Miscellaneous Intelligence. 405 



450 ft. Devonian, limestones and some shales ; 1 900 ft. Carbonif- 

 erous, limestone below and quartzites and sandstones above ; 460 

 ft. Jurassic sandstones and limestones ; 4700 Cretaceous, made up 

 of Dakota sandstones and conglomerates, 600 ft. ; 1600 ft. 

 Colorado, argillaceous limestone and bituminous shales, 1500 ft. 

 Montana, sandy shales and argillaceous shales, 1000 Laramie, 

 coal bearing sandstones and shales, capped by 7000 feet of sand- 

 stone grits, conglomerates and clays, mainly debris of lavas 

 and volcanic rocks, which the authors have named the Livingston 

 formation. 



The change in the lithology — rounded Archsean sand and 

 pebbles of the Laramie being capped by the angular volcanic 

 ejectamenta of the higher beds, together with evidence of at 

 least local unconformity, are the characters chiefly relied on by 

 the authors for calling the Livingston formation post-Laramie. 



The plant remains are shown to have some Laramie affinities 

 but represent more strongly the Denver flora. Of the 22 species of 

 the Livingston beds having a distribution outside the area 

 examined, 17 are found, as the authors remark, "either exclu- 

 sively in the Denver or have their greatest development in this 

 formation"; but we notice, also, that 12 of these same 22 species 

 are also found in the Laramie, and 4 other species, not ranging 

 outside this area, are also found in the underlying Bozeman- 

 Laramie. So far, then, even if the horizon be correlated with the 

 Denver beds, the plants rather confirm Dr. White's interpreta- 

 tion of the Denver formation as being equivalent to upper 

 Laramie and not to post-Laramie. The only reported fossil 

 fauna seems to us to weaken the conclusion of the authors. It 

 comes from a " white calcaerous sandstone interbedded with the 

 characteristic dark colored sandstone grits and shale beds of the 

 Livingston about 500 feet above the base." Mr. Stanton has iden- 

 tified the fossils as undoubted Laramie fossils. 



Whatever change, therefore, is represented by the passage 

 from rounded water-worn Laramie sands and pebbles to angular 

 volcanic ejectmenta and local unconformity, the fact that the 

 same fauna appears 500 feet above the break shows conclusively 

 that, biologically measured, the time interval was insignificant, 

 and the change in the flora is more likely to have been the result 

 of the climatal changes incident to the volcanic eruptions than to 

 any considerable evolution of the total land floras of the conti- 

 nent. Although we should interpret the Livingston beds to be 

 upper Laramie according to the evidence adduced, rather than 

 post-Laramie as the authors maintain, this does not detract from 

 the value of this excellent contribution to the geology of an inter- 

 esting region. h. s. w. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 

 Vol. V, contains the following articles of geological interest : 

 Art. 1, Artionyx, a new genus of Ancylopoda, by H. F. Osbokn and 



