664 The American Naturalist. [July, 
Irrigation of Western Kansas.—Prof. S. W. Williston be- 
lieves that the cultivation of the western third of Kansas now known 
as a semi-arid region can be made possible by the utiligation of the 
so-called underflow of the uplands of that region. The gathering 
ground of this water, according to Williston, is an exposure of Ter- 
tiary sandstone which rests on an impervious marine deposit known as 
the Colorado Cretaceous. The dip of the chalks and limestones is 
towards the northeast where erosion in the valleys and along the east- 
ern border has exposed the contact between the sandstone and lime- 
stone, springs are found, and pools of water, and even flowing streams, 
which, however, are soon absorbed through the adjacent soil. 
The problem then is how to bring the water of this underflow to the 
surface economically. The limits of this water-bearing area should be 
determined and the amount of water that can be counted upon esti- 
mated. (Kansas University Quart., April, 1895). 
Plistocene Deposits in Switzerland.—At a recent meeting 
of the Geological Society of London, Dr. ©. S. Du Riche Preller read 
a paper on fluvio-glacial and inter-glacial deposits in Switzerland. The 
former consists of conglomerates and the latter are lignite deposits 
near the lakes of Turish, Constance, Zug and Thun, which together 
with analagous deposits at the base of the Eastern, Western, and 
Southern Alps, constitute further evidence of two interglacial periods, 
and therefore of three general glaciations, the oldest being of Upper 
Pliocene, and the others Middle and Upper Plistocene age respectively. 
As regards the origin, age and the time required for the formation of 
several of the Swiss deposits referred to in the paper, the author ar- 
rives in several respects at conclusions differing from those recently 
enunciated by others. The author also argues that the first inter- 
glacial period was probably of shorter duration than the second; and 
in confirming his former conclusion that every general glaciation marks 
a period of filling-up, and every interglacial period marks a period of 
erosion of valleys, he avers that, if this conclusion be correct, it must 
needs be destructive of the theory of glacial erosion. (Nature, April, 
1895.) 
Geological News. Pa.xozorc.—In a memoir recently published 
in the Trans. Roy. Soc., Dublin, Messrs. Lavis and Gregory confirm 
the conclusions reached by Mr. Mcebius that the phenomenon of 
Eozoon is due to mechanical and chemical alterations. In the rocks 
examined by the authors the Eozoon resuted from the alteration of 
