330 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 

 I. Geology. 



1. Geology of the Taylorville Region of California ; by J. S. 

 Diller, pp. 369-394 of the Bull. Geol. Soc. America, 1892. 



Jura and Trias at Taylorville, California, by Alpheus Hyatt, 

 pp. 395-412, ibid. 



In these two papers is found the first recognition of the Lias in 

 North America. The region of this discovery is in Plumas Co., 

 California, near the summit of the Sierra Nevada, and is the 

 same that afforded the fossils, in the survey under Professor J. D. 

 Whitney, that were studied by Gabb and proved to represent the 

 Upper Triassic and the Jurassic formations. The recent collec- 

 tions of Professor Hyatt have confirmed the results of Mr. Gabb, 

 and, besides adding to the number of Upper Triassic species, 

 have afforded over 40 Liassic, a large number of the Middle Jura 

 or Oolite, and others that are referred to the Callovian and 

 Corallian of the Upper Jura. 



Mr. Diller, from his study of the stratigraphy of the region, 

 makes the total thickness of its stratified rocks, exclusive of the 

 gravels, to be over 24,500 feet. Of this series, about 17,500 are 

 Paleozoic, 4700 Triassic, 450 Liassic, 530 Middle Jura, and J 000 

 Upper Jura — 500 of the last in each of its subdivisions. The 

 rocks are shown to be in overthrust flexures and upthrust faults, 

 with the thrust in each to the eastward. Mr. Diller finds evi- 

 dence that there was a profound upturning at the close of the 

 Carboniferous ; another feebler disturbance after the Triassic, 

 and a great upturning again with flexures of the rocks after the 

 Jurassic and probably immediately following this period. His 

 paper contains sections illustrating the flexures and faults, with a 

 full account of the stratigraphical results reached. 



2. Geological Survey of th*>. State of Neio York. Palceon- 

 tology : Volume VIII. An Introduction to the study of the 

 genera of lalceozoic Brachiopoda. Part I. By James Hall, 

 State Geologist and Palaeontologist, assisted by John M. 

 Clarke. Albany, 1892, 4to, pp. i-xvi, 1-367, with 39 figures in 

 the text and 44 lithographic plates. — Part I, now piiblished, 

 includes all the genera of palaeozoic inarticulate brachiopods, 

 together with the Orthoids, Strophomenoids, and Productoids of 

 the articulate section. The Terebratuloids, Rhynchonelloids, Pen- 

 tameroids, and spire-bearing forms are to appear in a subsequent 

 volume. Practically this work fulfills the function of a final 

 arbiter on questions of generic limitations. Great care has been 

 taken to investigate type species and upon them to base the 

 generic diagnoses. The manifest plan is to give of each genus, 

 (a) accurate illustrations, (b) the bibliography and synonymy, 

 (c) a diagnosis of internal and external characters, (d) the type 

 species, (e) general observations on the structure and affinities, 



