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464 R. Rathbun— Geology of the Lower Amazonas. 
Art. LIX.— Notice of Recent Scientific Publications in Brazil.— 
O. A. Derby on the Geology of the Lower Amazonas; by Ricu- 
ARD RATHBUN. 
THE Archivos of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, 
which were started in 1876, and of which only a single volume | 
was published regularly, have again made their appearance.’ 
The numbers recently received, and issued only in the early 
part of this year, comprise volume II complete, for 1877, and 
the first half of volume III, for 1878. They are accompanied 
by numerous plates, some of which seem to have been carefully 
executed. The cause of the delay in the publication of this 
annual, the only one devoted to natural history memoirs in 
Brazil, is not given, but the high character of several of the 
articles contained in the present volumes, partially compen- 
sates for their late issue. 
of the versicolored flowers of a species of Latana, of Santa 
Catharina, and the insects which fertilize them. Dr. Lacerda, 
of the Museum, gives the results of his experiments with the 
ison of Bothrops jararaca and Bufo ictericus on several domes- 
tic animals. The second volume also contains “Notes on the 
Localities of Antiquities (Ceramios) of Para,” by S. Ferreira 
Penna, and an extended memoir, entitled “ Notes on the Stone 
Lip-ornaments of the Archzological Collection of the National 
Museum,” by Dr. Ladislau Netto, the director of that institu- 
tion. In the third volume are two short geological and min- 
eralogical studies of small sections in the province of Minas 
Geraes, by members of the School of Mines of Ouro Preto. 
_ The paper of greatest interest to North Americans, however, 
is “A Contribution to the Geology of the Lower Amazonas,”* 
by Mr. Orville A. Derby, formerly of the Geological Commis- 
sion of Brazil, but recently appointed geologist in the National 
useum at Rio de Janeiro. nit his memoir, which occupies, consid- 
erable space in volume II, is a résumé of the principal results of 
the explorations of the late Prof. Ch. Fred. Hartt, Mr. Derby 
and others, in the Amazonian valley, and adds man important 
facts and generalizations to those hitherto seubbahed: 
The first portion of the — is devoted to a discussion of the 
_ topography and hydrography of the basin of the Amazonas, and 
of the relations of the great river and its many large tributaries 
a ee ish version of this was published in the Pr ings of the 
American n Philosophical Society of Philedeiphia, for February, 1870. 
