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NATURE 
[AucustT 31, 1899 
and coloration, although short-tailed. The species inhabiting 
the Olympic Mountains is known to the natives as the ‘* Moun- 
tain Beaver,” or ‘‘ Farmer,” the latter being the title most 
commonly employed. Retiring in its habits, it keeps to wet 
and swampy places in the neighbourhood of small streams, 
making its burrows in the banks of the latter. Although when 
in the bushes its movements appear to be exceedingly quick, 
yet when in the open it is rather slow. These animals obtain 
their name of ‘‘ Farmer” from their habit of making ‘‘ hay.” 
They usually excavate their burrows in the vicinity of a certain 
water-plant, apparently a kind of low-growing water-lily. The 
stems and leaves of this plant the little rodents cut down in 
large quantities and convey to the mouths of their burrows, where, 
after being spread out to dry in the sun, they are finally carried 
into the interior to be used as food and bedding. 
Ir the history of ‘‘type specimens,” on which museum 
curators now set so much store, were written, portions of it 
would read almost like a romance. A case in point is afforded 
by Dr. Jentink’s account of the rediscovery of the type of the 
peculiar Malagasy carnivore Fossa daubentonz, published in Notes 
of the Leyden Museum for October last. In 1872, Gray, after 
searching the Paris Museum, came to the conclusion that the 
type described by Schreber was irretrievably lost. Subsequently, 
however, an imperfect skull turned up in the Paris Laboratory of 
Comparative Anatomy, which it was thought might belong to 
the missing specimen. And now Dr. Jentink has discovered in 
the Leyden Museum a skin with a cast of the Paris skull placed 
in it, which is undoubtedly the long-lost specimen, It is stated 
to have been received from Paris in 1835, and appears to be 
one of the results of an exchange effected by Temminck and 
Schlegel, who visited the Paris Museum in that year.  In- 
cidentally Dr. Jentink shows that ‘‘ Fossa” is the proper native 
name of the animal in question, and that it is not applicable to 
the Cryptoprocta ferox, of which the Malagasy title is ‘‘ Farassa.” 
This alteration should accordingly be made in our text-books. 
In the July and August numbers of the Zoo/ogist, the editor, 
_Mr. W. L, Distant, gives the first two instalments of what 
promises to be a very interesting discussion on ‘‘ mimicry.” 
Till the communication has reached a more advanced stage, it 
will obviously be impossible to learn the author’s general views 
on a very difficult and very important subject; but it may be 
noted that he intends to divide the alleged cases of mimicry 
into those considered as “‘ demonstrated” and those classed as 
*“suggested or probable,” after which we may expect a fuller 
discussion on the whole subject. In the first section of his 
communication Mr. Distant takes up the case of the Stick- 
Insects (Phasmzdae), and discusses their bearing on the mimicry 
theory. These insects, he states, are usually considered as 
undoubted examples of protective resemblance due to natural 
selection. If, as has been asserted, they are represented in the 
Carboniferous, they must be the result of an antecedent evolu- 
tionary process. Further, the presence of imitative Phasmzdae 
in the Carboniferous implies the existence of enemies, probably | 
reptiles, and possibly transitional forms of bird-life. Thus 
mimicry must be of very ancient origin; whence it is argued 
that some cases of it in existence without any apparent reason 
may be due to survival, and are now altogether useless to the 
animals in which they occur. The alleged protective resem- 
blance of fishes to their surroundings is, the author suggests, 
not the true explanation of their colouring, their extraordinary 
fecundity being, in his opinion, sufficient to override the neces- 
sity for any such protection. We shall await with interest 
further instalments of this communication, 
In the August number of the Zoo/ogist a discussion is being 
raised as to the manner in which the helpless and shapeless 
NO. 1557, VOL. 60] 
new-born young of the kangaroo is transferred to the materna 
pouch and affixed to the nipple from which it is to derive 
nutriment. Some have said that it is carried in the paws of its 
female parent, while one asserts that the transference takes place 
by the aid of the lips, and that it has been actually witnessed 
in the Zoological Gardens. This, however, we gather from 
Mr. E. Bartlett’s communication, is not the case. It ought 
to be possible to decide the point by actual observation in a 
menagerie. 
Tuar the Edinburgh Geological Society, under the presi- 
dency of Mr. John Horne, is ina flourishing condition is manifest 
from the record of its Transactzons, of which we have lately 
received Part 4 of vol. vii. for 1899. Mr. J. G. Goodchild 
contributes a short and appreciative memoir of the late Prof. 
Heddle, with a portrait of that distinguished mineralogist. This 
article is followed by a short paper, which was read before the 
Society in 1856, by Heddle, and not previously printed ; it deals 
with the minerals of the Storr, near Portree. There is a useful 
paper on the subdivisions of the Carboniferous series in Britain 
and their European equivalents, by Dr. Wheelton Hind, who 
shows to what extent at present he has been able to subdivide 
our rocks into paleontological zones. Mr. William Gunn dis- 
courses on the Lower Carboniferous rocks of England and Scot- 
land, Mr. Herbert Kynaston contributes notes on the petrology 
of the Cheviot Hills; and there are various other papers of 
local interest. A short article by Mr. E. Greenly on the Here- 
ford earthquake of 1896 might more appropriately have been 
printed in the Zvansactions of a Welsh or West of England 
Society, as it deals with the relations of this disturbance to 
geological structure in the Bangor-Anglesey region. 
A REPORT on the surface geology and auriferous deposits of 
South-eastern Quebec has been prepared by Mr. R. Chalmers 
(Geol. Survey of Canada, Part J, dz. Xep., vol. x.). The 
author has devoted particular attention to the glacial and other 
superficial deposits in the St. Lawrence valley, as it is chiefly 
in these that gold is found in workable quantities. The primary 
source of the gold is traced to the crystalline schists of Pre- 
Cambrian or Huronian ages; schists which were invaded by 
diorites and other intrusive rocks, and which afterwards yielded 
materials to the basal Cambrian conglomerates and later de- 
posits. In these Cambrian and Silurian rocks much gold would 
have been disseminated ina fine state of division. After the 
consolidation of these rocks, upheaval, crumpling, faulting and 
metamorphism would seem to have taken place; and Mr. 
Chalmers thinks that the gold was probably brought up in 
solutions and concentrated along with silica and the metallic 
sulphides in faults and fissures, thus forming auriferous veins. 
Much gold was long afterwards distributed in superficial deposits 
during pre-Glacial times in ancient river-beds; and these de- 
posits and the material of old weathered surfaces of the crystal- 
line rocks have been partially removed and redeposited time 
after time during the changes of Glacial and post-Glacial times. 
WE have received the general report on the work carried on 
by the Geological Survey of India during the year ending 
March 31, 1899, under the direction of Mr. C. L. Griesbach. 
Field-work has been carried on in the Raipur district, in South 
Rewa, and in Western Rajputana ; and after many years’ inter- 
mission the geological survey of the higher ranges of the 
Himalayas has been resumed. Trilobites of the family Olentdae 
have been found in the Upper Haimantas slates, showing that 
they are probably of Upper Cambrian age. The occurrence of 
(Nenodtscus and <Arcestes?) is noted in the 
Productus-shales of Carboniferous age. Field-work has also 
been carried on in Baluchistan, where Jurassic, Cretaceous, and 
Tertiary strata have been mapped. In the Cretaceous system, 
Ammonites 
eee 
