398 Scientific Intelligence. 



traversed by the ship. Also fresh-water specimens from out of 

 the way places in Asia, Africa, South and North America and the 

 isles of the seas. The author has given special attention in his 

 revision to the study of the osteological characters, and the chief 

 types of cranial structure are illustrated by figures in the text. 

 Special acknowledgments are made of the assistance derived 

 from the revisions of North American ichthyology by our country- 

 men Jordan, Gilbert and Eigenmann. For the families studied 

 the report gives a thorough revision of present knowledge. 



5. Descriptive Catalogue of the Spiders of Burma, based upon 

 the Collection made by Eugene W. Oates and preserved in the 

 British Museum; by T. Thorell; pp. 406. London, 1895. — 

 This is an exhaustive descriptive catalogue, in Latin, of this 

 unique collection containing 310 species, of which 206 are new to 

 Burma and 153 new to science. 



6. The duration of Niagara Lalls and the History of the 

 Great Lakes ; by J. W. Spencer; pp. 1-126, tigs. 1-27, pis. i-v. 

 (2d ed.) — This is an excellent series of papers explaining the 

 geological features and history of Niagara Falls and environs 

 and republished in book form under the direction of the Commis- 

 sioners of the N. Y. State Reservation at Niagara and accom- 

 panying their eleventh report. The chapters, nine of them, were 

 originally published by Dr. Spencer in this and other journals ; to 

 them are added a few full-page reproductions of photographs of 

 the falls and river. 



7. Illinois State Museum. Bull. No. 7. — New and interesting 

 species of Paleozoic fossils, pp. 1-89, pis. i-v, Dec. 5j 1895. Bull. 

 No. 8. — Descriptions of new and remarkable lossils from the 

 Paleozoic rocks of the Mississippi valley; pp. 1-65, pis. i-v, Feb. 

 1896. — In these two bulletins the authors, S. A. Miller and Wm. 

 F. E. Gtjrley, have described and figured a large number of 

 specimens of fossils, chiefly crinoids, and from Niagara, Hamilton 

 and various Carboniferous formations, in large majority from the 

 latter. 



8. Oblique Bedding in Limestones. — A remarkable structural 

 condition is described by Professor Calvin in the Le Claire lime- 

 stones of Iowa.* This limestone is the second stage of the 

 Niagara formations of that state. The author states: "In the 

 first place it varies locally in thickness, so much so that its upper 

 surface is exceedingly undulating, the curves in some places 

 being very sharp and abrupt. In the second place it differs from 

 every other limestone of Iowa in frequently exhibiting the pecul- 

 iarity of being obliquely bedded on a large scale, the oblique 

 bedding often affecting a thickness of fifteen or twenty feet. The 

 phenomena suggest that during the deposition of the Le Claire 

 limestone the sea covered only the southwestern part of the 

 Niagara area, that at times the waters were comparatively shal- 

 low, and that strong currents, acting sometimes in one direction 



* The Le Claire Limestone by Samuel Calvin, Bull. Lab. Nat. Sci. State Univ. 

 Iowa, vol. iii. pp. 183-189, pis. i-ii, Mch. 16, '96. 



