March -ii, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



331 



ores is treated of by Mr. Frank L. Nason, 

 the author of the report on Iron Ores, 

 pubUslu'd bj- the Missouri Survej- in 1892. 

 The report on the building stones is by Mr. 

 G. E. Ladd. 



The first of this series, viz., the Higgins- 

 ville sheet, was issued in folio form, the 

 text being printed on large sheets of the 

 same size as the maps, somewhat similar to 

 the sheet reports issued by the United States 

 Geological Survey, except that the former 

 was stitched. In these later repoi-ts the text 

 is printed in octavo form, while the map with 

 the sheet of sections and a sheet of brief ex- 

 planatory matter is issued in a folio cover 

 separately. A portion of the edition, how- 

 ever, has the map and sheet of sections 

 printed on thin paper, folded and inserted 

 at the end of the pamphlet. Thus this 

 series of reports have been issued in three 

 forms, which may serve to assist in deciding 

 the best form for publication of future re- 

 ports for different purposes. 



J. D. K. 



Preliminary Report on the Bainij Lake Gold 

 Region. By H. V. "Winchell and U. S. 

 Gra>'t. Geol. and Xat. Hist. Survey of 

 Minn., 23rd Ann. Kept., pp. :5G-105. 

 Jan., 1S!)5. 



Considerable excitement has been caused 

 during the last year bj' the reported dis- 

 coveries of rich gold-hearing veins at Rainj- 

 Lake, on the northern boi-der of Minnesota, 

 and accordingly an examination of tliis re- 

 gion was made by the Geological Survey oj 

 the State. The veins occur in more or less 

 crystalline rocks of Pre-Cambrian age, and 

 can be classed as: (a) fissure veins, (b) 

 segregated viens and (c) fahlbands. The 

 most promising part of the district is in 

 what is known as the Seine River country, 

 in Canadian territory, wliere there are true 

 fis-sure veins which furnish a good quality of 

 free-milling ore. Actual mining was con- 

 ducted during the last summer in but one 



place — at the Little American mine, in 

 Itasca count J', Jlinn.; but prospecting and 

 exploitation have been carried on in a num- 

 ber of other places. As j-et the development 

 is iusufhcient to warrant the positive asser- 

 tion that profitable gold mining can be con- 

 ducted in the Rainy Lake district, but in 

 several localities the prospects are full of 

 encouragement and promise. The report 

 is accompanied by a geological map of the 

 region. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 BIOLOGICAL. 



The Januarj^ uumber of the Geological 

 Magazine contains a note by Professor H. G. 

 Seeley, on the skeleton of Pareiasauntsbaini. 

 This remarkable animal is one of the Ano- 

 modontia which Professor Seeley has been 

 making known to science fi"om the Karoo 

 or Upper Triassic beds of South Afi-ica. 

 He observes that while there are super- 

 ficial characters which parallel the laby- 

 rinthodont amphibia, there is no doubt 

 the animal finds its place among true rep- 

 tilia. It is remarkalile for the number of 

 sharp recurved teeth upon the palate, to- 

 gether with the teeth in sockets on the alve- 

 olar margins of the jaw. Xotwithstanding 

 the extremely hea^•y' build of the animal, 

 there is much that recalls the lowest mam- 

 malia in the shoulder girdle and the fore 

 and hind limbs. It is the shoulder chiefly 

 which iudicates this affinity with the Mono- 

 tremata. The new knowledge which this 

 animal supplies gives a meaning to the or- 

 dinal term by showing the resemblances in 

 the teeth to various groups of animals which 

 would not have been suspected from the 

 reptilian structure of the skull, or the mam- 

 malian structure of the extremities. The 

 skeleton is figured, as it now appears 

 mounted in the British Museum, of a total 

 length of seven feet, nine inches. It would 

 be difficult to imagine a more grotesque 

 quadruped. Those who have had experi- 



