1891.] Zoology. 279 
Cenozoic.—A unique siluroid fish from the London clay of Sheppey 
has been figured and described by A. Smith Woodward. From the 
character of the fossil its precise affinities cannot be determined, but it 
closely approaches the living Auchenoglanis of the African rivers. 
KGnig’s name of Bucklandium diluvii has been retained (Proc. 
London Zool. Soc., 1889).——Mr. L. C. Hicks has been studying the 
lagoons of Custer county, Nebraska, and reaches the conclusion that 
they are the result of sedimentation upon a surface previously shaped 
by the action of the winds. In other words, the lagoon type is a 
combination of the sedimentary and zxolian types of conformation 
(Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., p. 25).——In a discussion of the 
Glacial epoch, F. Leveret presents a line of evidence in support of the 
theory of two distinct epochs. This evidence is based upon the 
character of the buried soil and leached till of ten moraines in Illinois, 
Indiana, and Ohio. The amount of oxidation and leaching would 
require the lapse of a long interval of time; that is, an epoch of 
deglaciation in the midst of the Glacial period (Proc. Boston Soc, Nat. > 
Hist., Vol. XXIV., 1889). According to L. C. Johnston, the flood 
of muddy waters from the Nita crevasse in the Mississ®pi River has 
seriously affected the marine life in the Mississippi Sound. Oyster 
plantings have been destroyed, and many valuable food fishes have been 
driven out (Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., p. 20). 
t 
ZOOLOGY. 
Function of Gemmiform Pedicellariæ of Echinoids.: — 
an angle that they become almost tangential to the test. In thus 
removing its spines the urchin unmasks its gemmiform pedicellariæ, 
which are then stretched towards the arms of the starfish with the jaws 
! Comptes Rendus, CXI., p. 62, 1890. Abstract from Jour. Roy. Micros. Socy., Oct., 
‘ 1890, P. 611, j 
