242 Scientific Intelligence. 
instead, the great depressions of the ocean’s bottom between the 
lines which teach the same great truths with regard to the earth’s 
features. 
Mr. Reade’s work is a valuable contribution to the perplexing 
subject of mountain-making; for the principle to which he ap- 
peals has greater importance than has been supposed. But some- 
thing more appears to be needed to give the theory full sufficiency. 
3. Skeleton of a Whale found over 130 years since in the St. 
Lawrence River Valley, near Quebec.—A letter to the editors 
from Professor O. P. Hubbard states that in Kalm’s Travels in 
North America and Canada, on page 15 of the third volume, men- 
tion is made of the finding of the skeleton of a whale some French 
miles from Quebec and one French mile from the River St. Law- 
rence, “in a place where no flowing water occurs at present.” The 
skeleton was of considerable size, and the Governor of Fort 
Frederick said he spoke with several persons who had seen it. 
Kalm, the Swedish botanist, was in America during the years 
1748 to 1751, and he learned the fact in 1750. 
4. Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary Lake 
of Northern Nevada; by Israzn~ Cook RussEtyt. Volume xi of 
the Monographs of the U. 8. Geological Survey, 288 pp. 4to, with 
4 plates, the last a folded map, 1885.—An abstract of Mr. Russell’s 
results after his first season’s work, published in the third Annual 
Report of the Director of the U. 8. Geological Survey, has been 
briefly mentioned in a former volume of this Journal. The final 
Report, recently issued makes a volume of great general interest 
and scientific importance. The facts relating to the Lahontan 
Lake basin of the past and present, its terraces, the chemistry of 
its waters, the remarkable tufa deposits of the terraces, the lake 
and shore-made beds of sand, gravel and clays (the last largely 
pumiceous), the life of the varying waters, the drying up of the 
lake with the climatic changes, and the later Quaternary oro- 
graphic movements, have all been carefully studied and a large 
amount of instruction drawn from them for physical geography, 
geology and economical science. The many maps and plates, 
illustrating the volumes are excellent. The descriptions of the 
thinolite tufa deposits and of the conditions of their origin are 
illustrated by several fine plates, and supplemented by extracts 
from a crystallographic study by E. 8. Dana. 
5. The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Animals ; 
-by AncELo Hettprin, Prof. Invert. Paleontology, etc., 436 pp. 
12mo. New York, 1887 (D. Appleton & Co.).—Professor Heilprin 
has endeavored to combine in this work a consideration of the 
geographical distribution of existing faunas with that of the an- 
cient, and so present a general review of the historical as well as 
actual associations of species. The subject is a very broad one 
for the space allotted to it; but it has been so handled as to make 
a valuable and readable work for students in both geology and. 
biology. 
