JO"- 



NA TURE 



[August 2, 1906 



A NVMBER of new South African Palaeozoic fossils — both 

 vegetable and animal — are described by Mr. E. H. L. 

 Schwarz in the sixth part of the first volume of the Records 

 of the Albany Museum. It is noteworthy that the plants, 

 which appear to be either of Upper Devonian or Lower 

 Carboniferous age, are referable to the " Lepidodendron 

 flora." In the same issue Mr. J. E. Duerden reviews the 

 South African tortoises of the genus Homopus, and 

 describes and figures, under the name of H. boulengeri, a 

 species regarded as new to science. In regard to the 

 tortoises of the Tcstudo gcomctrica group, the author 

 points out that some of the named species appear to inter- 

 grade, thus suggesting that in this group we may have 

 species in course of evolution. A fourth contribution, by 

 Mr. P. Cameron, on the Hymenopter-- in the Albany 

 Museum, completes this issue. 



The first issue of the Memoirs of the National Museum, 

 Melbourne, consists of a paper by Dr. A. Smith Woodward 

 on a Carboniferous fish-fauna from the Mansfield district, 

 Victoria. It appears that the fish-remains described were 

 discovered so long ago as 1888, and that a brief notice of 

 them was published by the late Sir F. McCoy in the 

 following year. Coloured plates were, moreover, prepared 

 under that palaeontologist's direction, and these have been 

 utilised in the present issue. Of the six generic types 

 recognised, one is too imperfectly known for its affinities 

 to be exactly defined, four others, Acanthodes, Ctenodus, 

 Strepsodus, and Elonichthys, occur in the Permian and 

 Carboniferous of Europe and the Carboniferous of North 

 America, but the sixth, Gyracanthides, although related 

 to a northern Carboniferous type, is altogether peculiar 

 and of exceptional interest. It appears, indeed, to be an 

 acanthodian referable either to the Diplacanthids or a 

 kindred family group, but of a highly specialised nature, 

 the specialisation displaying itself in the enlargement of 

 the pectoral fins, the reduction and forward displacement 

 of the pelvics, and the absence or modification of the inter- 

 mediate spines. A restored figure of this remarkable 

 shark is given. 



In the annual report of the U.S. National Museum, 1904, 

 Mr. G. P. Merrill, whose writings on geology are always 

 acceptable, has produced a treatise entitled " Contribu- 

 tions to the History of American Geology." Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie and the late Prof. Zittel have already provided 

 geologists with historical accounts of the growth of their 

 subject, mainly from the European standpoint. In these 

 " Contributions " Mr. Merrill takes up the story from 

 the American point of view, thereby filling a serious gap 

 in a manner that will earn the gratitude of everyone 

 interested in the science. The mode of presentation of the 

 subject is the chronological one, but several topics that 

 were at one time of outstanding prominence are treated 

 separately ; such are the Laramie question, the Taconic 

 succession, and the Eozoon problem. Not the least 

 interesting feature in this extremely interesting work is 

 the assemblage of portraits of American geologists, in- 

 cluding many early workers whose names must be almost 

 unknown in this country. 



The latest addition to the publications of the Geological 

 Survey of Western Australia is an exhaustive report 

 (Bulletin No. 21) on the geology and mineral resources of 

 the Norseman district, Dundas goldfield, by Mr. W. D. 

 Campbell. The mining plans and sections, of which five 

 accompany the report, mark an advance on any of the 

 official mining plans yet issued in that their most 

 prominent features are the lodes, faults, and dykes, rather 

 NO. I918, VOL. 74] 



than the underground roads. These data, together with 

 the descriptions given in the report, form a permanent 

 record of the Norseman mines up to the date of publi- 

 cation. The area dealt with in the report im tc the ena 

 of 1904 has yielded 266.00^ ounces of gold, or 1019 ounces 

 for every ton of ore treated. 



In the Engineering Magazine (July) Mr. Clarence Heller 

 gives some interesting personal observations on the effect 

 of earthquake and fire on steel buildings at San Francisco. 

 His photographs give a graphic record of the failure of 

 structural materials and systems under various conditions. 

 Riveted connections showed their superiority over bolts 

 when called upon to resist twist by earthquake. The great 

 losses by fire were due to poor material, bad mortar, and 

 miserable workmanship. 



In his presidential address to the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society at the meeting held on March 27, 

 which is published in the second part of vol. viii. of the 

 Transactions of that body, Mr. Eustace Gurney, after 

 surveying recent progress in " limnology," directed atten- 

 tion to the opportunities for research presented by the 

 Norfolk Broads. He pointed out that after the compila- 

 tion of complete lists of the fauna, much might be done in 

 regard to a knowledge of the life-history of many species 

 by keeping them in tanks. In addition to this, we ought 

 to be acquainted with the physical and chemical character- 

 istics of each sheet of water, the nature of the bottom- 

 deposits, and so on. The papers in the same issue include 

 one by Mr. T. Southwell on the share taken in former 

 times by Lynn and Yarmouth in the Greenland whale- 

 fishery, one by Mr. T. J. Wigg on last year's herring- 

 fishery, and a third, by Mr. W. G. Clarke, on the classifi- 

 cation of Norfolk flint-implements. 



In the Annual Report and Proceedings of the Belfast 

 Naturalists' Field Club for 1905-6, the secretary announces 

 a small excess of expenditure over receipts. The two 

 most important papers in this issue are a resumi of the 

 club's recent work with regard to local glaciation, by 

 Madame Christen, and an account of the Carnmoney 

 chalcedony, by Mr. J. Strachan. As the results of his 

 investigations on the latter subject, the author is disposed 

 to reject the theory that deposits in lava of chalcedony of 

 the nature of the one in question are due to decomposition 

 changes in favour of the idea that they are contemporaneous 

 products of the rock, and that they were formed during 

 the final stages of cooling and drying. He is also of 

 opinion that the associated zeolitic or calcitic layer, as 

 well as the siliceous contents of the veins or cavities, owes 

 its origin, not to the decomposition of the parent rock, but 

 to the last stages in its formation. 



According to the observations of Mr. A. Toyama, of 

 the College of Agriculture, Tokyo University, published 

 in the June issue o! . Biologisches Ceniralblait, Mendel's 

 tow of heredity is strictly applicable, in a very large 

 number of cases, to cross-bred silkworms. The colours 

 of the cocoons and the larval markings are, for instance, 

 strictly Mendelian, while other features appear to conform 

 to certain laws not yet formulated. No single instance 

 was observed in which an irregular development of 

 Mendelian phenomena took place. In another article issued 

 in the same number Dr. H. Simroth urges that the 

 sporadic development of a black phase of the hamster 

 affords an instance of undoubted mutation among 

 mammals. In giving CriccUis vulgaris niger as the 

 equivalent of Schreber's " Mus cricetus Linni niger," the 

 author is unwittingly founding a new subspecies, as n<v 

 C. 'J. niger occurs in any of the published lists. 



