150 Scientific Intelligence. 



independent outlet into the Dry Lake Basin north of east of San 

 Diego, a region seventy feet below the present sea-level. Dr. 

 Packard hence concludes that the lake was once fresh, and that it 

 has become salt by evaporation and contributions from salt springs 

 and the soil. J. d. d. 



2. Drift formation and Gold in Missouri ; by G. C. Broad- 

 HKAD.— The drift of Missouri is confined to the part of the State 

 north of the Missouri. The upper beds are chiefly sand with 

 some small pebbles and a little clay ; lower down are large 

 bowlders, and at base are blue clays. In Sullivan Co., and the 

 western part of Adair the depth is 50 to 60 feet ; in Davies Co., 

 40 to 80 feet; in northeastern Adair, over 100 feet; in Knox, 

 200 feet ; in Putnam, over 70. In Illinois, in Moultrie Co., the 

 depth is over 200 feet, as shown by wells, and in Decatur Co., 

 over 90 feet. Gold has been found hi Missouri, in Chariton, Linn, 

 Adair, Putnam, Sullivan and Mercer Counties. It is in very 

 small grains, the largest particles, from Adair Co., are not larger 

 than a grain of wheat.— J/*//es, Metals and Arts, St. Louis, Dec. 9. 



3. Glacial striw north of Lake Ontario, in the Ontario dis- 

 trict. Western Canada.— Frol Chapman, in a paper on the Geol- 

 ogy of Ontario (Canadian Journ., xiv, 580, Dec, 1875) states that 

 the limestone strata beneath the glacial and post-glacial deposits 

 (w^hich cover a large part of the Lake Ontario district) are found 

 to be generally si i-iated, and that the striae run commonly in a 

 southwest direction. The direction proves that the slope of the 

 upper surface of the glacier in that region was from the northeast 

 to the southwest ; or that the greatest height of the ice surface lay 

 somewhere to the northeast of that district. 



4. New Fucoid from the Water-lime Group {Lower JLelderhern) 

 of Western New York. - Messrs. A. R. Grote and W. H. Put 

 have described a species of Bxthotrephis, from the Water-lime, 

 which they call B. I^esquereuxi. The stem, originally cylindrical, 

 bramhes from the base ; and the branches are simple o/sparingly 

 dichotomous, smooth, la to 14 cm. long, 3 to 4 mm. thick, but 

 gradually widening to nearly 1 cm, at the obtuse or round-trun- 

 cate point.— BttU.^Biifalo Soc. Nat. Sci., 1876 (January), p. 88. 



5. FetrifactioN.-CHKYR^VL, in a paper before the French 

 'the petrifaction of an organic 



) epochs : the fy-st is that of the 

 s and pores of the solid ^ " 



tion of the mineral material through capillary 

 chemically by affinity upon the soUd portion — producing a petri 

 faction which has the figure of the interstices and pores ; and tht 

 second inchides the time of the total disappearance of the organic 

 matter itself and its replacement by the mineral material, the re 

 suit of this action having the actual form of the oro;anic matter 

 Daubree, after the reading of M. Chevreul's paper, mentione«J 

 facts from the hot baths of Bourbonne-les-Baiiis eotiHrming hi:^ 

 conclusions. He stated that wood occurs in the waters in all 

 states of change by the petrifying agent, carbonate of lime. lu 



