458 General Notes. [ June, 
this is overlaid by a pliocene formation, containing some of the 
fossils of the Equus beds of central Oregon. This is both under- 
laid and overlaid by basalt, and other volcanic products. 
The regions of the John Day river and Blue mountains, fur- 
nish sections of the formations of Central Oregon. Above the 
Loup Fork or Upper Miocene, there is a lava outflow, which has 
furnished the materials of a later lacustrine formation, which con- 
tains many vegetable remains. The material is coarse, and some- 
times gravelly, and it is found on the Columbia river, and I think 
also in the interior basin. Prof. Condon calls this the Dalles group. 
It is in turn overlaid by the beds of the second great volcanic 
outflow. Below the Loup Fork follows the Truckee group, so 
rich in extinct mammalia, and below this a formation of shales. 
These are composed of fine material, and vary in color, froma 
white to a pale brown and reddish-brown. They contain vege- 
table remains in excellent preservation, and undeterminable fishes. 
The Zaxodium nearly resembles that from the shales at Osino, 
Nevada, and on various grounds I suspect that these beds form 
a part of the “ Amyzon group” (this Journal, 1879, p. 332), with 
the shales of Osino and of the South park of Colorado. Below 
these, is a system of fine grained, sometimes shaly rocks of 
delicate, gray buff and greenish colors, containing calamites, 
which Prof. Condon calls the Calamite beds. Their age is unde- 
termined.—Z£. D. Cope. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS. ! 
Arctic Voyaces.—The east coast of Greenland from 69° N. 
lat. to 65° 18’ has never been laid down until the past summer, 
when the Danish man-of-war steamer /zgo/f, reached that part of 
the coast, sailing from Iceland. Having fixed the positions of 
some high lands south of Scoresby land, the Danish Hydro- 
graphic office has been able partly to fill up this blank on their 
aps. ; 
It was also found that the ice cold water of the sea bottom, 
never passes the submarine heights stretching from the Faroe 
islands to Iceland, and that the depth of the sea decreases con- 
siderably in about N. lat. 67°, where it varied from 150 to 200 
fathoms, and large icebergs were met with, 
er to the eastward, the temperature of the deeper water 
rose gradually, while on the surface the rise was sudden—in one 
case from 1° to 7° C.[33°. 8 to 44°. 6 F.] in an hour; ina dis- 
tance of five miles the depth of the sea increased from 160 to 595 
fathoms and in the Gulf stream to 1005 fathoms. 
An immense bank was discovered, running from the north-west 
coast of Iceland, almost to the Greenland coast, and helping to 
keep the cold polar streams from the Atlantic. eo 
M. Kornerup, a member of the recent Danish expedition into 
1 Edited by ELtis H. YARNALL, Philadelpt ia. 
