314 Scientific Intelligence. 



extended observations that have been made show that the oscilla- 

 tions in water-level go on with great uniformity, that they are 

 more marked in the north, and that years with a positive average 

 alternate with those with a negative, the latter being now in 

 excess. Attention is also called to the fact that a similar conclu- 

 sion has been reached for the Black Sea by Haun and Koppen. 

 For the Mediterranean the conditions are somewhat similar, 

 though here the amount of salt is greater than in the ocean, in- 

 creasing in the neighborhood of Crete and the African coast, 

 since the inflow of the streams through the Bosphorus and 

 Gibraltar does not suffice to supply the place of the water evapora- 

 ted. Accurate measurements of level have shown that the surface 

 of the Mediterranean lies a little deeper than that of the ocean, it 

 resembling somewhat a shallow Tunnel with greatest depth coincid- 

 ing with the region where the water is most salt. A continual 

 equilibrium is not to be expected but rather variations of the water 

 condition especially toward the apex of the funnel. The greatest 

 recorded changes of the coast-line are to the southwest of Crete, and 

 amount to 20 to 23 feet (negative) as given by Spratt. Even on 

 the Spanish and French coast where the amount of salt is almost 

 the same with that of the ocean, variations of 0'4 to 1*02 meters 

 have'oeen recorded. — Akad. Wien., Anzeiger, xvi. 



3. TJnconfovmability between the Anirnikie and the Vermilion 

 Series; by Alexander Winchell. (Communicated to the 

 Editors in a letter dated Aug. 20, 1887.) — I beg to announce that 

 while engaged in work for the Minnesota Geological Survey, I 

 have discovered the unconformable superpositions of the Anirnikie 

 on the slates of the Vermilion series. The Anirnikie flint schists 

 dipping five degrees southward, have been traced by me to with- 

 in seven feet of sericitic argillites of the Vermilion series, clipping 

 northeast about 67 degrees. I will communicate particulars 

 hereafter. 



4. Catalogue of the J^ossil Mammalia in the British Museum. 

 Part IV, containing the Order Ungulata, Suborder Proboscidea ; 

 by Richard Ltdekkee, B.A., F.G.S., etc. 236 pp. 8vo, with 32 

 woodcuts. London, 1886. — This volume completes Part IV. 

 The collection of remains of the Proboscidea in the British 

 Museum is without a rival, and this gives special importance to 

 the annotated catalogue. The following on the vertical distribu- 

 tion of the Proboscidea is from pages xii, xiii. 



The most remarkable point in regard to the vertical distribution 

 of the Proboscidea is their apparently sudden appearance in the 

 Middle Miocene of Europe, where they are represented by Dino- 

 therium giganteum and Mastodon angustidens. Although the 

 former is evidently a generalized form connecting the Elephan- 

 tidce with the less aberrant Ungulates, yet it cannot be regarded 

 as the direct ancestor of any known member of that family ; and 

 the latter is to all intents and purposes a perfect Elephant, in the 

 widest sense of that term. Our comparatively full knowledge of 

 the Lower Miocene and Upper Eocene Mammalian faunas of the 



