428 
The Asphalt and Bituminous Rock Deposits of the 
United States: GEO. H. ELDRIDGE. 
The asphalts, by this meaning the several 
varieties of purer hydrocarbon compounds, such 
as uintaite, grahamite, ete., occur in vein form 
in rocks of Ordovician, Carboniferous and Ter- 
tiary ages. They are found in West Virginia, 
Indian Territory, Colorado, Utah and Cali- 
fornia. The most remarkable veins are in Utah 
near the Colorado line, where a maximum 
width of 18 feet and an uninterrupted length of 
10 miles for a single vein have been observed. 
In California they occur in proximity to the 
developed oil fields, and the material is here of 
softer nature than that found in the veins of 
Utah and elsewhere. Where the veins occur 
in shales they are irregular and interrupted. 
The bituminous rocks embrace both sand- 
stones and limestones. The limestones as yet 
known are confined to Indian Territory, Texas 
and Utah; in Texas, in the upper part of the | 
Ordovician, and in Utah, in the* Green River 
Tertiary formation. Those of Indian Territory 
are conspicuous for their thickness and extent. 
At one point a bed of 350 feet, impregnated 
from bottom to top, was observed, having a 
lineal extent of something over two miles, with 
considerable variation in the thickness of the 
bed. Bituminous sandstones are the most 
generally distributed in the United States, 
occurring of especial richness in Kentucky, 
Indian Territory, and in the Coast ranges of 
southern California. The percentage of bitu- 
men contained in these rocks varies up to a 
maximum of 14 in the limestones and 20 in 
the sandstones. 
F. L. RANSOME, 
DAVID WHITE, 
Secretaries. 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
THE 335th meeting was held on Saturday 
evening, February 23rd. 
Under the head of notes, B. W. Evermann 
spoke of the aquatic vegetation observed dur- 
ing the winter at Lake Maxinkuckee, IIl., say- 
ing that it remained green and flourishing at a 
late date. The manner in which the reproduc- 
tive buds were formed on the species of Pota- 
mogeton and Valisneria was described, and it 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. XIII. No. 324. 
was stated that it was these buds of the wild 
celery that were sought after by the coots and 
ducks. 
W. H. Ashmead stated that the examination 
of the Hymenoptera collected by Trevor Kin- 
caid of the Harriman Alaskan Expedition had 
raised the number of species known to occur 
in Alaska from 28 to 318, 195 of which were 
new. Four European species were noted for 
the first time as occurring in Alaska, while 30 
of the genera had never before been reported 
in North America. 
E. L. Morris exhibited photographs of four 
new species of Plantago stating that these pic- 
tures, which were remarkable for their dis- 
tinctness of outline and detail, were for the 
purpose of supplying the U. S. National Mu- 
seum with accurate figures of types which be- 
long to other collections. 
| F. A. Lucas described ‘A Fossil, Flightless 
Auk’ obtained at Los Angeles, Cal., from beds 
stated by Mr. Dall to be of Upper Miocene, or 
Lower Pliocene age. The bird was repre- 
sented by only the proximal part of the hu- 
merus, but this showed it to have been some- 
what less ‘in size than the Great Auk and more 
highly specialized, the humerus being shorter, 
more flattened and more curved, with sharper 
muscular ridges than the corresponding bone 
in that species. The name Mancalla californi- 
ensis was proposed for the fossil auk, and its 
nearest living relative stated to be the Cali- 
fornia Murre. The specimen will be described 
in detail in the Proceedings of the U. S. Na- 
tional Museum. | 
W. P. Hay presented a paper ‘On the Dis- 
tribution and Classification of the North Amer- 
ican Crayfishes’ giving first a brief review of 
the classification of the Astacoidea in which 
four families were recognized—Eryonide, 
Homaride, Parastacide and Astacidz. In the 
Astacidze the three genera <Astacus, Camba- 
roides and Cambarus were described and their 
distribution commented on. 
The American species of Astacus and Cam- 
barus were then taken up and a few points on 
the life history of these animals were given. 
It was stated that the five groups of Faxon are 
natural and well marked and are worthy of 
subgeneric rank at least. Contrary to Dr. 
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