476 



NATURE 



[March 1 8, 1880 



they can be completed and perfected. This immediate publica- 

 tion likewise removes any cause for discontent on the part of the 

 officers whose labours might be withheld from the public, while 

 at the same time the consciousness that their work will at once be 

 exposed to criticism must naturally act as a stimulus to care and 

 accuracy. Mr. Medlicott adds : " I see no compromise but the 

 one I adopted, and to which I adhere. The risk it obviou.-ly 

 implies — the exposure of faulty work — falls upon our own head-. 

 The minor evils it involves are no greater than those it removes, 

 and the smart of public criticism is more wholesome than the 

 heart-burning of official suppression." His efforts at conciliation 

 and usefulness, however, have landed him in another dilemma. 

 Of course he is compelled to make corrections of the publica- 

 tions of the Survey ; but the wielding of his editorial pen seems 

 to be now and then relented by some over whose lucubrations it 

 has been displayed. And thus the injured writers, proud of their 

 flowery periods or of their inaccurate geology, rush off to news- 

 paper editors and pour forth their complaints in angry letters ! 

 Would it not sometimes be the most fitting punishment to pub- 

 lish the lucubrations just as they are put into the superintendent's 

 hands ? One or two glaring cases of this kind would possibly 

 cure the evil, unless the burning sun of India makes a geologist's 

 hide thicker than is usual in our colder clime. 



American Geological Surveys. — Though the various 

 independent geological surveys under different departments of 

 the United States administration were abolished by Act of Con- 

 gress in June of last year, certain provision was made for the 

 publication of their results. Among the corps embraced in the 

 demolition was that which, under Capt. George Wheeler of the 

 Engineers, had done much good work. From a document just 

 issued, and forming part of the Annual Report of the Chief of 

 Engineers for 1879, we learn that Capt. Wheeler's geologists 

 stuck to their ground almost up to the very day when their 

 appropriations expired. They took the field on May 20 of last 

 year in Colorado and New Mexico, and after a month of hard 

 work the party was disbanded on June 24, six days before the 

 end of the financial year. Prof. J. J. Stevenson of New York, 

 who lias been in charge of the Engineer geological explorations 

 in that area, has published a preliminary report in anticipation 

 of the final memoir. It shows that he has accomplished much 

 interesting detail, particularly in regard to the succession of the 

 coal-bearing Laramie series. We trust that he will be able to 

 give satisfactory sections of the Sangre de Christo range, par- 

 ticularly with reference to the structure and age of its meta- 

 morphic rocks. He alludes to them in this preliminary report 

 as "archa'an." In Hayden's Report of the United States 

 Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1875 

 (p. 20S) Dr. Endlich concludes that these rocks are metamor- 

 phosed Silurian strata ; and in the Report of the same Survey 

 for the previous year he presents a similar conclusion v> ith regard 

 to the granite of the San Juan country. Detailed and accurate 

 information on the true stratigraphieal relations of the so-called 

 "archoean" rocks of the Ricky Mountains and western ranges 

 of North America are much needed. While referring to 

 American official geological publications we would point out the 

 absolute necessity of reference to the labours of previous ex- 

 plorers. We could pick out not a few otherwise excellent 

 reports which are disgraced by an utter obliviousness of the 

 existence of any earlier writings on the areas described. Without 

 « arning or explanation new names are given to formations which 

 had already been named and described. If the original names and 

 descriptions are defective or inaccurate let that be stated. Cut 

 in common fairness to fellow-labourers, not to speak of duty to 

 the reading public, let us know distinctly whether we are perusing 

 an account of ground that has never been described before, or 

 whether we are merely getting a new rendering of facts already 

 familiar to us. When the history of geological exploration in 

 Colorado conies to be written how many different and rival 

 expeditions will have to be enumerated, and in how many cases 

 will it be found that they have recognised each other's existence ! 



Imperfection of the " Geological Record." — Geolo- 

 gists and those who take interest in the literature of Evolution 

 will find some curious papers by Th. Fuchs in recent numbers of 

 the Verhandlungtn of the Geologische Reichsanstalt of Vienna — 

 apparently the first of a series in which he proposes to demolish 

 Darwinism by accurately compiled statistics. He contends that 

 the assertion of the imperfection of the "Geological Record" 

 rests for the most part on gross exaggeration of the facts. He 

 holds that instead of being, as Darwin and his followers maintain, 



full of gaps, the record of the older faunas and floras of the 

 earth is extraordinarily perfect. He contends that Palaeontology 

 as it now stands is able, with a properly directed criticism, to 

 afford a perfectly satisfactory basis on which to discuss with con- 

 fidence the biological questions involved in Darwinism. He 

 points out that in such a discussion it is needful to keep clearly 

 in view a twofold series of animal remains. I. Those which on 

 account of their fragility, habitat, or habits can only be excep- 

 tionally preserved, such as medusae, ascidians, insects, birds, 

 small mammals, and tender plants. 2. Those with enduring 

 hard parts, which, in consequence of their habitat and habits, 

 are necessarily, in the regular progress of sedimentation, inclosed 

 in new formations, such as corals, echinoderms, molluscs, &c. 

 Admitting the exceptional preservation of the first series as 

 fossils, he maintains that the entombment of those of the second 

 series, so far from being exceptional, is now, and always has 

 been, part of the daily and necessary rlgitne in the formation of 

 sedimentary accumulations, and that in this way the geological 

 record of the past is remarkably complete. To prove or 

 illustrate this contention, he gives a few examples of the kind 

 of "statistical data" on which he relies. For example, in 

 an up-raised bed of marine clay near Messina about 100 species 

 of organisms were found, nearly all still living in the adjoining 

 sea, but including a few that were not known in the existing fauna. 

 Further search of the sea-bottom, however, detected these forms 

 also. " In this case, therefore, " says Herr Fuchs, " the fauna of 

 Messina Harbour Mas more completely known from ;the fossil 

 than from the living fauna." Again the Tyrrhenian Sea has 

 yielded 337 species of conchiferous shells ; of these 300 are 

 found in the quaternary deposits of Leghorn ; therefore the 

 fauna of that sea could be with great completeness made out 

 from fossil forms ! In a subsequent number of the same journal 

 Herr R. Hoemes has shown the fallacy of this reasoning ; but 

 Herr Fuchs has evidently laid in his store of ammunition, and 

 does not mean to be disturbed until he has fired it all off. He 

 continues his broadside in the number of the Vcrhandlungen just 

 received, where he has a paper "On some Fundamental Pheno- 

 mena in the Geological Development of the Organic World." 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 ACCORDING to the last news received from M. Prjevalsky, he 

 reached, on September 12, the boundary of Southern Tsaidam, 

 and thus entered the great highway which leads from China to 

 Tibet. Detailed information as to his journey of last year from 

 Kami to Sha-jeu, appears now in the Izvestia of the Russian 

 Geographical Society. Khami is at the extremity of the sandy 

 steppe described as the Mouschoun Gobi ; it is a desert, nearly 

 quite deprived of vegetation. For fifty miles are seen only im- 

 mense spaces of clay covered w ith gravel ; the temperature at 

 the beginning of June reached as high as 3S" Cels., and the soil 

 had sometimes a temperature of 6S° Cels. Journeying must be 

 done in the night. No large animals, except the antelope and 

 the wild camel, which comes from the deserts of Lob-nor, were 

 seen. M. Prjevalsky crossed this desert in a south-eastern 

 direction for 232 miles, and reached the oasis of Sha-jeu, a 

 very fertile one, being the best tract of Central Asia, after 

 Kulja. A high ridge of mountains covered with snow, the 

 Altyn-tagh of Lob-nor, here joins the Nian-shan of Koko- 

 nor. Thus the question as to the junction of these two sys- 

 tems of mountains is solved definitely. M. Prjevalsky stayed 

 for a month in Sha-jeu, "seeking for guides to Tsaidam, and 

 finally he found in the mountains three Mongols who agreed to 

 serve as guides, so that he could reach Tsaidam, going first 

 south-west to Lake Serten and thence to Lake Koko-nor. 



The last number of the Russian Izvestia contains an interesting 

 paper, by M. Oshanin, on the upper parts of the Muk-su 

 River, a tributary of Surkhab. These tracts were not previously j 

 visited, only one point in the valley of Muk-sou being known 

 to Russian travellers, namely, the grave of Altyn-mazar, situated 

 at the confluence of the Sel-su, Suk-su, and Kainda Rivers. 

 Very high peaks inclose this deep valley, the bottom of which is 

 no less than 8,000 feet above the sea-level. The Sandal peak, 

 which is in the middle of the chain, reaches to no less a height 

 than 25,000 feet, and two other peaks, Shelveli and Muz-jilg.i, 

 are situated beside it. They are covered for two-thirds of then- 

 height with snow, and immense glaciers flow from their wide 

 amphitheatres into the valley of Sel-su and of its tributaries. 

 They form together a glacier which descends very low, its lower 

 extremity, one and a half miles wide, being met with at a distance 



