October io, 1912] 



NA'IURE 



'^5 



called, is the part of the animal most exposed to 

 attack when fighting. The proboscis is broad and 

 fleshy to the tip, and its length forward from the 

 canines is about equal to the distance between the 

 canine and the eye. It is exceedingly thick and 

 heavy, and its width is about equal to the space 

 between the eyes. In one specimen taken, it was 

 nine inches long. When the animal is crawling, 

 the proboscis is relaxed and pendant. 



The author found that the proboscis is not 

 capable of inflation, \^'hen withdrawn, it is 

 simply massed into compact folds on top of the 

 head. There is little indication of the proboscis 

 in the half-grown male, and it is probable that it 

 does not develop until sexual maturity is reached. 



The specific distinctness of the northern elephant 

 seal is well shown in photographs of the skulls of 

 Macrorhinus angustirosiris and M. leonimis, the 



account of the geology of the region than any of 

 his predecessors, to lay down more accurately' the 

 Ijoundaries of the several formations, and to trace 

 a number of important faults. As his map shows, 

 the .Syrian upland on either side of the Jordan 

 valley from the southern end of the Dead Sea 

 almost up to the Lake of Gennesaret consists of 

 Cretaceous rocks chiefly of Senonian and Turonian 

 age, with an occasional exposure of the underlying 

 Cenomanian. 



At the beginning of the Senonian were slight and 

 local volcanic outbreaks, and this formation is 

 sometimes bituminous. Marine deposits of Eocene 

 age are first seen on the west side of the Jordan 

 about the latitude of Jaffa, and become more ex- 

 tensive in proceeding northward. No marine beds 

 of Miocene or Pliocene age occur in the hill 

 country; the deposits in the Jordan vallev are 



Fig. 2.-Maleelepha 



ching to light. When williin striking di; 





and open 



skulls ol both species exceeding twenty-two inches 

 in extreme length, angustirostris being longer, 

 while h'oniiius has the greater zygomatic width. 



Mr. Townsend has directed the attention of the 

 Mexican Government to the existence of this 

 unique herd, and the Mexican authorities have 

 already taken steps to prevent its destruction. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DEAD 



SEA AND JORDAN VALLEYA 

 TX the volume before us Dr. Blanckenhorn has 

 ■•- collected the results of his researches into the 

 geology and natural histor}' of Palestine, the latest 

 of which occupied the first half of 1908. These 

 have enabled him to give a much more minute 



I " Nattinvissenschaftlichc Studkn am loten Meer und im Jordanlal : 

 fiericht libtr erne im Jahre igoS unternommene Forschungsreise in 

 Pal.-istina By Prof. Max Hlanckenhorn. With geological map in colours, 

 « plates from photographs, anil io6 figures in text. Pp. vii+478. (Berlin: 

 R. Fnedlander&Sohn, 1912.) Pr' ' 



XO. 2241, VOL. 90] 



mapped as diluvium (when will foreign geologists 

 abandon this discredited and misleading term?), 

 and the latest therein, with those in the Kishcn 

 \alley and on a large part of the coast, are 

 "alluvium." Then came the volcanic discharges 

 which built up the great basalt mass of the 

 Hauran with the minor outbreaks west of the 

 Jordan, which are obviously subsequent to the 

 formation of its valley. On a separate sheet Dr. 

 Blanckenhorn exhibits in a tabular form (very 

 convenient to the reader) his conclusions in regard 

 to the dates of the later movements and deposits, 

 and their correlation with those in Europe. Ac- 

 cording to this, a continental elexation, causing a 

 steeping of the general slope and the first great 

 erosion-phase of the rivers, began about the middle 

 of the Pliocene. Dr. Blanckenhorn places the 

 second phase of earth movements, bringing about 

 the first fractures running from north to south. 



