June 15, 1899] 
NATURE 
159 
together from the evidences of living specimens transported far 
from their original habitat. An instance of this is afforded by 
Mr. E. R. Waite’s description in the last issue of the Records 
of the Australian Museum of a male and female of Zestudo 
nigrita recently living in the grounds of the Gladesville 
Hospital, near Sydney. The female, which died in 1896, was 
brought from the Galapagos in 1853, and the male, which has 
been acquired by Mr. Walter Rothschild, about 1866. Un- 
fortunately, in neither case is there any evidence as to the 
particular island in the Galapagos group from which they were 
obtained, so that the exact habitat of the species still remains 
unknown. 
SPECIAL interest is naturally felt at the present time in the 
geology of many of the islands in the Malay Archipelago, and 
therefore the summary just published by Dr. B. Koté, Professor 
of Geology at Tokyo, will be of service (Yowrn. College of 
Science, Imp. Univ. of Tokyo, Japan, vol. xi. part 2). The 
author acknowledges his indebtedness to the labours of Prof. 
Suess ; but he gives additional information, his object being to 
compare the structure and physical features of Taiwan with 
those of the Far Eastern Indies. Brief references are made toa 
great variety of strata and to the volcanic phenomena. 
WE have received the summary report of the Geological 
Survey of Canada for 1898, in which the Director, Dr. G. M. 
Dawson, records the progress of the Survey, and quotes from 
the reports of the several officers on the staff ‘‘the more im- 
portant results of their investigations, particularly such as may 
be of immediate value to the public from an economic stand- 
point.” In northern Alberta some further experimental borings 
have been made in search of petroleum, and great trouble has 
been experienced in the effort to penetrate the “‘tar-sands”’ at 
the base of the Cretaceous strata, owing to ‘‘ the clotting of the 
casing and tools with the heavy tarry petroleum, or maltha, 
mixed with sand, which was thrown up by the discharge of gas,” 
The indications of oil-bearing strata have been proved over a 
large area, and it is hoped that the liquid petroleum may be 
found in the Devonian limestones which underlie the Cretaceous 
rocks, 
Mr. R. G. McConneLr and Mr. J. B. Tyrrell’s report on 
the Klondike Region, Yukon District, is referred to in the pub- 
lication mentioned in the foregoing note. The productive part 
of the Klondike gold-field, as at present known, covers an area 
of one thousand square miles. The gold occurs in the gravels 
flooring the bottom of the valleys, in stream-terraces lining the 
lower slopes of the valleys, and in a remarkable moraine or 
glacial deposit that occurs along the slopes of Eldorado and 
Bonanza creeks. The gold has been derived from the rocks of 
the immediate vicinity, and these consist of schists probably of 
Cambrian age. In various regions the want of good topo- 
graphical surveys is a sad hindrance to the geological work, but 
that this is carried on in various portions of the vast territory of 
Canada with great energy and enthusiasm is evident from the 
details enumerated in this report of the Canadian Geological 
Survey. There are numerous observations on petrology, 
palzzontology, and natural history generally. A large number of 
ceptilian remains have been obtained from the Belly River form- 
ation in the Red Deer River district. The age of the formation, 
judged by the invertebrate fauna, is considered by Mr. Whiteaves 
to be the same as that of the Laramie (Cretaceous) series. 
In Nature for January 19 we gave a brief account of the 
progress of the Maryland Geological Survey, which is under 
the direction of Prof. W. B. Clark, State Geologist. We have 
since received the second volume issued by the Survey, which 
embodies the full reports to which we previously alluded. As 
in the case of the first volume, it is beautifully printed and 
NO. 1546, VOL. 60] 
handsomely illustrated. The coloured plates picturing the 
macroscopic appearance of various granites and the Potomac 
marble are particularly good. There are, moreover, numerous 
pictorial views of quarries and of the physical features ; there 
are excellent topographic and geological maps, and repro- 
ductions of some of the earlier topographic maps dating from 
1527. The volume is mainly occupied (1) with an account of 
the building and decorative stones of Maryland, by Mr. G. P. 
Merrill and Mr. E. B. Mathews, by whom the physical, 
chemical, and economic properties of the stones, and their 
distribution, are: very fully considered ; and (2) by a report on 
the cartography of Maryland by Mr. H. Gannett and Mr. E. 
B. Mathews, who deal with the aims and objects of cartography, 
and with the maps and map-makers of Maryland. 
Mr. G. K. GILpert describes a ‘‘ Bowlder-Pavement” (to 
use the American spelling) at Wilson village, about twelve miles 
east of Niagara river, New York (Journal of Geology, Nov.-Dec. 
1898). Such a pavement is formed when the boulders in till or 
boulder-clay are grouped in an approximately horizontal plane, 
and are striated on their upper surfaces in a common direction. 
The features are indicative of local glacial action which has 
affected a previously accumulated till, this action having 
removed a certain amount of material and caused the pressing 
down and striation of boulders along the plane of erosion. 
IN treating of the glacial sculpture in Western New York 
(Bull. Geol. Soc. America, March), Mr. Gilbert shows how the 
broad plateau of Niagara limestone was but little modified, 
while its escarpment was rendered more prominent owing to the 
excavation by ice of the underlying shales which occupy the 
lowlands. Mr. Gilbert draws attention to a flexure produced 
by ice-action in the Medina shales at Thirty-mile Point, New 
York; and in a subsequent article he describes some giant 
ripple-marks in the Medina sandstones of New York, and these 
suggest that the formation was laid down in a large ocean whose 
waters were agitated by storm waves sixty feet high. 
Mr. G. CLARKE NUTTALL contributes to the current 
number of Zhe Contemporary Review a popular account of the 
dependence of the flavour of tobacco upon the activity of 
bacteria during that important stage in the preparation of 
tobacco known as fermentation, Interesting reference is made 
to the work of Suchsland, who examined the germs which he 
found in the fermenting heaps of the finest West Indian tobacco. 
This German bacteriologist isolated and cultivated these bacteria, 
and then introduced some into quantities of inferior German 
tobacco, which was subsequently transformed so that connoisseurs 
could not distinguish it from the finest brands of tobacco. 
WE have received from Messrs. Dulau and Co. a copious list 
of books and papers in British botany offered for sale. 
CoursEs of instruction in cryptogamic and cytological botany 
are given at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 
Mass., during July and the early part of August. 
HERR J. DORFLER, the compiler of the Botandsts’ Directory, 
proposes to publish a new edition about the commencement of 
the year 1900, and desires the co-operation of the botanists of 
all countries. His address is Barichgasse 36, Vienna IV. 
A CIRCULAR has been issued inviting the attention of bio- 
logists to the biological station at Ambleteuse, in the Depart- 
ment of Pas-de-Calais, France. It has been erected very much 
on the plan of the American station at Wood’s Hole, and is 
primarily designed as a summer school for biological students 
in connection with the Catholic University of Lille. 
THE Reading College Agricultural Department has just issued 
its Fifth Annual Report on Field Experiments for 1898. The 
experiments were carried on with the co-operation of the Coun 
