1893.] Geology and Paleontology. 819 
work which has been ascribed to it. In this connection the author con- 
siders the difficulties presented by certain Alpine lakes in attributing 
them to the erosive action of glaciers. The position of such lakes as 
Constance, Geneva, Como, etc., and the subaqueous contours of Como 
and Geneva militate against the glacial erosion theory. The hypoth- 
esis offered by Mr. Bonney as an explanation of these lake basins is 
that originally they were eroded by ordinary agencies, and that their 
beds have been subsequently affected by differential movements. He 
instances as an example bearing out his theory the Great Lakes of 
North America whose origin has been so ably demonstrated by Dr. 
J. W. Spencer. (Geog. Journ., June, 1893.) 
Plistocene Deposits of Russia.—Mr.S. Nikitin has given a brief 
account of the Quaternary deposits of Russia in a pamphlet of thirty- 
four large octavo pages. It is, however, merely a summary of a more 
detailed report which he is soon to publish. The paper closes with the 
following statement of the principal theses : 
1. “The sub-division of the stone age into paleolithie and neolithic 
epochs should be preserved for European Russia, because it here coin- 
cides with the geological divisions into Pleistocene and modern, which 
are, in their turn, based upon paleontological data. 
2. “ The study of the glacial deposits of Finland and of the western 
region furnishes no proof of the existence of two distinct glacial epochs 
and an inter-glacial epoch. All the facts can be explained by the phe- 
nomena of the oscillation of the glacier at the time of its gradual, but 
irregular, retreat. 
3. * If, however, one accepts the Swedish and Prussian theory of the 
sub-division of the glacial period into two epochs and an interglacial 
epoch, the second glaciation cannot have extended beyond the western 
region, in a certain part (comparatively restricted) of the Baltie- 
region of Finland and of the government of Olonetz. 
4. “The other portion of Russia subjected to glaciation, has only 
one morainie stage, corresponding to the deposits of the first glacial 
epoch of the Swedes. 
5. “At the epoch of the more extended glaciation, the major part of 
Russia presented the aspect of a desert of ice, similar to that of Green- 
land, carrying no moraine upon its surface, and presenting no eleva- 
tion free from ice, where forest vegetation could be preserved. 
6. “ The time corresponding to the interglacial epoch and the second 
glaciation of the Swedes, was probably, for the greater part of Russia, 
the epoch of the formation of the ancient lake deposits, the loess, and 
