340 
NATURE 

[ Aug. 24, 1871 

M. Bert will examine the action of fresh water on sea-fish, 
which is not so rapid. These sea-fish are too heavy for fresh 
running water, and are found generally to remain at the bottom 
of the water. On the contrary, fresh water fish always swim at 
the top of salt water. 
New Yore 
Lyceum of Natural History, Oct. f24, 1870.—In a 
paper read at this sitting the author observed:—In the se- 
quence of events included in our Drift period there is a 
marked break, a middle period, during which, over most of 
the north-western states, no Drift deposits were made, and when 
most of this area was covered with a forest growth and sustained 
many and large animals, At a subsequent period, all parts of 
‘this area, less than 500 feet above the highest of our present 
great lakes, was submerged, and most portions of it covered to 
greater or less depth, with new Drift deposits, clays, sands, 
gravel and boulders, a large part of northern and remote origin. 
Nearly all the large boulders of the Drift belonging to this later 
epoch are sometimes of great size (100 tons) and have been floated 
to their present positions, as they overlie undisturbed stratified 
sands and clays, which would have been broken up and carried 
away by glaciers or currents of water, moving with sufficient 
velocity to transport these blocks. Hence they must have been 
floated from the Canadian highlands, the place of origin of most 
of them, by zcebergs. This epoch of the Drift period I have 
therefore termed the Iceberg Epoch. During this epoch the 
submergence of the land in the interior of the continent, was 
greater than in the epech of the deposition of the Champlain 
and Erie clays, and all the area north of the Ohio was covered 
with water up to a height of over 500 feet above Lake Erie, or 
1,100 feet above the ocean level. The highlands of south eastern 
Ohio, and most of the country south of the Ohio river, were not 
covered by this flood, and now bear no drift deposit of any kind. 
Tracing out the line of ancient water-surface, we find that the 
depression was greater towards the north, so that the Alleghanies 
and their foot-hills, and also a wide area of comparatively low 
country in the Southern states, formed not only a shore, but a 
continental limit to the great interior iceberg-ridden sea of the 
Jater Drift Epoch. In the western reaches of this sea, which was 
of fresh water, in the later centuries of its existence, was de- 
posited the Lées or ‘‘ Bluff” which I have elsewhere designated 
as the later lacustrine, non-glacial drift. During the deposition 
of the Loes the interior sea was already narrowing and growing 
shallower by the cutting down of its outlets, or by continental 
elevation, or both. The descent of the water-level and decrease 
of water-surface have been going on perhaps constantly, but not 
uniformly, to the present time, when the area of the great lakes 
is the insignificant 85,000 square miles it now is. In the descent 
of the water-level, retarded at certain periods, terraces and 
beach lines were formed at various places by the shore waves. 
With these history ends. This then is the classification I would 
suggest of the drift deposits as they occur in the valley of the 
Mississippi, premising that here, as in other geological periods, 
the column is nowhere absolutely complete :— 

PERIOD. | Erocus. | STRATA, | Notes. 


so wide-spread, left a large part of the area lying between the 
Mississippi and Atlantic uncovered. This area the elephant, 
mastodon, great beaver, &c., inhabited during the continuance 
of the flood that covered the forest bed. From this retreat they 
issued with the subsidence of the water, following the retreating 
shore-line, till they occupied all the region now exposed about 
the great lakes. By what influence they finally became extinct, 
we cannot yet say. It has been claimed that they continued to 
exist down to the advent of man, and that he was an agent in 
their destruction. This statement may be true, but requires 
further proof before it can be accepted with confidence. The 
vegetation of the forest bed indicates a cold climate, thus 
confirming what we had otherwise learned of the habits 
of the extinct elephant. He was clothed with long hair and 
wool, was capable of enduring, and probably preferred a sub- 
arctic climate, and was associated in this country as in Europe, 
with the musk ox and the reindeer. We may therefore infer 
that a progressive increase in the annual temperature, drove 
most of the animals of the Forest-bed northward, and caused to 
gather on the shores of the Arctic sea, the herds ‘of elephants 
whose remains so much impress all travellers who visit that 
region. This was probably the scene of the last vigorous and 
abundant life, and of the death of the species ; an event conse- 
quent, perhaps, on the action of local causes, which we shall 
comprehend when we have opportunities of studying the record. 
One remarkable statement in regard to the Forest-bed requires 
notice. In more than one instance, parties digging wells in 
South-Western Ohio, have reported not only that they found a 
black soil and logs, but that ‘‘some of these logs bore marks 
of the axe, and were surrounded with chips.” These stories I 
formerly rejected as pure fabrications; but in the light of recent 
observations, they seem to me to be in part true, and not diffi- 
cult of explanation. 


—s»— 

BOOKS RECEIVED 
Foreicn.—(Through Williams and Norgate)—Skandinaviens Coleoptera 
Synoptiskt Beatbetade, vol. x: C. G. Thomson.—Medicinische Abhandlun- 
gen: E. Reich. 
PAMPHLETS RECEIVED 
ENGLISH.—Journal of the Chemical Society, second series, vol. ix — 
The Seat of the Soul Discovered : {J. Gillingham \(F. Pitman).—Notes on 
the Antechamber of the Great Pyramid: Capt. Tracy, R.A.—Proceedings 
of the Essex Institute, vols. i. to vii—Bulletin of the Essex Institute from 
the commencement to August 17, 1870.—Instructions for the Prompt Treat- 
inent of Accidents, &c. : A. Smee.—Accident Insurance Company, a Year's 
Ciaims, 1870.—Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, No. 3, vol. ii.—The 
Manufacture of Russian Sheet Iron: Dr. J. Percy (John Murray). 
American anp CoLontaL —Transactions of the Entomological Scciety ot 
New South Wales pt. 2, vol. ii—The American Gaslight Journal —Transac- 
tions of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, parts 9 and ro.— 
Proceedings of the Albany Institute, vol. i., part x:—Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, 1868-69.—Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of 
Science, vol. i., No: 2. 
ForricN —Les Mondes, Nos. 14 and 16.—Journal de Medicine et de 
Chirurgie, Nos. 3 to 6, 1871.—Giornale di Sicilia, No. 173 —Rendiconti, vol. 
iv., No. 14. Astronomische Nachtichten, No. 1856.—L'Institut, No. 1920. 

Terraces, Sand and gravel beaches with logs, 
Beaches, ) leaves, and fresh-water shells. Lées 
Lies. \ with fresh-water and sand shells. 
; Iceberg ( Boulders, gravel, sand, and clay, 
{ Terrace./ Drift, drifted logs, elephant and m-stodon 
| Lies. teeth and bones. 
rE Soil-peat with mosses, leaves, logs, 
forest e = 
Bed. stumps, branches, and standing trees, 
Quaternary. mostly red cedar. Elephas, masto- 
| don, castoroides, &c. 
| Erie Laminated clays with sheets of 
| { Cl. ra gravel, occasional rounded and 
ays. scratched northern boulders, many 
Glacial. angular pieces of underlying rocks. 

| : Local beds of boulders and rarely 
| saad § boulder clay resting on the glaciated 
| rilt. (surface. 

From the above table it will be seen thatthe remains of 
elephant, mastodon, and the gigantic beaver, occur in the forest- 
bed and in all the succeeding drift deposits. It should also be 
said that they are found in still greater abundance in peat-bogs 
and alluvial deposits which belong to the present epoch. We 
have seen that the submergence of the later drift epoch, though 

Annals de Chimie et de Physique, vol. xxii., Jan. 1871.—Bulletin Hebdo- 
madaire, 192. La Revue Scientifique, No. 8— Allgemeine Bibliographie, 
&c., No. 32.--Sitzunsgberichte Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften in Prag, for 
1870.—Zu Anatomie der Elephanten Schilderkrote: Dr, A. Fritsch.—Uber 
die Anzietung: Dr. A. von Waltenhofen 



CONTENTS Pace 
Cooke's HANDBOOK OF BRITISH FUNG © = = = «© = © © s) SieanaRE 
OuR BOOKSHELF cs. ees en fol te is) ek eee nC 321 
LETTERS TO THE EpiTor :— 
Mr: Stone and)Prof, Newcomb. 592 6 0 2s 1s) oe wee 
On the Age of the Earth as Determined from Tidal Retardation — 
I AGOSote Bie dude ofS o Spe eho yee ee oe eRe 
INeologisms.—RiiG; LATHAM SE ea fase ne foe ne 224 
Notes . Pere rer ray ane ir Oe OL OO, sORO oro. 2 ELK 
THE GOVERNMENT AND Pror. SYLVESTER - . 326 

SUGGESTIONS TO OBSERVERS OF THE SoLaR EciipsE oF DECEMBER 


Next. By A. C. Ranyarp Gmc e dat, Glo mor occ Heey/ 
Nores on Ecrirse Puorucraruy. By A. Brotuers, F.R.A.S. 
(Wath Dicgray.’), si Yai ee eeeirelpas wah ik l= diel (ota te en ei ee 
Cuirron CoLitecE ScHoot or NATURAL SCIENCE. (With Illustration.) 329 
Tue British ASsociATION.—EpinBurRGH MEETING, 1871. 
Sectional Proceedings . ny OS 2 © « 331-338 
SCIENTIFIC! SERIALS! (Aisy a UeatNlsMle (@ coco} es et O inmost tayo OeReNEES 
Societies AND ACADEMIES SB Oo e aor SAG to Ee) 
Books AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED «. . + « « « « 340 

