-iOO Scientific Intelligence. 



ing account (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xvi, pp. 47 1-478) of a 

 small collection of Miocene fossils collected in 1855 by Dr. Wil- 

 liam Stimpson, on the shore of Penjinsk Bay, in the northeastern 

 angle of Okhotsk Sea, at a small coaling station called by the 

 whalers Coal Bay. The fossils were deposited in the Smithsonian 

 and have only recently been described. The position assigned to 

 Coal Bay on the map of the HancocWs expedition is latitude 60° 

 17' north, and longitude 161° 55' east, of Greenwich. The fauna 

 described was a littoral fauna and presents analogy with those of 

 the China and South Japan seas, and also indicates a bond of 

 relationship with the west coast of* Africa. 



The present mean annual temperature of Okhotsk is 23-1°, and 

 the temperature of the sea water does not rise above 40° F. ex- 

 cept in the harbor during the warmest part of the summer, and 

 for two-thirds of the year it is at or below the freezing point. 

 The annual mean temperature of the Gulf of Penjinsk indicated 

 by the fossils, which are of Miocene age, as interpreted by F. B. 

 Meek and also confirmed by Dr. Dall, "can not have been much 

 less than 60° F. and was probably higher, that is to say since this 

 fossil fauna flourished in these waters, the annual mean tempera- 

 ture has diminished by 30° to 40° F., at the most moderate cal- 

 culation." Which fact the author concludes would be quite suf- 

 ficient to prove that no polar conditions in the modern sense could 

 have existed in eastern Siberia during the old Miocene epoch of 

 geological time. h. s. w. 



4. On the Glaciation of Asia. — In a paper before the recent 

 meeting of the British Association, Prince Kropotkin summed 

 up his knowledge on the general glaciation of Asia as follows : 

 The Lowlands and Steppes, under 2000 feet in height, do not ap- 

 pear to have been glaciated ; but all the mountain ridges rising 

 over the Steppes, the great border ridges of Tian Shan and the 

 Alpine tracts fringing the plateau, were covered with immense 

 glaciers which descended to within 1000 feet of sea-level. The 

 Viteni Plateau, the N. W. Mongolia Plateau, the Pamirs, and 

 the great Khingim were extensively glaciated. The southern 

 portion of the High Plateau, however, yield only indirect and not 

 conclusive evidence of glaciation. — Nature, Sept. 28, 1893. 



5. Two new localities for Turquoise ; by W. E. Hidden (com- 

 municated). — The prehistoric group of turquoise mines in the 

 Burro Mts.,* of Grant County, New Mexico, which were first 

 noticed publicly by Mr. Snow,f were visited by the writer in 

 March of last year and the adjoining territory was looked into 

 for other possible occurrences of turquoise. About fifteen miles 

 southeast, some prospecting has been done for turquoise with some 

 success ; the locality is known as the Cow-Springs District. The 

 matrix there is trachyte as in the Burros. In the same county 



* Now known as the Azure Mining Co. and at present being worked. They 

 have produced as much as ten kilos, of fine turquoise in one month ; mostly nodu- 

 lar and covered with a very peculiar "skin " or coating of silica (?). 



f This Journal, xli, 511, 1891. 



