750 | General Notes. [ December, 
section also opened the subsection of anthropology. In_ his address, 
after giving a brief and general sketch of the modern doctrine of 
the antiquity and origin of man, Mr. Alfred R. Wallace devoted the 
remainder of his remarks to the far more momentous and exciting prob- 
lem of the development of man from some lower animal form. He 
observed that in the last sixteen years scientific men have passed from 
one extreme of belief to the other, — from a profession of total ignorance 
as to the mode of origin of all living beings to a claim of almost 
complete knowledge of the whole progress of the universe from the first ` 
speck of protoplasm up to the highest development of the human intel- 
lect. Mr. Wallace, believing that the facts which oppose this theory 
receive hardly their due attention, that opposition is the best incentive to 
progress, and that it is not well even for the best theories to have it all 
their own way, directed the attention of his hearers to some of the facts, 
and to the conclusions fairly deducible from them. 
Papers were read by Lieutenant Cameron, Mr. Pengelly, M. Tidde- 
mann, and Professor Barrett. 
The French Association for the Advancement of Science met August 
16th at Clermont. M. Gabriel de Mortillet was chosen president of the 
Section of Anthropology. The stibject of his opening address was the 
Origin of Superstitions. Papers were read by MM. Broca, Tubino, 
Ollier de Marchand, Vacher, Roujon, and Hovelacque. 
The American Archeological Convention met in Philadelphia, in the 
Centennial Judges’ Hall, on the 6th of September. A permanent organ- 
ization was formed, called the American Anthropological Association, 
with Dr. C. C. Jones as president and Rev. H. D. Peet as secretary. — 
O. T. Mason. 
GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 
CRETACEOUS VERTEBRATES OF THE Upper Missouri. — Professor 
Cope has recently returned from an exploration of the Fort Union beds 
of the Upper Missouri, especially those discovered by Dr. Hayden m 
1855 at the mouth of the Judith River. Attention was given to the 
relation of this formation to the underlying marine cretaceous beds, and 
to the respective faunæ of the two.as compared with that of the early 
eocene period. The fauna was found to be terrestrial and lacustrine, 
including great numbers of Unionidæ, Lepidosteus, Ceratodus, and z 
form probably of rays; of crocodiles, fresh-water turtles, Sauroptery gian 
and Dinosaurian reptiles. e Dinosauria constitute the most abundant 
and characteristic form of life, eighteen species having been found, of 
which eight were of the carnivorous ( Goniopodous) and ten of the her- 
bivorous (Orthopodous) type. The predominant genus of the former 18 
Lelaps, of the latter, Dysganus, of both of which several species wer? 
found. 
The facies of this fauna is thus plainly mesozoic and cretaceous, adding 
