498 Scientific Intelligence. 



ing thus a plateau 250 to 300 miles wide which is named the 

 "Blake plateau." Southeast of Savannah and east of Jackson- 

 ville the area between the 400-fathom and 500-fathom line is 140 

 miles broad. The origin of this feature is attributed by Mr. 

 Agassiz to the abrading and transporting action of the Gulf 

 Stream. He states that off Charleston the bottom for the whole 

 width of the Gulf Stream was swept clean of mud or ooze and 

 almost so of living species, proving thus the action of the great 

 stream which along that part of the Atlantic border has a velocity 

 between 3 and 4 miles an hour and a width of 50 to 75 miles. 



In the account of sea-bottom formations it is stated that the 

 sediment of the great Mississippi River extends into the Gulf not 

 over 100 miles ; beyond this there is the usual sea-bottom life. 



The volumes are full of facts of interest relating to the material 

 and nature of the bottom, the condition of the waters, the bathy- 

 metric and geographical distribution of living species, and all the 

 various topics alluded to above ; and they are made attractive to 

 the general as well as scientific reader by their clear and excel- 

 lent literary style, the maps, and the many illustrations of the life 

 of the dark depths. 



2. Descriptions of new Fossil Fishes • by J. S. Newberry. — 

 Dr. J. S. Newberry has a description in volume VI of the Trans- 

 actions of the N. Y. Academy of Sciences of a new species of 

 Titanichthys larger than the T. Agassizii described by him in the 

 Geological Magazine in 1883. The T. Agassizii— a fish related 

 to Dinichthys — had a cranium 4 feet 8 inches broad at the occi- 

 put, and the mandibles were long slender rods, gently bent up- 

 ward at the anterior extremity, and there excavated in a deep 

 furrow apparently for the reception of some kind of dental 

 organs. The remains of the new species, including several more 

 or less complete specimens, were found by Dr. Wm. Clarke, at 

 Berea, Ohio, and is named T. ClarMi. The cranium is broadly 

 triangular in outline and^ue feet or more between the posterior 

 lateral angles. The mandibles are three feet long, the posterior 

 end, spatulate, six inches wide and turned downward ; and the 

 anterior end is turned up like a sled-runner, and has a deep fur- 

 row, like T. Agassizii, but the whole jaw is much heavier and 

 broader. The under side of the body was protected by a tri- 

 angular plate three feet long and nearly as broad. 



In volume VII of the Transactions Dr. Newberry describes a 

 new and large species of Rhizodits from the St. Louis limestone 

 at Albion, Illinois, which he has named Rhizodus anceps / it 

 is near R. Hibberti Ag., of the Carboniferous limestone of Scotland. 

 The specimen is an anterior half of the dentary bone carrying a 

 large number of acute conical striated teeth about half an inch 

 long, with three great laniary teeth, the anterior and most per- 

 fect one of which projects two inches above the margin of the 

 jaw; it differs from the corresponding R. Hibberti in being more 

 compressed and double-edged. Dr. Newberry speaks of the dis- 

 covery of R. Hardingi Dawson, in the Lower Carboniferous of 



