Juty 16, 1897.] 
used in the scheme, except by an unintended 
blunder, by which the wave-length of ultra- 
marine is given as .4250, which would bring 
the standard blue designated into the clear 
violet of the spectrum and not distinguish- 
able from the violet of my standards. The 
wave-length of ultramarine is not far from 
4500. With no pure red or violet in a 
scheme of standard colors it is quite im- 
possible to obtain or to represent accu- 
rately a very large line of important hues. 
The author of the article has been obliged, 
because of this defect in the standards 
he has selected, in many of the analyses 
of popular colors given in the table accom- 
panying the article, to use three or four 
standards to represent the color he has 
analyzed where two pure spectrum colors are 
all that are needed. It is to be regretted 
that a publication like this should have 
added anything to the confusion which we 
are seeking to remedy. And this is still 
more to be regretted because the publishers 
of the Dictionary asked for and received 
from me the measurements and explana- 
tions of the plan upon which I had been 
working with the professed purpose of 
furthering the extension of the plan. This 
will not be as serious a matter, however, as 
it otherwise would have been, since the 
rapid introduction of the Bradley papers 
into the public schools gives an opportunity 
for the correct teaching of color to an 
enormous number of children. 
J. H. Preispury. 
STONEHAM, MAss., June, ’97. 
PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS FROM BAFFINLAND 
AND. GREENLAND. 
THE existence of Pleistocene deposits in 
Labrador,* in several of the islands of the 
Arctic archipelago,; and in northern Green- 
land, { has been made known by several 
* Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. 1, pp. 229-230. 
+ Jour. Geol. Soc., Vol. 9, p. 317. 
t Jour. Geol. Soc., Vol. 3, p. 100. 
SCIENCE. 
91 
observers, but, so far as the writer is aware, 
none have previously been reported from 
Baffinland. The discovery of Pleistocene 
shells during the past summer on the south 
coast of Baffinland is, therefore, of interest 
as showing that at least a part of this 
island, which is the largest of the Arctic 
archipelago, was also affected by the sub- 
sidence which lowered the lands to the 
north and the south of it beneath the sea 
during the Pleistocene. 
Short trips were made into the interior 
by members of the Cornell University party 
from two points on the coast north of Hud- 
son Strait. The first of these excursions 
was from a point opposite Big Island, in 
about long. 70 W., and the second some 
ten or twelve miles east of the first. At 
both localities Pleistocene shells were found 
in small lake basins a short distance from 
the coast at elevations from 100 to 200 feet 
above sea level. At two localities the 
shells were found in abundance, occurring 
in a fine blue clay mixed with some sand. 
These fossiliferous deposits do not occur in 
all of the basins and valleys, which are 
very numerous in this region. In most of 
them they appear to be absent. 
The following is a list of the species ar- 
ranged in the order of their abundance, 
which were obtained from a deposit of blue 
clay about 150 feet above sea level :* 
Saxicava arctica, Mya truncata, Rhynchonella 
psittacea, Astarte compressa ? Balanus erenatus, 
Pecten icelandicus, Lepeta cceca. 
In the interior of Big Island, Mr. T. L. 
Watson found Pleistocene shells at an ele- 
vation of 270 feet. The species which he 
obtained are Mya truncata and Macoma subu- 
losa. 
The Greenland shells are especially in- 
teresting because of the peculiar manner of 
* The writer is indebted to Professor H. S. Wil- 
liams for the use of specimens for comparison, and to 
Miss Katharine J. Bush for assistance in the determi- 
nation of species. 
