952 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 415. 



drawn with caution, since but few marked 

 maxima have as yet been interpreted. True, 

 tlie rain minima may in a general way be asso- 

 ciated with atmospheric ' lows,' while the 

 maxima on the 10th (and others in less 

 marked degree) coincide with ' highs.' In so 

 far as the cyclone and anticyclone may be 

 regarded as upcast and downcast shafts, the 

 supply of nuclei would seem to come from 

 above. But as the rain minima admit of an 

 independent explanation, and the remaining 

 evidence is naturally vague, any such infer- 

 ence is precarious. Whether, therefore, the 

 nueleation is the triturate of the land and 

 the seas (particularly the latter), with con- 

 tributions from bacteria, or whether the ultra- 

 violet light or other radiation at the boundary 

 of the atmosphere is the efficient source, must 

 be left for future determination. The data 

 already go far to. show that from long series 

 of observations of the above character much 

 may be learned. Recalling that the coronas 

 were obtained in ordinary glass bottles and 

 are, therefore, distorted, the present project 

 of studying nueleation seems secure, particu- 

 larly as plate-glass apparatus will not be diffi- 

 cult to construct. It is, therefore, my pur- 

 pose to install a small permanent plant at 

 Brown University, and I shall take occasion 

 to report progress if any novelty of sufficient 

 interest makes its appearance. 



C.-uiL Barus. 



THE L.\EAMIE CRETACEOUS OP WYOMING. 



In the paper by Mr. Lambe and Professor 

 Osborn on the mid-Cretaceous fauna of the 

 Belly Eiver deposits of Canada recently 

 noticed in Science,* Professor Osborn has 

 concluded, from the evidence presented by 

 the vertebrate fossils, that a portion, at least, 

 of those deposits in Montana which have pre- 

 viously been referred to the Laramie are 

 really mid-Cretaceous in age, and perhaps 

 contemporary with the Belly River series. 

 Mr. Hatcher more recently f has called atten- 

 tion to the fact that a similar opinion had 

 already been expressed by him concerning 

 the Judith River deposits, and he is now in- 



* Science, October 24, 1902, p. 673. 

 t Science, November 21, 1902, p. 831. 



cliiied to locate them much earlier than the 

 close of the Fox Hills time. 



The Laramie deposits of Converse County, 

 Wyoming, have usually been jjlaced at the 

 end of the Fox Hills, but I am somewhat 

 skeptical of this. I believe that future re- 

 search will show that, not only the Judith 

 Eiver beds, but also those of Wyoming will 

 be found to be contemporary, in part at 

 least, with the Fox Hills deposits, and that 

 they are not separated by so great an interval 

 from these other deposits which have hitherto 

 been supposed to be contemporaneous. 



This conclusion I base largely upon the 

 fauna of the Wyoming beds, which present, 

 in some respects at least, a startling resem- 

 blance to that of both the Judith River and 

 the Belly River series. 



Hitherto, almost our only published knowl- 

 edge of the Wyoming Laramie fauna is that 

 derived from Professor Marsh's writings. 

 Aside from the Dinosaurs, he has described 

 from these beds various lizard, snake and bird 

 remains, but has said nothing of a number 

 of other interesting forms of which he must 

 have known. I can only attribute this neg- 

 lect to a belief on his part that these other 

 forms were identical with those described 

 from the other deposits which he believed to 

 he of equivalent age. 



Among the collections made by the Uni- 

 versity of Kansas in Converse County in 

 1895, and those obtained by Professors Baur 

 and Case in the same regions, there is not 

 a little of interest in this connection. Not 

 only a number of genera, but also a number 

 of species previously described from Montana 

 and now recognized by Lambe in the Belly 

 River deposits, occur here in the supposed 

 much later deposits of Wyoming. It would 

 seem almost incredible that so many of these 

 should have persisted unchanged through the 

 long interval represented by so many thou- 

 sand feet of Fox Hills deposits, to say 

 nothing of those of the Fort Pierre. I doubt 

 if a parallel can be found elsewhere in verte- 

 brate paleontology. It is true that many of 

 these forms from both the Judith River and 

 the Laramie are known only from fragmen- 

 tary remains, and that future researches may 



