Trof. Baron F. Richthofen — On the Origin of the Loena. 293 



7th, 1881, the honour of Knighthood was conferred upon him in 

 acknowledgment of his long and distinguished public services, and 

 at the end of the year Sir Andrew Ramsay resigned his appointment 

 as Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 

 The present Director-General of the Geological Survey, A. Geikie, 

 Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., has been connected with that service since 

 Oct. 15, 1855. When the Geological Survey of Scotland was recog- 

 nized as a separate branch of the establishment, Mr. Geikie was 

 appointed as Director. In 1865, Mr. Geikie was elected a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society of London ; he was President of the Geological 

 Section of the British Association at Dundee in 1867, and again at 

 Edinburgh in 1871 ; in the same year he was created Murchison 

 Professor at the express wish of the founder of the Chair, an ap- 

 pointment which he only recently resigned. In 1873, the Univer- 

 sity of Edinburgh conferred upon him the distinction of LL.D., and 

 in 1881, the Geological Society, in recognition of his scientific 

 labours, presented him with the Murchison Medal. Mr. Geikie is 

 well known as an accomplished writer. Amongst his many contri- 

 butions to geological literature may be mentioned, " The Story of a 

 Boulder," 1858; "The Glacial Drift of Scotland," 1863; "The 

 Scenery and Geology of Scotland," 1865 ; this was accompanied 

 by a Geological Map of Scotland ^ " The Life of Murchison," 2 vols. 

 1874; and his lately published "Geological Sketches at Home and 

 Abroad." He contributed the exhaustive article on Geology to the 

 current edition of the Encyclopgedia Britannica, and is now engaged 

 in the preparation of a " Text-book of Geology," which will form a 

 volume of some 800 pages. 



II. — On tee Mode of Origin op the Loess. 



By Professor Barou F. Eichthofen, 



of tlie University of Bonn-on-tlie-Elmie. 



[rpHE following communication, although addressed to the Editor 

 i in the form of a letter, is of such importance that we need make 

 no apology for treating it as an Original Article, feeling sure that our 

 readers will be as much interested as ourselves in the observations 

 of so eminent a geologist, who has spent many years in actual study 

 of these vast deposits, as to the origin of which he is consequently 

 able to speak with such profound knowledge and mature judgment. 

 — Edit. Geol. Mas.] 



SiK, — You will receive in a few days a copy of the second volume 

 of my work on China, which I requested my publisher (Mr. Dietrich 

 Reimer, of Berlin) to send to your address.^ In this volume are 

 embodied the results of my travels in Nortliern China, and it is 

 chiefly devoted to the geology of that country. The third volume 

 will comprise Southern China, while the fourth, which is to contain 

 the description of a portion of the fossils collected by me, is now 

 going through the press and will be ready within a few months. It 

 will be accompanied by 52 plates. The palfeontologicai memoirs 

 * Since received. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



