680 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 202. 



description was presented at the meeting of the 

 British Association in Cambridge. 



Professor Osborn was followed by Professor 

 Britton, who gave a resume of the work accom- 

 plished during the summer on the building and 

 grounds at the Botanic Garden in Bronx Park. 



Professor Dean reported on a few results on 

 the embryology of the Hag Fish, which he thinks 

 is similar to that of the shark. He also de- 

 scribed the appearance of a Central African 

 Lung Fish (Protopterus), which was sent to him 

 in a ball of dried mud. 



Dr. O. S. Strong and Mr. H. E. Crampton 

 reported briefly of the nature of the work ac- 

 complished at the Marine Biological Laboratory 

 at Woods HoU, bringing out particularly the 

 fact of the cordial relations between the Fish 

 Commission investigators and those of the Lab- 

 oratory. 



Mr. N. R. Harrington related some interest- 

 ing experiences in connection with his expedi- 

 tion to the Nile valley in quest of Polypterus 

 bishir. The expedition, which was made pos- 

 sible by the generosity of Mr. Chas. H. Senff, 

 was undertaken by Mr. Harrington and Dr. 

 Reid Hunt. As guests of the Egyptian govern- 

 ment they enjoyed unusual advantages in se- 

 curing their ends, but only after repeated trials 

 and discomforts and many disappointments did 

 they finally get the fish. 



Other brief reports were made by Professor 

 Lloyd (on the botanic gardens of Germany), 

 Dr. Brockway and Mr. Calkins. 



Gaey N. Calkins, 

 Secretary of Section. 



GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNIVER- 

 SITY, OCTOBER 11, 1898. 



Mr. a. "W. Grabau opened the work for the 

 year with a paper on ' Some Methods of Strati- 

 graphical Field-work. ' He illustrated practical 

 suggestions on collecting fossils and measuring 

 sections by cases drawn from his detailed study 

 of the Eighteen Mile Creek section. New York. 

 Mr. J. R. Healy described the features studied 

 by the Harvard mining class during its summer 

 visit to the Lake Superior mining region. The 

 party examined the underground workings of 

 thirteen mines, and the open-cut workings in the 

 extensive iron-ore deposits of the Mesabi Range. 



OCTOBER 18, 1898. 



Dr. F. p. Gulliver delivered a paper on the 

 ' Physiography of the Ural Mountains, and il- 

 lustrated it with numerous lantern views. The 

 Great Plain of Russia, a plain of denudation, 

 rises gently and constantly from the center of the 

 country into the Urals. It has been traced upon 

 the folded and faulted Devonian strata of the 

 outer ranges, and also upon the more intensely 

 plicated Carboniferous beds and upon the gran^ 

 ite of the Central Urals. In addition to this, 

 Dr. Gulliver observed remnants of peneplains 

 at two other distinct levels. The relative atti- 

 tudes of these levels indicate, first, that the 

 Ural Mountains have been elevated as a whole 

 in the form of an arch with a north-south axis ; 

 and second, that this elevation, and the dissec- 

 tion consequent upon it, occurred in at least 

 three distinct stages. 



The physiographic features noted on the 

 western side of the continental divide are re- 

 peated on the eastern side, with the addition of 

 a steep fall-oif from the Umen Mountains to the 

 great Siberian peneplain. Richtofen holds that 

 this is a sea scarp cut by the same sea that 

 carved the Siberian plain. Others believe that 

 it is a fault scarp which marks the disjointing 

 of the Siberian plain from one of the upper 

 levels of the Urals. 



J. M. BOUTWELL, 



Recording Secretary pro tempore. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Psychology of Peoples and its Influence on 

 Their Evolution. New York, The Macmillan 

 Company. 1898. Pp. xii + 236. 



Hie Fishes of North and Middle America. David 

 Starr Jordan and Barton W. Evermann. 

 Washington, Government Printing OfBce. 

 1898. Part 4. Pp. xxx + from 1241-2183. 



Laboratory Exercise in Anatomy and Physiology. 

 James Edward Peabody. New York, Henry 

 Holt & Co. 1898. Pp. X -t- 79. 



Observations of the Planet Mars during the Op- 

 position of 1S94-95, made at Flagstaff, Arizona. 

 Percival Lowell. Annals of the Lowell 

 Observatory, Vol I. Boston and New York, 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1898. Pp. xi + 

 391. 



