164 
NATURE 
[Fune 18, 1885 
At the meeting of the Paris Geozraphical Society of May 22 
further intormition was read respecting the expedition of M. 
Teisserenc de Bort to explore the Sahara. Leaving Tuzzurt, 
they marched south-south-west to Hassi Oaled Milon1, the last 
point visited by the Flatters mission. Thence, passing through 
Berecoff, they ultimately reached Gabes. Near Ghourd-Rou ned 
M. de Bort found well-marked trazes of an old lake of sweet 
water, about a kilometre lonz, and 790 or 899 m. wide. In the 
depression thus created there were evidences of a prehistoric 
station in numerous flint arrow-heads, and from this point to 
Gabes the presence of mian at a very ancient epoch was attested 
by chipped flints. —M. de Quatrefages read a paper on the Red 
Indians, and on the hilf- breeds of the United States and Canada. 
The position which the writer maintains is that the Indians do 
not diminish so rapidly as is generally believed, as, for example, 
the Maoris. The half-castes are put in the census as whites ; 
Indian women married to whites are similarly counted. ‘‘ Placed 
in favourable conditions, the Redskins, far from diminishing in 
number, have increased, and are increasing. But they have not 
preserved their ethnic purity. Mixture with white blood has 
taken place even in the most remote tribes, and perhaps now the 
number of natives of pare blood is insignificant everywhere ; 
but, on the other hand, the blood of the nitives is mixinz more 
and more with that of the whites, and the latter accept more 
easily day by day the half-breed as one of themselves.” Al- 
though the Red Indians are disappearing as such, they will 
still live in the future true Anglo-American race. M. Henri 
Condreau gave a succinct account of six journeys which 
he made between 1881 and 1885 in Guiana, The 
writer is Professor at the Lycée at Cayenne, and performed two 
of these journeys during vacations ; the others were undertaken 
at the request of the Governoc of French Guiana. The most 
important one was from Manaos through the whole of Central 
Guiana, between the Rio Nezroand Cayenne. He had already 
performed two-thirds of his task, and passed the sources of the 
Trombette, when he lost all his articles for barter amongst the 
Indians, and was deserted by his followers. Daring four months 
he was alone amo gst savages, ultimately arriving at his destina- 
tion by a forced march of thirty days throuzh the virgin forest. 
BeFork the Society of Commercial Geography in Paris, M. 
Andreau described the prairies of Guiana which he traversed in 
his journey between the Rio Nezro and Cayenne. Behind the 
enorm us forests which extend inland from the coasts he found 
prairies wholly devoid of trees, where the air was dry and the 
climate mild. He strongly advocated the establishment of 
agricultural colonies there, describing the climate as in all re- 
spects the reverse of that found on the coast. 
THE well-known African traveller, Major Serpa Pinto, is 
stated to have discovered large coal-fields south of the Rovuma 
River. The Rovuma is a cost river, and its estuary is situated 
about 11° S. lat. Along its bans runs the ancient carayan route 
from Cape Delgado to Lake Nyassa. The coal-fields were first 
claimed by the Sultan of Zanzibar, but have now been taken 
possession of by the Portuguese Government. 
A SCIENTIFIC expedition under the charge of Lieut. Hovgaard, 
of the Danish Navy, is being prepared to investigate the eastern 
coasts of Greenland. M. Gamel, the owner of the vessel, has 
put it at M. Hovgaard’s disposal, and the Danish Government 
will pay the cost of the expedition. 
M. HANSEN-BLANGSTED has reported to the Geographical 
Society of Paris that the first steamer coming directly from the 
open sea arrived at Cologne on March 18. It is called the 
Industry, belongs to a company of Mannheim, and is of 513 
tons burden. ‘‘ This is an event important not only for Cologne, 
but also for every town on the Rhine.” 
ProF. Karu Gorrscue, of the University of Kiel, has just 
returned from his travels in Eastern Asia. After having 
lectured on Mineralogy and Geolozy for several years at Tokio, 
he undertook a scientific exploring expedition in Korea, at the 
request of the Korean Government, which lasted until De- 
cember, 1884. His route extended over 3009 kilometres. Dr. 
Gottsche intends shortly to publish his geological, mineralogical, 
and ethnozraphical investigations of Korea. To our knowledge 
this is the first scientific investigation of the great East-Asiatic 
peninsula. 
Dr. H. Z. C. TEN Kare departed on May 18 from South- 
ampton. He goes to the interior of Surinam, where he intends 
to devote himself to anthropological and ethnological studies. 
A grant has been given to him by Dr. Riebeck (Halle a/S) and 
Prince Roland Bonaparte. 
A TELEGRAM dated ‘‘near Herat, June 9,” states that, 
pending the settlement of the frontier question, the Frontier 
Commission is exploring and mapping out the country in all 
directions. 
ON THE MESOZOIC FLORAS OF THE ROCKY 
MOUNTAIN REGION OF CANADA* 
[NX a previous memoir, published in the 7yansactions of the 
Royal Society of Canada, vol. i., the author had noticed a 
lower cretaceous flora consisting wholly of pines and cycads 
occurring in the Queen Charlotte Islands, and had described a 
dicotyledonous flora of Middle Cretaceous age from the country 
adjacent to the Peace River, and also the rich Upper Cretaceous 
flora of the coal formation of Vancouver’s Island—comparing 
these with the flora of the Laramie series of the North-West 
Territory, which he believed to constitute a transition group 
connecting the Upper Cretaceous with the Eocene Tertiary. 
The present paper referred more particularly to a remarkable 
Jurasso-Cretaceous flora recently discovered by Dr. G. M. 
Dawson in the Rocky Mountains, and to intermediate groups of 
plants between this and the Middle Cretaceous, serving to 
extend greatly our knowledge of the Lower Cretaceous flora and 
to render more complete the series of plants between this and 
the Laramie. 
The oldest of these floras is found in beds which it is proposed 
to call the Kootanie group, from a tribe of Indians of that name 
who hunted over that part of the Rocky Mountains between the 
49th and 52nd parallels. Plants of this age have been found on 
the branches of the Old Man River, on the Martin Creek, at 
Coal Creek, and at one locality far to the north-west on the 
Suskwa River. The containing rocks are sandstones, shales, and 
conglomerates, with seams of coal, in some p!aces anthracitic. 
They may be traced for 140 miles in a north and south direction 
and form troughs included in the Palaeozoic formations of the 
mountains. The plants found are conifers, cycads, and ferns, 
the cycads being especially abundant and belonging to the genera 
Dioonites, Zamites, Podozamites, and Anomozamites. Some of 
these cycadaceous plants, as well as of the conifers, are identical 
with species described by Heer from the Jurassic of Siberia, 
while others occur in the Lower Cretaceous of Greenland. The 
almost world-wide Pudozamites lanceolatus is very characteristic, 
and there are leaves of Sadishurya sibirica, a Siberian Mesozoic 
species, and branches of Seguota smittiana, a species character- 
istic of the Lower Cretaceous of Greenland. No dicotyledonous 
leaves have been found in these beds, whose plants connect in a 
remarkable way the extinct floras of Asia and America and 
those of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. 
Above these are beds which, with some of the previous species, 
contain a few dicotyledonous leaves, which may be provisionally 
referred to the genera Stercula and Laurus ; and still higher the 
formation abounds in remains of dicotyledonous plants, of which 
additional collections have been made by Mr. T. C. Weston. 
The beds containing these, though probably divisible into two 
groups, may be named the Mill Creek series, and are approxi- 
mately on the horizon of the Dakota group of the United States 
geologists, as illustrated by Lesquereux and others. The species 
are described in the paper, and differ for the most part from 
those of the Dunvegan group of the Peace River series, which 
is probably of the age of the Niobrara group, and, of course, 
still more from the overlying Laramie group. With regard to 
the latter, the author adduced some new facts confirmatory of 
his previously expressed view as to the position of the Laramie 
at the top of the Cretaceous and base of the Eocene, and also 
tending to show that some of the plants still held by certain 
palzo-botanists to be of Miocene age are really, in Canada at 
least, fossils of the Laramie group, and consequently consider- 
ably older than is currently supposed. The collections of plants 
studied by the author had for the most part been placed at his 
disposal by the Director of the Geological Survey. 
HYDROMECHANICS 
THE last of the series of lectures at the Institution of Civil 
Engineers during the session of 1884-85 on ‘‘ The Theory 
and Practice of Hydromechanics,” was delivered on Thursday 
* Read before the Royal Society of Canada, May, 1835, by Sir William 
Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., F.RS 
