326 Scientific Intelligence. 



un scratched. The Prieska conglomerate passes under the so- 

 called Kimberley shales or under the lowest sheets of dolerite at 

 the bottom of the shales. No evidence was found to support the 

 idea of Greene that the Kimberley shales rest upon the denuded 

 surfaces of Dwyka and Ecca beds. 



4. The Founders of Geology ; by Sir Archibald Geikie. Pp. 

 297. Baltimore, 1901 (Johns Hopkins Press). — The highly inter- 

 esting, and permanently valuable, course of lectures delivered by 

 Sir Archibald Geikie at Baltimore in 1897 have recently been 

 published in attractive form. As is well known, these lectures 

 formed the first of the series of the George Huntington Williams 

 Memorial Lectures on the Principles of Geology, established 

 through the generosity of Mrs. Williams, under the auspices of 

 the Geological Department of the Johns Hopkins University. A 

 second series of lectures was delivered a year since, by Prof. W. 

 C. Brogger (this Journal, June, 1900, p. 456). 



5. Das Gesetz cler Wustenbildung in Gegenwart und Vorzeit 

 von Johannes Walther. Pp. 175 with 50 illustrations. Berlin, 

 1900 (Dietrich Reimer). — Some years since, an interesting volume 

 was published by the present author on Denudation in the Desert 

 (this Journal, xlii, 177, 1891). He has now taken up the allied 

 subject of the formation of desert regions both at present and in 

 the past. He notes that the problem of the desert in general is 

 involved in that of the history of regions having no drainage 

 outlets ; for although it is not true that every desert is without 

 outlet, nor is every such region a desert, yet both phenomena 

 are closely connected together. Of the entire land surface of 

 the globe, estimated at 130,000,000 square kilometers, about one- 

 fifth belongs to regions where the drainage is without outlet. Of 

 these, 12,000,000 square kilometers belong to Asia, 7,000,000 to 

 Australia, 4,000,000 to Africa, and 1-3 millions to America. If 

 we go back in geological time, even as far as the Miocene, we 

 find these areas largely increased ; hence the importance of this 

 aspect of the subject. 



The special topics discussed by the author are the dry weather- 

 ing due chiefly to change of temperature, deflation or the effect of 

 winds, also the action of flowing waters. Other interesting 

 chapters are those devoted to the deposition of gravel or mud, 

 of lake loess and sand dunes; further the desert flora and fauna; 

 the saline deposits, etc. The author has brought to the discus- 

 sion of the subject a thorough knowledge of the various points, 

 made more definite from his own personal observations ; he has 

 illustrated his text with excellent figures, and thus the volume as a 

 whole is very suggestive from the scientific standpoint as well as 

 being thoroughly readable. 



III. Zoology. 



1. Recent papers relating to the fauna of the Bermudas, with 

 some corrections. — In the Trans. Conn. Acad. Sci., Vol. X, Part 2, 

 are nine papers on this subject, viz: 



