310 Scientific Intelligence. 



Ohio, is stated to descend into the Lower Silurian, and to afford 

 gas at the rate of 40,000,000 cubic feet a year. The roaring of 

 the escaping gas can be heard for five miles. 



2. Existing Glaciers in the United States ; by I. C. Russell, 

 U. S. Geol. Survey. From the 5th Annual Report of the Director, 

 Major Powell. 1883-84. pp. 309 to 355. Washington, 1885. — 

 Mr. Russell's Report, with its fine illustrations, is of interest to 

 the country as well as to geological science. It gives the first 

 connected account of the glaciers of the United States, and illus- 

 trates the subject with excellent views of some of the glaciers 

 and glacier-bearing mountains from photographs. The glaciers 

 have been called glacierets, because of their small size ; but they 

 have, still, as the views and descriptions show, the characteristics 

 of those of greater extent. Mr. Russell's personal observations 

 were made in the Sierra Nevada, on Mt. Dana, Mt. Lyell, and at 

 other points in the High Sierras between the latitudes 36 £° and 

 38°, at a height of about 11,500 feet above the sea. The division 

 into the neve and glacier is made out, and laminated or ribboned 

 structure, dirt-bands and terminal moraines described. The dirt 

 bands are stated to be probably a result, as suggested by Professor 

 William H. Brewer, of the concentration, at levels, of surface 

 dust by the periodical meltings over the glacier. The account 

 of personal observations is followed by the earlier descriptions of 

 the same glaciers by Muir and LeConte. Mr. Russell also gives 

 in full Mr. Clarence King's description of the glaciers of Mount 

 Shasta, made in 1870; and -also an account by Mr. Gilbert 

 Thomson, with fine views and a map of his observations, made on 

 an ascent in 1883. To these are added Mr. Arnold Hague's ac- 

 count of the glaciers of Mt. Hood, in Oregon ; Mr. S. F. Emmons's 

 description of those of Mt. Rainier, in Washington Territory; 

 notes on small glaciers of the Wind River Mountains, by Mr. 

 W. H. Holmes; and on Alaska glaciers, by W. P. Blake and 

 W. H. Bell. A general map of the Sierra Nevada region shows 

 the positions of the existing glaciers, and also of the great glacier 

 areas of former time. 



3. Upper Miocene {Loup Fork Beds) in Eastern Mexico. — 

 These beds, first described by Prof, de Castillo in 1 883, occur on 

 the borders of the States of Hidalgo and Vera Cruz. They have 

 been found by Prof. Cope to afford remains of species of Pro- 

 tohippus, Hippotherium, and Mastodon, and probably of Pro- 

 camelus; and others of Dicotyles are announced by de Castillo. 

 The area is at least eighteen miles by six, and the thickness of 

 the formation not less than 2,000 feet. It is intersected by the 

 valleys of tributaries of the Tuxpan and Benados rivers, some of 

 which are narrow gorges 1500 deep. Several thin beds of coal 

 occur in it. This, Mr. Cope states, is the most southern point yet 

 discovered of the Loup Fork beds. — Amer. Nat., 1885, p. 494. 



4. Neic Carboniferous Arachnidan from Arkansas. — Prof. S. 

 H. Scudder refers to the Arachnidan genus Anthracomartus of 

 Karsch, a fossil, somewhat trilobite-like in form, which he names 



