410 Scientific Intelligence. 



feet long ; and that the lower lobe of the tail consistB of rays that 

 were distinctly ossified. 



The Batrachians or Amphibians from the Carboniferous beds, 

 and described by Prof Cope, are referred by him to the order 

 which he has named Stegocephali; an order including the Lahy- 

 rinthodonts Owen, and also Owen's Ganocephala, and other 

 species recently described which have been called Microsaurs. The 

 species are partly lizard-like, with ribs and limbs (as in Dendrer- 

 petofi, Hylonomus, Amphibamus, Colosteus, Archegosaurits, etc.; 

 and part very long and slender, snake-like, with limbs wanting, as 

 in Molgophis Cope, which has ribs and probably no limbs, and 

 Phlegethontia Cope, which is without both, and includes " true 

 batrachian snakes," — one imperfect specimen having 66 vertebrae. 

 Pr^)f Cope also describes a few Amphibians which he refers to 

 the Proteida. 



The interesting Subcarboniferous plants brought to light and 

 described by Professor E. B. Andrews, have been already noticed 

 in the last volume of this Journal (p. 462) by the author. The 

 turning out of so many new species of unusual forms in a region 

 that had already been long explored is a fact of much geological 



The very numerous plates of this volume are well executed. 

 Dr. Newberry announces in his Preface that Volume III of the 



Paleontology w'ill contain a general review of the fossil plants of 

 Ohio, with descriptions of new species; a memoir by Prof. O. C. 

 Marsh, on the Bicotyles eotnpressus, and on the Gastoroides Ohio- 

 e?ms; and notices of other Quarternarv vertebrate remains, 

 together with some invertebrate fossils yet undescribed. When 

 completed, the series of Ohio reports will rank among the best 

 State-survey publications that have appeared. 



3. Geological Survey of Alabama. -Report of Progress for 

 1875; byEuGEXE A. Smith, Ph.D., State Geologist. 8vo, 220 

 pp. — In this volume, a general outline of the Paleozoic foi-mations 

 of Alabama, with brief descriptions of the various beds, by Prof. 

 Smith, is followed by a summary of the facts heretofore known 

 concerning the Coal-fields of the State, prepared by Mr. T, H. 

 Aldrich. The first systematic attempt at mining and shipping 

 coal, in Alabama, is said to have been made in 1853, near the 

 southwestern extremity of the Cahaba coal-field. Mr. Aldrich^s 

 paper includes a reprint of parts of an elaborate essay l>y K. P- 

 Rothwell, published, two years since, in the Engineering and 

 Mining Journal. The coal-series is said to contain ten or twelve 

 veins [seams] of remarkable thickness, i. e., from two feet (average 

 thickness of clean coal) upward, besides a number of smaller beds, 

 several of which are from fifteen to eighteen inches in thickness. 

 These ten or twelve workable beds are distributed in two series or 

 groups, as we find in all our coal-fields, notably in West Virginia, 

 Ohio and Pennsylvania. * * The maximum available thick- 

 ness of coal as yet proved in any portion of the field will not ex- 

 ceed thirty or thirty-five feet ; while, if we take the area of the 



