December 2, 1922J 



.V. / TURE 



749 



an adventitious jaw which is homologous, not with 

 the similarly named bones in other vertebrates, but 

 with the labial cartilages well developed in most 

 Elasmobranchs, present in Polypterus and evanescent 

 in the Amphibia. The vomer, anterior portion of 

 the parasphenoid and palatine of the teleostean skull 

 are regarded as homologous respectively with the 

 premaxillae, vomer, and maxilla of other vertebrates. 

 This new interpretation of the upper jaw of the 

 teleostean fishes necessitates changes in the concept 

 of the homologies of other bones in the palate of 

 these fishes, which the author states briefly and 

 analyses in detail. The quadrate bone of teleosteans 

 is the only bone which the author regards as correctly 

 homologised. 



Japanese Geology. — The National Research Coun- 

 cil of Japan has instituted a Japanese Journal of 

 Geology and Geography , of which the second number 

 lies before us. In addition to various abstracts it 

 contains two original papers. The first, by Prof. 

 I. Havasaka, treats of " Some Permian Brachiopods 

 from the Kitakami Mountains." Only six species are 

 described, none being new to science, but there is a 

 promise of more when the additional material shall 

 have been worked out. The second paper is on 

 " Uhligina, a New Type of Foraminifera found in the 

 Eocene of Japan and West Galicia," by Prof. H. 

 Yabe and S. Hanzawa. The authors consider this 

 new form to be a close ally of the Carpathian species 

 Rupertia incrassata, Uhlig, and since both differ in 

 important characters from Rupertia, the new genus 

 Uhligina, having as genotype U. boninensis, n.sp., 

 from the Middle Eocene nummulitic tuff of Oki-mura, 

 is established for their reception. 



Wind Velocity and Diurnal Range of Tem- 

 perature. — A discussion on diurnal variation of 

 temperature as affected by wind velocity and cloudi- 

 ness, Professional Notes, No. 30, has just been issued 

 by the Meteorological Office of the Air Ministry. 

 The observations from the Eiffel Tower have been 

 used in conjunction with those at Pare St. Maur by 

 Captain J. Durward. The object of the discussion 

 is to get an idea of the magnitude of the rise and 

 fall of temperature at different levels under different 

 weather conditions. Observations are compared for 

 the five months, May to September, and for the five 

 years, 1905 to 1909. The respective heights above 

 sea-level of the thermometers at the two stations 

 are 335 metres and 50 metres, a difference of 285 

 metres or 935 feet. The lower station, Pare St. 

 Maur, is 11-5 km. to the east-south-east of the centre 

 of Paris. Among the principal results may be 

 mentioned the temperature distribution on fair 

 nights. When the radiation is unimpeded the layer 

 of air in contact with the ground is cooled more 

 quicklv than the layers immediately above, and being 

 cooled it tends to remain near the earth's surface. 

 This leads to an inversion in the lower layers of the 

 atmosphere, the magnitude depending on the wind 

 velocity, as the layers not in immediate contact with 

 the ground arc cooled greatly by turbulence ; the 

 results are given in a table. 



Oil-drilling in Galicia. — Mr. Albert Miller's 

 recent paper read before the Institute of Petroleum 

 Technologists dealt with the Canadian pole-tool 

 system of drilling for oil, as almost exclusively 

 employed in Galicia at the present time. Notwith- 

 standing the increasing popularity of the rotary 

 system in other oil-fields, this system has proved 

 unsatisfactory in Galicia, where the formations to 

 be penetrated frequently change with surprising 

 rapidity within a small vertical distance ; this 



NO. 27/O, VOL. I io] 



necessitates a high degree of flexibility of drilling 

 plant. The paper included details of the tackle in 

 use, and the different types of drilling-bits and fishing- 

 tools were discussed, particular stress being laid on 

 the need for standardisation of tool joints, the lack 

 of which had proved almost disastrous in the past. 

 Some useful information was given in connexion 

 with casing and with its recovery when " frozen " 

 in ;i well ; a somewhat novel method of overcoming 

 such freezing is to insert tubing connected to the 

 steam-line and thus heat the casing for twenty-four 

 hours ; by this expansion, with subsequent contrac- 

 tion on cooling, the casing can often be moved ; 

 this method is also applicable in cases where ac- 

 cumulations of paraffin wax are the cause of such 

 freezing. Methods of production of oil in Galicia 

 were also considered, and these included, besides 

 flowing wells, both deep-well pumps and " swabbing." 

 This last practice is specially useful in wells that 

 have stopped flowing, and in deep wells having small 

 diameter casings but producing from compact sand- 

 stone. The swab consists of a plunger fitted with 

 a ball-valve which works up and down inside the 

 casing barrel ; rubber packing rings are employed, 

 and thus the swab has a suction effect on the well ; 

 an average vacuum of eight pounds can be obtained 

 with fast running on the upward journey of the 

 swab, and in this way several tons of oil may be 

 won which would otherwise be left in the reservoir. 



Asphalt. — The report on the asphalt and related 

 bitumen industries in the United States for the year 

 1921 has just come to hand (Asphalt and Related 

 Bitumens in 1921, United States Geol. Sur., Mineral 

 Resources, Pt. II.). In that year the United States 

 marketed close on 300,000 short tons of natural 

 asphalt (including grahamite, gilsonite, wurtzilite, 

 impsonite, and bitumenous rock). By far the larger 

 quantity of asphaltic material, however, is manu- 

 factured from crude petroleum during the process 

 of refining the oil, the basis of this material being 

 the residue resulting from distillation. The material 

 is of two distinct kinds, asphalt and flux, the 

 former comprising all the solid and semi-solid pro- 

 ducts of less than 200 penetration. The flux is 

 utilised for softening natural asphalt or the synthetic 

 product, especially for roofing purposes ; it also includes 

 the so-called " road-oil " used for spraying on the 

 surface of metalled roads. For paving it is produced 

 as sheet asphalt, or as asphalt concrete, or as a cement 

 or filling for road and pavement blocks ; the roofing and 

 water-proofing material is manufactured by saturating, 

 coating, or cementing felt or suitable fabric ; in the 

 rubber industry it is employed in many cases 

 where a durable binding or cement is required. In 

 other directions asphalt finds considerable use in the 

 manufacture of insulating materials, acid-resisting 

 compounds, mastic, paint, and varnish. In the 

 United States, both domestic and Mexican petroleum 

 are used as sources of the manufactured asphalt, the 

 latter rather more than the former ; in 192 1 more 

 than 600,000 tons of asphaltic material were pro- 

 duced from domestic petroleum, this representing 

 about two-thirds of the amount obtained from im- 

 ported oil from Mexico. The report also makes brief 

 mention of the importation of natural mineral waxes, 

 such as ozokerite, into the United States (which during 

 the year under review increased more than 100 per 

 cent.), while the manufacture of ichthyol compounds 

 from a Texas oil is a noteworthy development. 

 Ichthyol (a sulphonated hydrocarbon largely used in 

 medicine) has in the past been produced from treat- 

 ment of a fossiliferous deposit in the Austrian Tyrol; 

 its manufacture from natural petroleum constitutes 

 a factor of more than mere commercial interest. 



