920 General Notes. [November, 



Dr. Hoy gave the section the benefit of his experience in copper 

 implements. On this subject there is no doubt that he is right. 

 On the second paper the author has bestowed a great deal of 

 labor, whether he is right or not. 



Mr. Rust has lived many years among the Indians, and was 

 able to explain some things by his experiences. The implements 

 exhibited were very similar to those from Honduras figured in 

 " Flint Chips." 



Mr. Hingston is a surgeon of Montreal, and has been a keen 

 observer of fecundity, longevity and vitality among Canadians, 

 mixed up of English, Scotch, Irish and French, with a consider- 

 able sprinkling of Indians, but no German or other Europeans 

 than those above mentioned. 



Dr. DeHass, in his papers, gave the benefit of his own personal 

 experience in exploration, and in one of them brought together 

 all the various instances in which the antiquity of man has been 

 alleged on our continent. We have seen these stories frequently 

 before in different places, but Dr. DeHass has certainly done a 

 great service in making them stand up in a line together. 



The next meeting will be in Minneapolis, where more strenu- 

 ous efforts must be put forth to make our section the best of all. 

 GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



Theories of the Origin of the Loess. — Baron Richthofen 

 (Geol. Mag. July, 1882) writes upon the origin of the Loess, in 

 answer to H. H. Howorth. He states that, petrographically, 

 stratigraphically and zoologically the Loess differs from all other 

 formations ; that in its nearly perfect homogeneousness it con- 

 trasts strongly with sedimentary strata deposited in shallow 

 water ; that between ridges of considerable height it fills up the 

 hollows, presenting a concave surface ; that its composition is 

 everywhere hydrated silicate of lime, with some quartz and mica; 

 that there is no stratification ; that the tubes, incrusted by car- 

 bonate of lime, may be seen taken up by rootlets where vegeta- 

 tion occurs ; that the shells are almost all land shells ; that the 

 mammalian remains are those of animals living on the steppes ; 

 and that whenever the Loess fills a basin between two hills, the 

 slopes are covered by angular fragments of the adjoining rock. 

 Water action will not explain these facts. Wind action will. 

 Repeated depositions and repeated growths of grass explain the 

 capillary structure. Dust storms in the present age deposit a 

 measurable thickness of yellow dust wherever there is vegetation, 

 and in districts where grass is the chief growth, successive de- 

 posits may reach hundreds and thousands of feet. 



The steppe basins of Mongolia have a structure similar to that 

 of the Loess, and all that is needed to give those basins the 

 characteristic Loess scenery is water and an outward drainage. 



Baron Richthofen's paper is followed by a continuation of Mr. 



