530 The American Naturalist. [June, 
thick, and the variable, more argillaceous higher: beds, with a fresh- 
water fauna in large part identical with that at Black Buttes and a 
flora that also indicates the same horizon, have a much greater thick- 
ness. Here again there seems to be no break in a series that has Fort 
Union plants in its upper member. The abundant occurrence of such 
a species as Campeloma multilineata throughout all but the lowest por- 
tion of the series argues strongly for continuous sedimentation. 
“The difficulty of recognizing unconformities in beds so little dis- 
turbed has not been overlooked, and the possibility that there may be 
such undiscovered breaks in these two areas is freely admitted, though 
it does not seem to us probable. From the facts now available it seems 
most probable that in Converse County, and in the Bitter Creek Val- 
ley, the time representatives of the Denver and Arapahoe beds are 
undifferentiated portions of a continuous series, and cannot be sepa- 
ted from the Laramie. The Fort Union beds are apparently distin- 
guishable by means of their flora, and these mark the upper limit of 
the Laramie in the areas in question.” (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., Vol. 
8, 1897). 
A Comparison of European and American Lower Creta- 
ceous Flora.—In comparing the fossil floras of the Lower Cretaceous 
beds of America with those of Europe, Dr. Lester Ward finds some 
close analogies existing between them. The European beds examined 
are the Wealden of England, the Scaly Clays of Italy, and the Lower 
Cretaceous of Portugal; the American floras used for comparison are 
those of the Older and Middle Potomac, the Trinity of Texas, and the 
Kootanie of the northwest. The table of the distribution of the Weal- 
den flora compiled by Dr. Ward shows that the paleontological rela- 
tions between the Wealden of England and the Potomac formation of 
America are as close as are the geological relations. 
In regard to the Scaly Claysof Italy, the author is inclined to favor 
their Lower Cretaceous age from the general resemblance of the Cycad 
remains of the formation in question to those of America. Both the 
stratigraphy and the faunal remains confirm this view. 
Lastly, the author finds that the Lower Cretaceous of Portugal is, 
botanically speaking, a close repetition of that of America. - (Extr. 
Sixteenth Ann. Rept. U.S. Geol. Surv., 1894-95. Washington, 1896). 
Geological News.—ArcHEAN.—The iron ore bodies in and near 
Mineville, N. Y., constitute the third largest single group developed 
east of Lake Superior. They occur on the contact between gabbro 
and gneiss. A study of the relations of the rocks leads Mr. J. F- 
