288 Correspondence — Br. S. B. Medlicott. 



I have been making a special study of Floridian Geology for 



some years, and hope to publish a considerable amount of new 



information on that subject during the coming summer. 



Smithsonian Institution, U.S. National Museum, ysj-^ tt tIitt 



Washington, A:pril 15, 1891. ^^^' ■°- -L'.ALL- 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE SALT EANGE OF THE PANJAB. 



Sir, — In the latest number (part i. vol. xxiv.) of the Eecords of 

 the Geological Survey of India there is an interesting paper by 

 Mr. 0. S. Middlemiss on the Geology of the Salt Range of the 

 Panjab. Admirable sections are given illustrating two points until 

 recently in dispute, the positions of the Conularia Bed and of the 

 Obolus Shales ; and a very bold beginning is made of a fresh 

 discussion, regarding the age and mode of origin of the Salt Marl 

 and its minerals, advocating peculiar eruptive conditions connected 

 with a primitive and hitherto undisturbed subterranean magma. 

 Until Mr. Middlemiss developes his position, it would be premature 

 to comment thereon ; I will only ask leave to correct two personal 

 errors in the paper. On p. 25 a quotation is made from my paper 

 on the geology of the Panjab, published in the Provincial Gazetteer, 

 whereby I am made to appear as executing an erroneous reversal 

 of opinion upon a disputed unconformity in the Salt Eange. Mr. 

 Middlemiss must have overlooked the note at the beginning of the 

 section on the Salt Eange, stating that " this sketch is by Mr. 

 Wynne." I did not alter a word of it. So the passage in question 

 is a repetition by Mr. Wynne of a view against which I had remon- 

 strated in vain. The other point is on p. 20, where I am represented 

 as " not entirely agreeing " with the erroneous view of the Conularia 

 horizon. It refers to a short paper in which I had endeavoured to 

 soften a somewhat acrimonious dispute by an impartial summary of 

 the evidence ; but there can be no doubt as to which side my 

 own opinion leaned. I even suggested the conclusion which Mr. 

 Middlemiss now presents as established : regarding the " pebbles " 

 with Conularia I asked — " Is it not more plausible to suppose that 

 they were washed into the gravel bed from some contemporaneous 

 (Palseozoic) pool deposit close by?" (Eecords, vol. xix. p. 133). 



Clifton, 29iA April, 1891. H. B. MedlicOTT. 



We regret to record the death of Professor Joseph Leidy, the 

 distinguished American physiologist and palgeontologist. The 

 deceased, who was in his sixty-eighth year, was Professor of 

 Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, and of Natural History 

 in Swarthmore College. He was also President of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Director of the Department of 

 Biology in the University, and a Foreign Member of the Geological 

 Society of London. His more important contributions to scientific 

 literature were, "The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and 

 Nebraska," and "Freshwater Ehizopods of North America." He 

 also wrote an elementary treatise on human anatomy. — Standard, 

 Friday, 1st May, 1891. 



