86 Scientific Intelligence. 



11. Diatomaceous Earth in Nebraska. — In a soft, chalky rock 

 of Tertiary age near Scotia, Greeley County, Nebraska, there are 

 numerous diatoms. I have seen entire specimens, or well charac- 

 terized fragments, of the following species: Navicula cuspidata, 

 Cocconema lanceolatum, Amphipleura sigmoidea, Pinnularia 

 radiosa, JSfitzschia longissima, Nitzschia sigmoidea. Mr. F. W. 

 Russell, who kindly furnished me a specimen of the rock, reports 

 that the stratum is twenty feet in thickness near the base of a 

 cliff seventy-five feet high on the North Loup river. The diatoms 

 form but a small proportion of the whole mass of rock. l. e. h. 



University of Nebraska, Oct. 6th, 1887. 



12. The Upper Beaches and Deltas of the Glacial Lake 

 Agassiz ; by Waeeen Upham. 8vo. 1887. Bull. U. S. Geol. 

 Survey, No. 39. — An important paper by Mr. Upham, who has- 

 studied more than any other geologist the Winnipeg Lake region 

 with reference to its ancient drainage. The memoir is accom- 

 panied by a map of part of Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba. 



13. Supposed diamonds in a Meteorite. — It is stated {Nature of 

 Dec. 1) that a meteoric stone, which fell at Krasnoslobodsk, in 

 Russia, on September 4, 1886, has yielded a number of small 

 granules having the hardness, density and other characters of the 

 diamond and believed to be that mineral. It is interesting to 

 note in this connection, the cubic form of graphitic carbon called 

 cliftonite, from the meteoric iron of Youngdegin, by Fletcher, 

 and which he suggested might perhaps be pseudomorphous after 

 diamond (this Journal, Sept., 1887). 



14. Cryptolite. — Mallard has shown recently that the rare cerium 

 phosphate, cryptolite, occurring in minute crystals embedded in 

 apatite from Norway, has the form of monazite and is doubtless 

 to be referred to that species. 



15. Grundriss der Edelsteinkunde von Dr. P. Groth. 165 pp. 

 8vo, with a colored plate. Leipzig, 1887 (Wm. Engelmann). — 

 Professor Groth has found time, among his more serious duties, 

 to prepare this attractive little volume on the properties of the 

 gems. His experience as a writer and teacher has enabled him 

 to present the subject more systematically and intelligibly, than 

 has hitherto been done. 



16. Rivista di Mineralogia e Cristallografia Italiana, diretta 

 da R. Panebianco, vol. i, 81 pp., with 3 plates. Padua, 1887. — 

 The latest addition to mineralogical publications is this Italian 

 review which, judging from the first volume is of much more than 

 local interest. Among its contents may be mentioned well illus- 

 trated papers on celestite, zircon, and datolite. 



17. Catalogue of all recorded Meteorites, with a description of 

 the specimens in the Harvard College collection including the 

 cabinet of the late J. Lawrence Smith, by Oliver Whipple 

 Huntington, Ph.D. From the Proceedings of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. ixiii, pp. 37-110, with five 

 plates. — Since the acquisition of the cabinet of Dr. Smith, the 

 Harvard collection of meteorites has taken a prominent place 



