Geology and Natural History. 89 



20. Scientia, Phys. Mathematique, No. 23. Paris, 1904 (C. 

 Naud). — This recent number of the valuable series of scientific 

 memoirs now being published in Paris is by H. Poincare, and is 

 devoted to the subject of the theory of Maxwell and the oscilla- 

 tions of Hertz, with their application to wireless telegraphy. It 

 is an excellent presentation of a very interesting subject. 



II. Geology and Natural History. 



1. Glacial Conglomerate, Transvaal, South Africa. — A proof 

 sheet recently received from the Geological Society of South 

 Africa announces the discovery by E. T. Mellor of extensive 

 glaciated surfaces and deposits 25 miles east of Pretoria. The 

 deposits represent the lower portion of the Highveld Formation, 

 lying immediately below the Coal Measures and " consist of irreg- 

 ularly alternating, usually more or less lenticular deposits of con- 

 glomerates, sandstones, and shales. The conglomerates have all 

 the characters usual to ground-moraines. They contain an assem- 

 blage of bowlders very miscellaneous in composition and size, 

 embedded in a clayey, or more frequently sandy, matrix full of 

 smaller angular rock fragments. Bedding planes are rarely met 

 with. The bowlders are polished, facetted, and in the case of 

 those composed of material sufficiently fine in grain, frequently 

 striated. The sandstones are also very irregular in thickness, 

 often massive and without traces of bedding ; they are white, 

 yellow, or cream-colored, and though often fine in texture, very 

 rough to the touch. The shales are white or cream-colored. 

 They frequently show fine lamination, very regular over short 

 distances, but not persistent over any considerable area. More 

 frequently they partake of the nature of mudstones. These 

 shales are more abundantly developed near the upper portion of 

 the glacial series." 



"The glacial deposits were laid down upon a land surface of 

 considerable variety, many features of which reappear with 

 slight modification in the landscape of to-day." Wherever the 

 glaciated deposits are removed by erosion, glaciated surfaces are 

 of frequent occurrence. The striae and bowlders alike abund- 

 antly prove that the ice movement was N.N. W, to S.S.E. This 

 direction is in accord with the observations of Rogers and 

 Schwartz at Prieska, Cape Colony (Ann. Report Geol. Com. 1899) 

 and of Schenck near the junction of the Orange and Vaal Rivers 

 (Ueber Glacialerscheinungen in Slid Afrika), but not with the 

 observations of Molengraaff in the Vryheid district (Trans. Geol. 

 Soc. of S. A., IV, pt. V, 1898). The wide extent of the glacial 

 deposits, their presence at various elevations, and the parallelism 

 and constancy of direction of the striae in the Transvaal locality 

 indicates a considerable thickness for the ice sheet. 



2. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. E. A. 

 Birge, Director. — Two bulletins of the Wisconsin Survey have 

 recently been published. 



Bulletin No. XI. — Preliminary Report on the Soils and 

 Agricultural Conditions of North Central Wisconsin ; by Samuel 



