336 General Notes. [April, 



lington and Dimlington (East Yorkshire) shell-beds, by G. W. 

 Lamplugh ; and on the "Parallelism of the Hanoverian and English 

 Upper Jurassic," by C. Struckmann, translated by W. S, Dallas. 

 One hundred and twenty-five fossil species are common to this 

 formation in the two countries, nearly half of them bivalves. The 

 North German Upper Jura is poor in Cephalopoda, and the small 

 number of corals known to be common is most probably owing 

 to the fact that the German corals are not yet worked out mon- 



ographically. A late issue of the Annates des Sci. Geologiques 



contains a malacological history of the Hill of Sansan, depart- 

 ment of Gers, one of the richest deposits of fossils in France. 

 The article includes a notice of the geology, with colored sections, 

 and a dissertation upon the climate and topography of the region at 



the epoch of the deposit. In the Geological Magazine, January, 



1882, E. T. Newton, F. G. S., has some notes on the Birds, Rep- 

 tiles and Amphibia of the Preglaciai Forest Bed series of the 

 East of England. Most of the birds are indeterminable, but the 

 genera Anser, and, doubtfully, Anas, are identified. Reptiles and 



amphibia have never previously been noted from those beds. 



In the same number H. H. Howorth, F. S. A., writes of the 

 " Traces of a Great Post-glacial Flood," as shown by the loess, 

 the shells of which are land shells, while the relics of man and 



animal remains tell the same tale. A. G. Nathrost (Kongl. 



Svenska Vetenskaps-Akad. Hand.) shows that it is not improba- 

 ble that many markings referred to algse are really trails of ani- 

 mals. He especially refers Eophyton to the trails of Medusae. 



In the Reports, British Association. Section C. York Meeting, J. 

 Prestwich argues against the generally accepted theory of volcanic 

 action, the first cause of which he believes to be the welling up 

 of the lava in consequence of pressure due to slight contraction 

 of a portion of the earth's crust ; this lava vaporizes the waters in the 

 crevices of the volcano as well as those that afterwards flow into the 



cavities, and thus explosions are produced. The last issue of the 



American journal of Science contains an article by J. D. Dana, 

 upon the " Flood of the Connecticut River valley from the melt- 

 ing of the Quarternary Glacier." The author refers the " kames " 

 in the Connecticut valley, and terrace formations in general, to 



conditions at variance with those of Mr. Upham. In the same 



journal Mr. A. O. Derby shows that, under the name of itacolu- 

 mite, two very distinct geological series have been confounded, 

 the newer of which is almost exclusively quartzite, but in places 

 contains pebbles of all the rocks of the older series, including the 

 diamond. Diamonds have also been taken from clay (barro). 

 The original diamond formation of Brazil is stated to be probably 



Cambrian. The International Geological Congress of Bologna 



decided during the session of one week in September last that 

 a chart of Europe should be published at Berlin on a scale of I : 

 1,500,000. The terms employed are to be Group for the highest 



