Januabt 18, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



101 



Kroeber and Wissler, papers for the most 

 part concerning the aspects, features and re- 

 sults of the Mrs. Morris K. Jesup and Hunt- 

 ington Expeditions. 



In volume XVI. perhaps preeminence of 

 interest attaches to Ales Hrdlicka's paper on 

 ' The Crania of Trenton, New Jersey, and 

 their Bearing upon the Antiquity of Man in 

 that Eegion,' -which concluded with these 

 pregnant words : " It may be added that all 

 the crania described in this paper differ widely 

 from those of the Eskimo (nor can I recollect 

 a single important somatological fact, from 

 my investigations or those of others, which 

 would support the theory of a prehistoric oc- 

 cupation of any of the eastern states below 

 the St. Lawrence river by the Eskimo)." New 

 species, as usual, are described in this volume, 

 both of fossil and living animals. An almost 

 entertaining article by Professor Whitfield ac- 

 complishes the desirable result of proving that 

 three fossil genera of cephalopoda are dif- 

 ferent stages of one, a fact distinguishable in 

 the beautiful examples of Heteroceras in his 

 cabinet of Cretaceous fossils. The important 

 papers on phylogeny, by Professor Osbom, 

 were continued, and an admirably illustrated 

 paper by Dr. E. O. Hovey on the eruptions in 

 Martinique and St. Vincent seems a welcome 

 variation from the endless process of creating 

 and destroying species. Professor Whitfield's 

 description of a genus of fossil alga in the 

 Niagara shale has interest, as well as that of 

 the new teredo-like shell from the Laramie. 

 Mr. Beutenmiiller added one of his instructive 

 studies on larvae of Catocala, and his minute 

 discriminations in the ' Earlier Stages of 

 some Moths.' Dr. Duerden's paper on ' Algae 

 as agents in the Disintegration of Corals ' is 

 in this volume. 



Volume XIX. is the thickest, the most 

 voluminous of all the volumes, though it 

 does not contain more articles nor does it ex- 

 ceed in interest its precursors. The new con- 

 tributors were making themselves felt and the 

 topics were, in some instances, to a degree, 

 synoptical and comprehensive. Dr. Hay opens 

 the nineteenth volume with a technical and 

 strong paper on ' North American Cretaceous 



Fishes,' in which the author displays his sur- 

 prising anatomical skill. It involved very 

 large corrections of previous observers. ' The 

 Mammals of Northeast Siberia,' by Dr. Allen, 

 was important. It emphasized the fact of the 

 intimate relationship of the mammalian fauna 

 of Siberia with that of Alaska. The itinerary 

 of Mr. U. G. Buxton accompanying this paper 

 is extremely interesting, and his notes ap- 

 pended to Dr. Allen's descriptions make good 

 reading, and are most instructive. Dr. Allen 

 concludes : 



There is thus evidence that eastern Siberia has 

 derived some of its present mammalian life from 

 boreal America, and doubtless within a compara- 

 tively recent period. The American origin of 

 various early types that eventually attained clr- 

 cumpolar distribution, as the horse, camel, rhi- 

 noceros, phyla, etc., is now well established by 

 paleontological evidence, but that the same is 

 true of some forms of the existing mammalian 

 fauna does not appear to have been heretofore 

 recognized. 



Dr. Matthew discusses the minute fauna 

 of the Titanotherium beds of Montana. A 

 paper by Dr. Hrdlicka on the parietal bone 

 in Men and Mammals was somewhat respon- 

 sible for the bulkiness of volume XIX. It 

 was a rather over-extended discussion, but 

 very learned, of an osteological feature, which 

 apparently refuses to yield to this persistent 

 study very definite conclusions. 



Professor W. K. Gregory contributed a 

 suggestive paper on the ' Shortening of the 

 Elephant's Skull,' concluding: 



The skull as a whole is thus highly adapted to 

 resist the severe strains put upon it. The occiput, 

 both in ontogeny and phylogeny, flattens out and 

 rotates backward, spreading both vertically and 

 laterally, until at last it forms, as it were, a 

 great functionally solid bed-plate, receiving the 

 thrusts of the opposite inverted arches into which 

 the skull has been resolved. 



Dr. Hay added another extended paper, on 

 ' Cretaceous Pishes from Mt. Lebanon,' in 

 which there were new species and new facts. 

 Professor Osbom describes a new dinosaur, 

 Mr. Gidley a new three-toed horse, and re- 

 marks that ' it seems probable that the genus 

 Hipparion is limited in distribution entirely 

 to the old world, and that the American 



