November 3, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



649 



of the Grande Greve limestone, which out- 

 crops elsewhere on the peninsula and carries a 

 similar Oriskany fauna of overgrown sand- 

 loving invertebrates imprisoned in a calcareous 

 matrix. As in New York, both the shallow 

 and deep water facies of the Oriskany are 

 present at Gaspe, but without the striking 

 differences in faunal content. The Bonaven- 

 ture conglomerate, in its lithology as well as 

 in its structural relations to the underlying 

 formations, bears testimony to the importance 

 of the mid-Devonian orogeny in the north- 

 eastern Appalachian province. Dr. Clarke in 

 another paper 12 in the same publication lays 

 stress upon this diastrophy and couples with 

 it the volcanic activity responsible for the 

 Monteregian hills. 



TRIASSIO FORMATIONS 



Detailed descriptions of the Newark series, 

 as exposed along the shores of Minas Basin 

 and the Bay of Bundy, are given by Sidney 

 Bowers in an important contribution concern- 

 ing the Acadian Triassic. 13 The area is the 

 most northerly of the geo-synclinal basins de- 

 veloped in the Atlantic coastal province dur- 

 ing the Triassic period and presents problems 

 similar to those of the Connecticut Valley. 

 Sedimentation was largely fluviatile, in the 

 main resulting from the occasional floods of 

 a hot dry climate. Bissure eruptions and vol- 

 canic ejections occurred at intervals during 

 the accumulation of the sediments. 



PLEISTOCENE (?) MAN IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 



Bragments of a human skeleton were dis- 

 covered in 1911 near Savona, B. C, in silt beds 

 alleged to be of Bleistocene age. A claim of 

 great antiquity for the skeleton was made be- 

 fore the Boyal Society of Canada in May, 

 1915. The bones are those of an aged woman 

 and display no characters that would distin- 

 guish them from those of a modern Shuswap 

 Indian. 14 An investigation of the deposits 

 from which the bones were obtained was un- 



i^ N. Y. State Museum, Bull. 177, 1915, pp. 

 115-134. 



is Jour. Geol., Vol. 24, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, 1916. 



« Knowles, F. H. S., Geol. Surv., Canada, Sum- 

 mary Eeport for 1915, 1916, pp. 281-283. 



dertaken by C. W. Drysdale. He reports 15 

 that the field evidence indicates the Recent 

 age of the silts at the locality. There is, there- 

 fore, no basis for the belief that the Savona 

 skeleton is a relic of Bleistocene man. 



Kirtley B. Mather 

 Queen's University, 

 Kingston, Canada, 

 September 7, 1916 



METHODS OF CRITICISM OF "SOIL 

 BACTERIA AND PHOSPHATES '" 



A circular letter, dated July 28, 1916, 

 criticizing Bulletin 190 (" Soil Bacteria and 

 Bhosphates ") of the University of Illinois 

 Agricultural Experiment Station was sent 

 to many editors of agricultural journals. This 

 letter bears the signature of Dr. B£. J. 

 Wheeler, of the Agricultural Service Bureau 

 of the American Agricultural Chemical Com- 

 pany. 



The caption employed is as follows : " Con- 

 fidential and Not Bor Bublication." This 

 will doubtless appear to those who welcome 

 frank and open criticism as an entirely un- 

 warranted and a highly undignified manner 

 of criticism. No copy of this letter was re- 

 ceived by us from Dr. Wheeler, but through 

 the courtesy of the agricultural press the 

 matter has reached us from many sources and 

 from several different states. 



The purpose of Dr. Wheeler's letter to the 

 agricultural editors is evidently to belittle the 

 importance of the discovery that the nitrify- 

 ing bacteria have power to make rock phos- 

 phate soluble. 



As space will not permit quoting in full the 

 contents of this four-page letter, we quote 

 only the statements under discussion. In the 

 last paragraph of the first page, we read: 



The organic acids and the carbonic acid produced 

 in the decomposition of vegetable matter or brought 



is ' ' Human Skeleton from Silt Bed near Sa- 

 vona, B. C, " C. W. Drysdale, Geological Survey, 

 Canada, Summary Beport for 1915, 1916, pp. 

 91-92. 



i Science, p. 246, August 18, 1916, and Bulletin 

 190, University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. 



