general character of 

 the flora, which is evidently of comparatively recent intro- 

 duction, is discussed, and the different zones described. 

 The second paper, on the other hand, is devoted to an 

 explanation of the origin of the curious "hour-glass-con- 

 formation " of the stem of the Bermuda palmetto (Sabal 

 blachbumiana), long ago described in a letter from Mr. 

 O. A. Reade to Sir Joseph Hooker. The explanation, 

 according to the author, is simplicity itself, the constric- 

 tions being caused by unfavourable seasons of excessive 

 drought. 



In a recent issue (vol. xxi., art. 14) of the Bulletin 

 of the American Museum, Prof. H. F. Osborn describes 

 two new generic types of carnivorous dinosaurs from the 



