118 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



inference that the climate at the period of their entombment was 

 slightly colder than that of the Gulf of St. Lawrence at the present 

 day ; but the author thinks that they cannot be considered to mark 

 " the extreme point of cold reached during the epoch ; but rather 

 as indicating the commencement of slightly milder climatic 

 conditions than had hitherto prevailed." Mr. Crosskey also 

 suggests that the conditions which produced the colder climate of 

 Scotland during the glacial period were similar to those which now 

 exercise the same influence on the climate of Canada. 



Amongst the facts which have been relied on as most clearly 

 proving the vast extension of the Alpine glaciers during the glacial 

 period, none have been regarded as more certainly the result of that 

 icy development than the occurrence of erratic blocks of Alpine 

 rocks on the mountains of the Jura, which has been held by most 

 geologists to demonstrate that the Alpine glaciers formerly extended 

 to the Jura range. M. Sartorius von Waltershausen, the distin- 

 guished Professor of Geology at Gottingen, however, has lately, in 

 his prize-essay crowned by the University of Haarlem,* advocated 

 the theory that the Alpine glaciers terminated in an inland sea or 

 lake, where they formed icebergs, some of which, floating towards 

 the Jura, deposited their burdens on that shore. The publication 

 of this work has called forth an able review! from the pen of Pro- 

 fessor B. Studer of Berne, in which Professor von Waltershausen's 

 theory is shown to be inconsistent with positive facts, and to be 

 rendered extremely improbable by negative evidence. Most geolo- 

 gists, however, will no doubt read the arguments on both sides with 

 pleasure and profit, for although this theory is probably not appli- 

 cable to the particular case of the Alps and the Jura, the possibility 

 of its being the true explanation of the phenomena observed in 

 other regions should not be lost sight of by those who prefer simple 

 truth to the universal triumph of a pet hypothesis. 



In the number of the "Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de 

 France" for September, M. Gaudry gives the results of his long 

 and laborious examination of the fossil mammals of Pikermi. His 

 paper is short, and will well repay a careful consideration ; but we 

 can here only mention one of the points he brings forward, namely, 

 that the facies of the Pikermi fauna is altogether African. M. 

 Gaudry recommends this fact to the notice of geologists who inves- 

 tigate the history of the Tertiary period ; but it is equally important 

 in its bearings on the origin of the recent African fauna,:]: and is 

 thus worthy the attention of those naturalists who are at present 



* Untersuchungen iiber die Klimate der Gegenwart und der Yorwelt. 



t ' Eechercbes sur les cliraats de l'epoque actuelle,' &c. Bibliotheque Uni- 

 verselle, September, 1866. 



J See ' Quarterly Journal of Science,' Xo. II, p. 213 : Xo. IV., p. 648 ; and 

 No. X.. p. 169. 



