80 Scientific Intelligence. 



boidalis (Wahl.), Plewotomaria, fragment, Strophodonta, a spe- 

 cies allied to Trematospira multistriata (Hall), Stromatopora, 

 Syringopora similar to Niagara forms, Favosites most likely 

 favosa (Golclf.), Favosites with the special character of Niagara 

 forms Favosites, a ramose species, Niagara group. 



The following fossils were also found at the same locality, thus 

 corroborating the discoveries made there in 1870 by Professor 

 Ch. H. Hitchcock, and the determinations by the late Mr. Billings, 

 (this Journal, III, vol. vii, 1874, pp." 468, 557 ; also Geology 

 of New Hampshire, vol. i, p. 48, 1874, vol. ii, p. 339-340, 1877, 

 Pentamerus Knightii (Low.), Haly sites, differing but slightly 

 from JS. catenulata (Lin. sp.), Zaphrentis, crinoid columns, frag- 

 ments of another gasteropod. The following species also given 

 by Professor Cb. H. Hitchcock from the same locality were not 

 found: Favosites basaltica (Goldf.), Favosites Gothlandica 

 (Lam.) and a Lichas. 



The fossils found by Professor Hitchcock seemed to indicate 

 the age of the Upper or Lower Helderberg for these deposits, with 

 a preponderance in favor of the latter. Mr. Walcott's and Mr. 

 Ronringer's determinations agree however in assigning the beds 

 to the Niagara period. 



2. The Geological history of the Swiss Alps. — Prof. Rene- 

 vier, one of the ablest and most active of Swiss geologists, has 

 an important paper on the Alps, in the "Archives des Sciences," 

 of Geneva, for October 15, 1887 (xviii, 367). He first discusses 

 the age of the crystalline rocks, and opposes the hypothesis of 

 their universal Archaean age and igneous origin. He observes 

 that the crystalline rocks are so varied, so frequently stratiform, 

 not to say stratified, so similar, so indisputable sedimentary rocks, 

 that their general igneous origin cannot, in his view, be sustained. 

 Some may be of this nature, but the micaceous and other schists 

 appear to be ancient argillaceous rocks, foliated by pressure; 

 some gneisses, old sandstones more or less metamorphosed. 

 Further, instead of uniform unconformability between the fossil- 

 iferous beds of the Coal formation and these alleged Archaean 

 schists, in many places there is perfect concordance, and the beds 

 of the Coal formation also are often semi-crystalline. 



It appears, moreover, to be more and more incontestable that 

 some of the crystalline rocks of the Alps contain organic remains. 

 Some time since Sismonda reported the discovery of an impression 

 of an Equisetum in a crystalline rock of the Val Pellina. Recently, 

 M. A. Mailer announced the discovery of Crinoids and other fossils, 

 apparently Devonian, in a kind of Gray wacke, from the Etzlithal ; 

 and M. Stapff has found, in schists from the interior of the 

 St. Gothard tunnel, joints of Crinoids in calcareous mica schists, 

 impressions of fucoids in shining slates, and in a calcareous bed 

 intercalated with mica schists, a microscopic network (figured by 

 him), which probably pertained to a sponge. The past year the 

 discovery has been made known of two trunks which are cer- 



