22 
skeleton and of its external characters in a 
paper read before the Society on June 3 
and 17, 1828.* Brookes recognized the fact 
that the viscacha belonged to a distinct 
genus which he named Lagostomus. He al- 
so changed Blainville’s specific name maz- 
imus to trichodactylus on the ground that it 
became inappropriate in connection with a 
genus represented by only one species. 
Authors who have adopted Lagostomus 
trichodactylus have reduced Dipus maximus 
and other subsequent names to synonymy, 
but, almost without exception, have over- 
looked one of the most important references 
to the species. 
In 1824 Schinz began the publication of 
his ‘ Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der 
Saugethiere,’ and on page 244 of this work 
gave a full description of the viscacha, 
calling it Vizeacia pamparum. A comparison 
of the title pages of this work (1824) and 
of volume XVI. of the Transactions of the 
Linnean Society (1828) seems to indicate 
that Vizeacia pamparum Schinz has 4 
years priority over Lagostomus trichodactylus 
Brookes. Although Schinz’s name was 
undoubtedly published first, its actual date 
of publication is uncertain. Schinz’s Na- 
turgeschichte appeared in 29 Hefte, at 
intervals from 1824 to 1828, and, as the de- 
scription of the viscacha is inserted near 
the middle of the book, it was probably not 
published before 1825 or 1826. I have 
been unable thus far to ascertain the dates 
of publication of the separate parts of the 
Naturgeschichte, but in the copy examined 
is a notice to subscribers, printed for distri- 
bution with the 29th Heft, and dated Feb- 
ruary 28, 1828, stating that this is the con- 
cluding part of the volume. Schinz’s work 
was evidently completed several months 
before Brookes’ paper was even read, and 
possibly a year before it was actually pub- 
lished, if we accept the statement in Oken’s 
*Trans. Linn. Soc. London, XVI., pt. I, pp. 
95-104, 1 plate. 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. VI. No. 131. 
Isis (1830, p. 906) that the latter appeared 
in 1829. 
Vizcacia therefore, is, probably not less 
than 2 years earlier than Lagostomus, and, 
as the objection to Blainville’s specific 
name would not be considered valid by 
modern zoologists, the species should stand 
Vizcacia maxima (Blainville). 
T. S. Patmemr. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
BOSPHORUS, RHINE AND HUDSON. 
Puiiiprson’s ‘Geologisch-Geographische 
Reiseskizzen aus dem Orient’ ( Sitzungsber. 
Niederrhein. Gesellsch., Bonn, 1897) in- 
clude, among many other items of interest, 
a clear account of the Bosphorus as a partly 
drowned valley incised in an uplifted pene- 
plain of deformed Devonian strata. Viewed 
from the summit of Bulgurlu, a low quartz- 
ite monadnock that surmounts the upland 
east of Skutari, the peneplain, only here 
and there interrupted by rounded knobs 
and ridges, is seen to ascend slowly north- 
ward, and then to rise in a marginal ridge 
of harder strata along the border of the 
Black Sea. The upland is generally unoc- 
cupied, being rather barren, in part from 
natural infertility, in part from exhaustion 
of the soil such as characterizes the vicinity 
of nearly all the great millenial cities of the 
Mediterranean. The Bosphorus trench has 
a winding course, the water surface being 
200-300 met. beneath the upland. The 
water is generally 50 met. deep, but be- 
comes shallower near Constantinople, as if 
by the washings and waste from that old 
city. Philippson justly compares the gorge 
of the Bosphorus to that of the Rhine. A 
still closer analogy might be found with the 
Sorge of the Hudson, since the latter is a 
drowned river, deep and navigable to large 
vessels, while the Rhine is a running river, 
comparatively shallow in the gorge and in- 
terrupted by rapids and islands. 
