June 20, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



373 



of warfare. Long- tells us, in the account of his expedition, 

 that sometimes they would hastily dig a trench, throwing 

 the dirt on the danger side, and thus form a defensive bar- 

 rier. ■ 



Whether the hill-forts are to be attributed to the authors 

 of the circles and squares is doubtful : in fact, the indications 

 appear to lead to the opposite conclusion. Certainly there 

 is no reason for supposing that Fort Ancient, Fortified Hill, 

 and other works of this character in the Miami valleys, were 

 built by this people. The writer is inclined to the belief 

 that they are the work of the Shawnees, but cannot under- 

 take at this time to give his reasons for this opinion. 



As the so called '"altars" form a link in this historic 

 chain, we may as well remark here that the names "sacrificial 

 mounds" and "altars," implying human sacrifice, have been 

 brought into use without even the shadow of evidence 

 therefor. As Morgan has truly observed, "there is no pro- 

 priety in the use of either of these terms, or in the conclu- 

 sions they would force us to adopt. . . . These clay beds 

 were not adapted to the barbarous work." Possibly they 

 may have been places where prisoners were burned, which 

 was the chief sacrifice offered by Indians. The basin-shaped 

 clay beds of the Kanawha and East Tennessee mounds seem 

 to have grown out of them, and their uses were probably 

 similar. Cyrus Thomas. 



[To be continued.] 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



The eighth annual meeting of the Royal Society of Canada is 

 just over; and, from the interest manifest in the four sections 

 into which that society is divided, no better proof of the growth, 

 usefulness, ami success of such an organization can be desired. 



Of forty-three papers which were presented, either read in ex- 

 tenso, in abstract, or by title, no less than twenty of them treated 

 ■on scientific topics, while the remainder were devoted to histori- 

 cal, political, and literary subjects. 



Sections III. and IV. of the Royal Society are specially devoted 

 to the sciences: the former embracing the mathematical, physical, 

 and chemical sciences; the latter, the geological and biological 

 sciences. A list of the papers read in these sections was pub- 

 lished in Science of June 6. 



The character of the papers read in the section of the geologi- 

 cal and biological sciences were all of a high order, and interest- 

 ing discussions look place. Dr. G. M. Dawson, assistant director 

 of the Geological Survey, was president, and for his inaugural 

 delivered an address upon the ''Mesozoic and Tertiary History of 

 the Rocky Mountain Region of Canada," in which the geological 

 history of the Cordillera is traced from the triassic period to the 

 close of the tertiary, and special reference is made to the process 

 of development of the surface features of the region, together 

 with the changes in elevation of the land at different periods. 

 Another paper by Dr. Dawson, which can be regarded as a sup- 

 plement to the foregoing, gave a very succinct sketch of the gla- 

 cial history of the Rocky Mountain region of Canada, bringing 

 the subject-matter to date. These two papers were followed by 

 another from the pen of Principal Sir William Dawson, on '-Fos- 

 sil Plants from the Similkameen River and other Places in the 

 Southern Interior of British Tolumbia." The following is an ab- 

 stract of this paper: — 



The deposits affording these plants have been described by Dr. 

 G. H. Dawson in the ''Report of Progress of the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Canada for 1877-78" (pp. 130B, 166B). They are of lacus- 

 trine origin, and underlie basalt and other volcanic materials. 

 The beds holding well-preserved remains of plants are chiefly 

 those composed of fine laminated clayey or silty material, which 

 in some cases has been hardened by silicious matter which appears 

 to have been derived from springs contemporaneous, or nearly so, 



with the date of formation of the beds. These deposits have been 

 approximately assigned to the period of the miocene tertiary. 

 They contain a number of species of fossil insects which have 

 been described by Scudder (report above cited, p. 1758), and fossil 

 plants, of which a provisional list was given in the same report 

 (pp. 186B-187B). The present paper relates to additional collec- 

 tions of plants from the Tulameen or North Fork of the Similka- 

 meen, Tranquille River, etc., and which, while they extend our 

 knowledge of the flora, tend strongly to confirm the miocene age 

 of the formation, and to connect it with similar deposits farther 

 north in Alaska. 



The object of the paper, " Stratigraphical Notes on the Citadel 

 Hill, Quebec" (in French), by L'Abbe Laflamme, was to deter- 

 mine the structure of the beds constituting the cliff at the citadel 

 near the Dufferin Terrace, Quebec, where the "land-slide" oc- 

 curred in September, 1889, and thereby to ascertain the cause of 

 the disaster. Professor Laflamme pointed to imminent danger 

 even at present, and the probable sliding-away of several feet 

 of strata, which sooner or later must take place. A very inter- 

 esting and animated discussion followed. 



The paper on " Illustrations of the Fauna of the St. John Group, 

 No. V. ," by G. F. Matthew, M. A. , was a continuation of the paper 

 of last year which described the fossils of the " Basal Series" (be- 

 neath the St. John group), and the new ones of Band C of Divis- 

 ion 1 of the St. John group. The following points were discussed 

 in this paper: (a) a description of the structure of the St. John 

 basin, (6) a description of the new series in Division 1 of the St. 

 John group and of newly recovered parts of others, (e) a descrip- 

 tion of the tracks and organisms of Division 2, and (d) a descrip- 

 tion of the fossils of Division 8. Peculiar tracks have been de- 

 tected, which appear to be those of radiate animals. A good 

 many tracks have been observed in the sandstones and shales of 

 Division 3, which are like those of the Eophyton sandstone in 

 Sweden; but it is thought that this resemblance is due to a 

 similarity of conditions under which the above sandstones and 

 those of Division 2 were deposited, as the Paradoxides fauna un- 

 doubtedly intervenes. 



Mr. E. Gilpin, commissioner of mines for Nova Scotia, in 

 his paper on " The Evidence of a Nova Scotia Carboniferous Con- 

 glomerate," referred to the nature, soiu-ce, and extent of the 

 modern drift of Nova Scotia, and to the shingle beaches formed 

 from it He described the carboniferous conglomerates of Cape 

 Breton as consisting usually of detritus derived from local sources, 

 and in Nova Scotia proper cited the conglomerates of the south 

 side of the Cobequids, and of New Glasgow, as good examples of 

 conglomerates formed from subjacent strata. The auriferous 

 conglomerates of Gays River, Colchester County, were described, 

 and the occurrence in it of bowlders referrible to pre-carbonifer- 

 ous measures lying to the north was noticed. The inference sug- 

 gested was that the modern drift-transporting agency, carrying 

 to the Atlantic shore bowlders referrible to the Cobequids, was 

 paralleled, at the opening of the carboniferous period, by a similar 

 agency furnishing bowlders found in lower carboniferous con- 

 glomerates at Gays River. 



The paper on " Southern InverteVtrates of the Shores of Acadia," 

 by W. F. Ganong, was submitted to the Royal Society, and read 

 by Professor L. W. Bailey of New Brunswick University. It 

 opened with a sketch of the progress of knowledge of the distri- 

 bution of marine invertebi'ate animals on the east coast of North 

 America, from the time of the establishment of Milne- Edwards's 

 " Pennsylvanian Region" in 1838, down to its division into the 

 Syrteusian, Acadian. Virginian, and Caroliniau faunae, as accepted 

 by students to-day. Attention was then called to the well-known 

 occurrence of southern or Virginian forms in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, at Sable Island, and at other points on the coasts of Acadia 

 and Maine; and a table was given showing the twenty-five un- 

 doubtedly southern species of mollusca. At least three Echino- 

 dermata occupy these localities, mingled with the more north- 

 ern forms. This anomalous condition cannot date far back, since 

 post- pliocene deposits show no trace of it. Indeed, there is evi- 

 dence to show that changes are still going on; and facts drawn 

 from Indian shell-heaps, from dead beach and dead dredged shells, 

 and from old books, all show that these southern forms had for- 



