December 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



977 



of retrogressive erosion by a Belgian stream, 

 which is thought to have captured the Meuse 

 from an assumed westward course south of the 

 uplands, a process that seems inadmissible in 

 view of the continuity of the Ardennes as a 

 divide elsewhere. The numerous subsequent 

 streams in the eastern part of the Seine system 

 are not recognized as such ; and the subsequent 

 valley-lowlands, opened on weak strata, between 

 the cuestas that are maintained by stronger 

 strata, are not regarded as certainly due to dif- 

 ferential erosion (p. 326), although no specific 

 reasons are given to justify this scepticism. The 

 Loire, whose former northward course from the 

 Central plateau to the Seine is proved by the 

 distribution of crystalline gravels, is explained 

 as having been turned to its present westward 

 course past the site of Orleans by one of the 

 chief anticlines of the region ; but its extension 

 southwest past Blois and Tours seems to have 

 been taken with little regard to the numerous 

 anticlinal and synclinal axes mapped there. 



The former northward course of the Loire, as 

 above stated, may perhaps give explanation to 

 the peculiar westward deflection of the Aube, 

 upper Seine and Yonne along a subsequent 

 valley south of the cuesta of calcaire grassier to 

 the point where the Loing, a smaller stream, 

 turns their vinited waters throxigh the cuesta to- 

 wards Paris. The Loing seems to represent the 

 former course of the Loire. While that large 

 river ran here, one of its subsequent branches 

 might, with more or less aid from differential 

 elevation, naturally enough have captured the 

 Yonne, upper Seine and Aube, which then con- 

 tinued in their deflected course after the Loire 

 had been turned away to the west. 



HERCEGOVINA. 



A students' excursion from the University of 

 Vienna through Bosnia, Hercegovina and Dal- 

 matia, under Penck's leadership, in the spring of 

 1899, led that geographer to prepare two essays 

 on the physical features of the region visited 

 (' Geomorphologische Studien aus der Herce- 

 govina,' Zeitschr. deutsch.-oesterr. Alpenvereins, 

 XXXI. , 1900, 25-41, ' Die Eiszeit auf der Bal- 

 kenhalbinsel,'(?^o6M«,LXXVIII., 1900, 133-136, 

 159-164, 173-178). Stiongly folded Mesozoic 

 limestones occupy most of the country traversed. 



They have been extensively denuded and in 

 some areas reduced to plains, while elsewhere 

 mountains of strong relief still remain. Some 

 of the latter possess well-defined cirques and 

 moraines of former local glaciers. Large sink- 

 holes abound in the highlands. Much of the 

 upland surface exhibited bare limestone ledges, 

 the typical Karst landscape. The lower course 

 of the Kerka river lies across one of the plains 

 of denudation whose surface evenly truncates 

 the inclined limestone strata ; but the plain is 

 now elevated and trenched by the river, and in 

 the young gorge thus formed extensive traver- 

 tine deposits have produced a beautiful group 

 of falls, back of which stretches a narrow, 

 branching lake. In other cases, dislocation is 

 believed to have accompanied elevation. Many 

 streams that flowed on the surface of the low- 

 lands before their elevation now escape to the 

 sea from enclosed basins by underground pas- 

 sages, reappearing further on in great springs, 

 and thus leaving the uplifted land forms more 

 than usually intact. The undersigned also, as a 

 member of Penck's party, has written a brief 

 account of this ' Excursion in Bosnia, Hercego- 

 vina and Dalmatia ' (Bull. Geogr. Soc. Phila., 



III., 1901, 21-50). 



W. M. Davis. 



NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



With the coming of the new century we have 

 two new entomological journals. One, entitled 

 Revue Busse d? Entomologie, is issued bimonthly 

 by a committee of six editors, several of whom 

 are well known to entomologists. It is a gen- 

 eral journal, containing descriptions of new 

 species, synopses, etc., but most of the articles 

 are devoted to the Russian fauna. Each num- 

 ber contains a bibliography of current entomo- 

 logic literature appertaining to the Russian 

 fauna. The other journal is the Zeitschrift fur 

 systematische Hymenopterologie und Diplerulogie, 

 published by F. W. Kouow, of Teschendorf, 

 Germany. Six numbers are to appear each 

 year. Its title indicates its intended scope, but 

 several biologic articles have already appeared 

 in its pages. 



It has long been known that the species of 

 Orina, a genus of Chrysomelid beetles, were 

 viviparous. Recently Mr. Champion and Dr. 



