GEOLOGY. 441 
of their organization, is irreconcilable with the progressive and 
successive evolution that these theories suppose.” 
e have been unwilling, with the Hozodn Canadense generally 
received as a proof of the existence of life in the Laurentian 
period, to believe that the Bohemian strata, investigated so ably 
by M. Barrande, represent, the lowest platform of life. 
Mr. Henry Hicks in a recent number (Feb. 5) of ‘“ Nature” 
claims that M. Barrande’s list of fossils from the Cambrian forma- 
tion of England is very incomplete. Instead of there being “no 
trace of a trilobite” in the Cambrian formation, Mr. Hicks has 
found sponges, annelides, brachiopods, pteropods, bivalved Crusta- 
ceans and trilobites; among the latter a low genus (Microdiscus) 
with four thoracic segments; the genus has also been found in 
Canada. It seems best, then, for paleontologists to suspend their 
judgment, and await the discovery of new facts before pronouncing 
for or against a primordial fauna more ancient than the Cambrian 
even. Considering what remarkable intermediate types have been 
discovered of late in the Rocky Mountains, the advocates of evo- . 
lution can well afford to wait patiently for a solution of these 
knotty problems in biology. 
Moxocrapn or tue Waars Lice.—A full account of the va- 
rious species of Cyamus, or -so called whale louse, with many fig- 
ures, has been published in the ‘ Memoirs of the Scientific Society 
of Copenhagen” by Dr. Litken. These troublesome crustaceans, 
allied remotely to the common beach-flea, cling by means of their 
long claws to the more protected and softer parts of whales, such as 
the bowhead, the humpbacked, the sperm whales, narwhal and 
grampus, while they have never been found on the Balznoptera, 
or fin back whale. 
GEOLOGY. 
Tue CARBONIFEROUS Formation or SOUTH America.— An ex- 
amination of the rich brachiopod fauna, collected by Prof. Hartt 
and his party on his two late expeditions to the Amazonas, from 
Itaituba, just below the lower falls of the river Tapajos, shows 
th t the carboniferous beds at that place belong to the coal meas- 
ures. 
Associated with a number of new species soon to be described, 
there are found at that locality, Spirifera camerata Morton, 
