Geology and Mineralogy. 335 



3. Pseudoceratites of the Cretaceous ; by Alpheus Hyatt. 

 Edited by T. W. Stanton. — Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. xliv, 

 pp. 351, pis. xlvii, Washington, 1903. 



This work was first submitted to the Director of the United 

 States Geological Surve}^ as early as 1 897. It was greatly revised 

 and extended by the author up to the time of his death in 1902, 

 and contains the results of his last work. 



The Pseudoceratites are considered as retrogressive Cretaceous 

 ammonites, showing the sutures and simple outlines characteristic 

 of the Triassic. They are distinctly accelerated in development 

 as- compared with the Jurassic species. It is shown under 

 Placenticeras that the arrest of development takes effect only 

 after the three principal lateral saddles and lobes are formed in 

 the neanic stage. Up to this stage their development is more 

 complex than in the young of the Jurassic species. This explains 

 the imaginary anachronism of the group in its relations with the 

 apparently more complicated allies of the Jurassic. 



Two hundred and six species are described, belonging to fifty- 

 two genera. c. e. b. 



4. Publications of the Earthquahe Investigation Committee in 

 Foreign Languages. No. 13, 142 pp. — During the year 1900, 385 

 earthquakes occurred at Hitotsubashi, (Tokyo) Japan. The 

 seismograms of these earthquakes have been analysed by Dr. F. 

 Omari. 



5. The Lilac-colored Sioodumeite from California. — In a note, 

 recently published in Science (Aug. 12, vol. xviii, p. 304), Charles 

 Baskerville discusses the remarkable phosphorescence shown by 

 the transparent lilac-colored spodumene from Fala, California, 

 described by G. F. Kunz in the last number of this Journal. He 

 states that a crystal was excited " by the action of X-rays for five 

 minutes sufficiently to cause it to photograph itself when subse- 

 quently placed directly upon a sensitive plate (thin white paper 

 being interposed) and allowed to remain in an especially con- 

 structed jDadded black box in a dark room for a period of ten 

 minutes." He also proposes the name Kimzite^ after Mr. G. F. 

 Kunz, for this variety of spodumene. 



6. Tabellen ziir Pestinimung der Mineralien mittels dusserer 

 Kennzeichen von Alhin Weisbach. Sechste auflage durchsehen 

 urid erganzt von Dr. Friedrich Kolbeck. Pp. viii, 120. Leip- 

 zig, 1903 (Arthur Felix). — This well known and long valued work 

 has been revised and brought up to date by Dr. Kolbeck without 

 essential change in form or arrangement. Since the publication 

 of the previous edition, three years since, the honored author has 

 passed away, his death occurring on February 26, 1901. 



1. Purchase of the Siemaschko Collection of 3feieorites. — It is. 

 announced that the collection of meteorites of the late Julien de 

 Siemaschko of St. Petersburg, containing some three hundred and 

 sixty different occurrences, has been purchased by Prof. H. A. 

 Ward and added to the Ward-Coonley collection, preserved in 

 Chicago. A catalogue of this collection, numbering now 580 

 kinds, is promised for the near future. 



