228 Brief Notices. 



At the end of the book will be found copious and carefully compiled 

 indices, of which the geographical index especially will be of great use 

 for the determination of the locality of some little known mine. 



The printing and appearance of the book are beyond reproach. 

 We may safely predict that Dr. Maclaren's treatise is destined to fill 

 a high position in the literature of gold. 



III. — Brief jSToxices. 



Yeetebrate Kemains in Asphalt. — Mr. J. C. Merriam, Associate 

 Professor of Palaeontology and Historical Geology in the University of 

 California, has contributed an interesting article on the vertebrate 

 remains obtained in an asphalt deposit a few miles west of the city of 

 Los Angeles, in California {Sunset, San Francisco, October, 1908). 

 Quite recently the occurrence of many extinct animals in this deposit 

 has been brought to notice. Among the remains are those of gigantic 

 wolves, the sabre-toothed tiger, camel, elephant, and lai'ge sloths. 

 Many birds and other remains were also obtained. Of the Machcerodus 

 Professor Merriam remarks : " At one locality eighteen complete skulls, 

 and at least one complete skeleton, were found within an area of less 

 than two square yards." In other places certain layers of the asphalt 

 proved to be nearly barren of fossil remains. The deposits appear to 

 have been formed "from the slow accumulation of bituminous material 

 around tar springs". In time a large pool of the material would 

 have collected, and become more or less hardened, but in warm 

 weather the surface would be rendered soft, and thus act " as 

 a trap for unwary animals ", which would be entombed in successive 

 accumulations of the asphalt. 



Burning Cliffs at Lyme Regis. — Since the note by Mr. Cameron 

 was received, our attention has been called to a paper on "The 

 Burning Cliff and the Landslip of Lyme Eegis ", by Mr. A. J". 

 Jukes-Browne, published in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural 

 History and Antiquarian Pield Club, 1908, vol. xxix, p. 153. He 

 gives a view of the burning mound at Lyme, and has reproduced 

 a view of the burning clifi at Holworth, Dorset, 1827. 



Tsetse Fly in the Miocene. — Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell reports 

 the discovery of another fossil tsetse fly in the Miocene shales of 

 Florissant, Colorado. He proposes to give the name Glossina oshorni 

 to this new species. {Nature, April 1, 1909.) 



The Devonian Fishes of Iowa. — These form the subject of a memoir 

 by Mr. Charles B. Eastman, published by the Iowa Geological Survey, 

 1908, vol. xviii. The author gives an interesting introduction on 

 the "Aim and general outlook of palseontological inquiry, and 

 relations of palseichthyology to biology ". He observes that detached 

 teeth and other fragmentary fish-remains occur somewhat sparsely 

 in the Middle Devonian of Iowa, while in the Upper Devonian they 

 occur in remarkable abundance and locally constitute veritable fish- 

 beds. The local strata consist of limestones and shales. The title 

 of the memoir should have been the Devonian fishes of North 



