42 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 28. 



Eidgway and C. E. Keyes, under the imme- 

 diate supervision of the authors. It is fit- 

 ting that Professor Alexander Agassiz and 

 the Museum of Comparative Zo51ogj^ at 

 Harvard should undertake the publication 

 of this monograph. It will appear as one 

 of the Memoii's of the Museum, so soon as 

 the plates can be photographically repro- 

 duced from the original pencil drawings — 

 that is, it is hoped, early in 1896. The 

 price will be thirty dollars. As the edition 

 will be limited, intending subscribers are 

 requested to send their names to Professor 

 Agassiz at the earliest possible date. A 

 work of such usefulness and importance 

 needs no recommendation from us ; we can 

 only hope that the enterprise of the pub- 

 lishers and the devotion of the workers may 

 meet with due appreciation from the scien- 

 tific public, and that Charles Wachsmuth 

 and Frank Springer may be spared many 

 years of health and leisure, to place the 

 crown on this worthy monument of Ameri- 

 can paleontology. 



THE FISHES OF THE COLORADO BASIX. 



In a paper on the ' Fishes of the Colorado 

 Basin,' just published by the TJ. S. Fish 

 Commission, Messrs. Evermann and Rutter 

 have brought together all the published in- 

 formation accessible to them concerning the 

 geographic distribution of the fishes of that 

 river basin. Although the Colorado basin 

 is one of the largest in the United States, tbe 

 number of square miles drained being not 

 less than 225,000, the number of species of 

 fishes found in it is but 32. This number 

 has been taken at a single haul with a 30-foot 

 seine in Bean Blossom Creek, a little stream 

 near Bloomington, Indiana. 



The 32 species of the Colorado basin rep- 

 resent 5 families, as follows : 



Catostomidce, or suckers, 8; Cijprinidic, or 

 minnows, 19; Salmonidw, or trout and white- 

 fish, 2; Pcceiliidw, or top-minnows, 2; and 

 Cottidce, or blobs, 1. 



The Cyprinidce, it will be noticed, consti- 

 tute considerably more than half the entire 

 fish-fauna. 



Of the 18 genera represented, Gila, Tia- 

 roga, Meda, Plagopterus and Xyrauchen are 

 peculiar to that river basin, and a sixth 

 genus, Lepidomeda, is known only from the 

 Colorado and the Great Basin in south- 

 western Nevada, where it was discovered 

 by the Death Vallej'' expedition. 



Of the 32 species all but 7 are thus far 

 known only fi'om this basin. 



The extreme paucity of the fish-fauna of 

 the Colorado basin will be apparent when 

 it is recalled that 80 different species are 

 known from the basin of the Eio Grande, 

 140 from that of the Missouri and 130 from 

 the Wabash basin. Only 2 species (Bhin- 

 ichthys cataracke didcis and Coitus hairdi pune- 

 tidatus) are found in both the Colorado and 

 Missouri basins, only 2 species (Agosia 

 oseula and Agosia yarrowi) are found in both 

 the Coloi'ado and the Eio Grande, while not 

 a single species is common to both the Colo- 

 rado and the Wabash basins. 



The Centrarchidce, Percidm and Siluridos 

 (sunfishes and basses, darters and catfish), 

 which constitute siich a large and important 

 part of the fish-fauna east of the Eockies, 

 have no representatives in the Colorado 

 basin. 



SKELETONS OF ZEUGLODON. 



Last November ]\Ir. Charles Schuchert 

 collected for the U. S. National Museum 

 portions of two skeletons of Zeuglodon, and 

 these are being used as the basis of a res- 

 toration of the entire skeleton for the At- 

 lanta Exposition. Mr. Schuchert has de- 

 voted much time to ' developing ' the ma- 

 terial which promises to throw some needed 

 light on certain portions of this interesting 

 form. The radius and ulna, for example, 

 are present and are more seal-like than 

 cetacean. The hyoid suggests that of a 

 Manatee, and the cervicals present a good 



