822 Scientific Intelligence. 



2. Cambrian Faunas of China ; by Charles D. Walcott. 

 Smithsonian Miscel. Coll., 51, No. 4, pp. 69-108, pis. 14-17,1911.— 

 Further collections of Middle Cambrian fossils were made for the 

 author in Manchuria by Professor Iddings, enabling him to add 

 extensively to our knowledge of the Chinese Cambrian. Wal- 

 cott here gives a corrected list of the formerly described forms 

 and adds 29 new species of brachiopods and trilobites. The new 

 genera or subgenera of trilobites are Fmmrichella, Inouyia, Lisa- 

 //in, Chnangia, Levisia and Coosia. c. s. 



3. Middle Cambrian Holothurians and Medu&m; by Charles 

 D. Walcott. Smithsonian Miscel. Coll., 57, No. 3, pp. 41-68, 

 pis. 8-13, 1911. — Here are described more of the wonderfully 

 preserved fossils discovered by the author in the Burgess shale, 

 near Mt. Stephen, British Columbia. The new genus of Scypho- 

 medusaj, Peytoia, preserves only the lobate ventral side. 



The particularly interesting fossils are the holothurians with 

 representatives of both of the living orders of this class of Eclii- 

 noderma. These are the only fossil sea-cucumbers preserving 

 the general body form, but none show even a trace of the spi- 

 cules if they ever had such. The order Paractinopoda is repre- 

 sented by a new genus described as 31ackenzia, that clearly has 

 relationship with the living Synaptula. It is a finger-shaped sack 

 about 70" 1 " 1 long and is now devoid of tentacles, but the cast of 

 the calcareous ring indicates that there were at least 10 and possi- 

 bly as many as 15 tentacles originally present. 



The order Actinopoda is represented by poorly preserved fos- 

 sils of the new genera Laggania and Louisella, forms referred to 

 the living family Holothuriida?. The most complex fossil and 

 one very difficult to interpret is the new genus Eldonia, said to 

 be a pelagic holothurian. More than 200 specimens are at hand. 

 At first it was thought to be a Scyphomedusa with a large 

 internal commensal worm, but the latter is now regarded as the 

 digestive tract of this bell-shaped animal. c. s. 



4. The Crinoid Fauna of the Knobstone Formation • by 

 Frank Springer. Proc. U. S. IS at. Mus., vol. 41, pp. 175- 

 208, 1911. — The stratigraphic position of the Knobstone forma- 

 tion has long remained uncertain, and to settle this matter the 

 author began some years ago to assemble material properly col- 

 lected in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. These collections 

 produced 45 species of crinoids, which were then compared with 

 the well-known faunas found about Burlington and Keokuk, 

 Iowa, resulting in the adjustment of the difficulty. The author 

 states that " the main fossiliferous beds of the Knob [Indiana 

 and Kentucky], and the lower limestone above the Black Slate at 

 Whites Creek [Tenn.], must be placed stratigraphically as equiva- 

 lent in part or closely related to the Lower Burlington." There 

 is no Keokuk present as was long believed to be the case. The 

 Knobstone is now known as the New Providence formation, and 

 while Bassler is inclined to place it directly beneath the Lower 

 Burlington, he states that it " is a provisional arrangement, since 



