548 
Oospores were freely formed by the fungus, especially 
in the roots of the host, but also in stem and leaf, 
and fertilisation was studied in properly fixed and 
microtomed material. An interesting description is 
given of a large “‘ receptive pupilla ”’ of the oosphere 
which protrudes into the antheridial cell at first, in a 
manner that recalls Murphy’s description of fertilisa- 
tion in Pythium erythroseptica. Afterwards this pro- 
trusion is withdrawn and apparently its retraction 
conducts the fertilisation tube from the antheridium 
into the centre of the oosphere. One nucleus is dis- 
charged through this tube into the oosphere from the 
antheridium. 

UnitED States GEODETIC SURVEY.—The annual 
report of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 
for 1922 contains a long record of work accomplished 
during the year. Hydrographic surveys were carried 
out principally in the approaches to Chesapeake Bay, 
off northern California, in the waters of south-east 
Alaska, and the Philippine Islands. New charts, to 
the number of 27, were published to cover all areas 
for which adequate data were available. In some 
areas, principally Alaskan waters, the production of 
new charts is delayed until the primary triangulation 
is completed. The aerial survey of the Mississippi 
delta was finished and promises such favourable 
results that an extension of this means of coastal 
survey is projected. Outstanding features of the 
geodetic work of the Survey were the completion of 
the 1600-mile are from Huntsville in Alabama to 
Williams in Arizona by way of Memphis and Albu- 
querque. This arc furnishes accurate positions in 
seven states and crosses an area badly in need of 
horizontal control. Work was continued on several 
other arcs, including one from Dixon Entrance to 
White Pass, Alaska, which is part of a long arc from 
Puget Sound, in which the Canadian Geodetic Survey 
is co-operating. Good progress was made in precise 
triangulation in Alaska. The Survey is co-operating 
with a committee of scientific workers in making an 
intensive study of earthquake phenomena. Mag- 
netic work and tidal observations were extended 
during the year. The director points out the need 
for investigations on the Atlantic coast and par- 
ticularly for the exploration of the Gulf Stream. He 
urges also that oceanographical work should be 
undertaken in the Atlantic outside the 100-fathom line 
and in the Pacific beyond the rooo-fathom contour. 
Lastly, he emphasises the amount of wire-drag work 
that must be done along the coasts in the interests of 
navigation. 
THE CRUMPLING AND RIFTING OF EARTH-BLOCKS. 
—Otto Baschin, of Berlin, in Die Naturwissen- 
schaften for February 9, directs attention to what he 
believes to be a hitherto unnoticed factor in the 
tectonics of the earth’s crust. He starts by the ad- 
mission of considerable vertical movements of eleva- 
tion and subsidence in the crust, and these are 
probably of an order that Wegener’s hypothesis 
rejects. Baschin urges that a rising earth-block, as 
it comes into a region with greater rotational velocity 
than that in which it previously lay, becomes a 
retarding influence in its new surroundings, and in 
consequence exerts a pressure towards the west. 
Similarly, a sinking block is an accelerating factor 
and exerts a pressure to the east. If a continental 
block sinks on the east side of a line running north 
and south, and rises on the west, rifting may occur 
along the line ; if it rises on the east and sinks on the 
west, compression and axial folding are set up. 
Other cases are of course considered, and the drifting 
of blocks towards the equator (Polflucht) is dis- 
cussed. 
NO. 2790, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 


[APRIL 21, 1923 
THE LARAMIE PROBLEM OF THE Rocky MOUNTAIN. 
—The coal-bearing beds of the Rocky Mountain 
region have now been the subject of a considerable 
literature, and in Professional Paper 130 of the U.S. 
Geological Survey (Washington 1922), F. H. Knowlton 
presents a useful review of the progress of what is 
known as the “‘ Laramie problem.” In 1875 this 
problem led Cope to the conclusion that there was no 
alternative but to assume the possibility “that a 
Tertiary flora was contemporaneous with a Cretaceous 
fauna, establishing an uninterrupted succession of 
life across what is generally regarded as one of the 
greatest breaks in geologic time.”’ The term Laramie 
itself arose out of the need for a non-committal term 
for beds regarded by Clarence King, then at work 
upon the exploration of the fortieth Parallel, and by 
F. V. Hayden, busy with the survey of Northern 
Colorado, as certainly conformable, although it was 
regarded by King as Tertiary and by Hayden as 
Cretaceous. Knowlton, having shown that the work of 
Lee and himself makes clear the existence of an un- 
conformity in the midst of the coal-bearing so-called 
Laramie rocks of Colorado and New Mexico, points 
out that when their flora is studied in detail the 
strata below the unconformity are Cretaceous, and 
those above Eocene. This work, based upon a long 
study of all the main collections of plants from these 
strata, has been in progress since 1889, its publication 
being delayed until its author was clear that the long- 
standing problem was definitely in process of settle- 
ment. The flora so carefully studied is not in itself 
extensive, and the preservation of the plant im- 
pressions in the soft friable sandstone is far from 
perfect. The specimens are very fully described, 
and are figured in 28 plates, some pen drawings, and 
photographs. 
OsAGE OILFIELD, Wyominc.—The Osage Oilfield, 
Weston County, Wyoming, was developed as the 
result of the chance striking of oil on land adjacent 
to the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad in 
1919, and there sprang into existence, within a year 
after this discovery, a town having a population 
of more than 1500 persons, possessing well-built 
roads and buildings in addition to the usual field 
equipment in connexion with the production of 
petroleum and its products. During the same 
period more than 200 wells were drilled, pipe-lines 
were laid, and a refinery with a capacity of 500 
barrels of oil per day was established. According to 
investigations by A. J. Collier, published as a 
bulletin of the United States Geological Survey — 
(No. 736-D), in 1921 the Osage field had an average 
daily output of 550 barrels of oil; several gas w 
were giving collectively 500,000-1,000,000 cubic feet — 
of gas per day, and some eight or nine flowing wells 
yielded a good supply of water (a characteristic 
feature of this part of the State). Production of 
oil was maintained during that year from about 
roo good wells. Stratigraphically the rocks belong 
essentially to the Cretaceous system and are of 
typical Rocky Mountain region facies. The Colorado 
group, containing the Newcastle sandstone, is the 
important series of deposits from the point of view 
of petroleum production. Structurally the field is 
related to the Black Hills uplift lying to the N.E., 
and the general dip of the rocks is to the S.W., at 
about 5° where normal. Minor corrugations in what 
is otherwise a simple monoclinal structure determine ~ 
the presence of local anticlines and of the oil. The 
oil-pools are formed by moderately porous sand- 
stones (about 19 per cent. average porosity) occu 
as lenses within the shale formations, and the oil — 
itself is of a light olive-green colour, low specific 
gravity, and high petrol content. 


