52 The American Naturalist. [January, 
remarks that “formally the species point to a distinct analogy with 
those of the China and Japan seas, and like the existing fauna of those 
seas, they indicate bonds of relationship with the west coast of Africa 
and the coast of Australia.” 
The matrix of the fossils determines them to be of Miocene age, and 
as the fauna indicated by them lived in waters as warm as the Japan 
sea, the annual mean temperature of the Okhotsh sea in the era m 
which these fossils flourished must have been about 60° F., a difference 
of 30° to 40° F. from that of the present time. (Proceeds. U.S. Natl. 
Mus, Vol. X VI., 1893.) 
Arctic Geology.—According to Sir Henry Howorth the Arctic 
lands, during the Pleistocene period, instead of being overwhelmed by 
a glacial climate, were under comparatively mild conditions. Since 
Plistocene times the climate has been growing more and more severe. 
The author bases this conclusion on a study of the Arctic flora as dis- 
played in Greenland, Spitzbergen, and the uncovered moraine of the 
great glacier in Alaska, and also upon certain faunal facts. He cites 
evidence to show that the present flora of Greenland is undoubtedly & 
relic of an old flora which has survived in favorable localities, and not 
an importation since Glacial times. The same is true of the Spitzber- 
gen flora. The discovery of a colony of sea-cows on Bebring’s Island 
seems to indicate a recently milder climate in that region. The pecu- 
liar types of northern migratory birds suggests that at no very remote 
period they lived the year round in their present breeding places m 
Northern Siberia, Greenland and Spitzbergen, and that it is the present 
ever increasing cold that leads them to migrate in search of warmth — 
and food. In short, the only Glacial climate we are warranted in 
supposing to exist in the Arctic lands is that which is now current, and 
it is the product of changes in the level of the earth’s crust since Plis- 
tocene times. (Geol. Mag., Nov., 1893.) 
An Extinct Lemuroid from Madagascar.—At a recent 
meeting of the Royal Society of London Dr. Henry Woodward read 
a communication from Mr. Forsyth Major concerning a huge fossil 
Lemuroid from Madagascar, to which we referred in the Nov. number 
of the Naruraxisr (p. 1002). The following report is given in Na- 
ture , July 20, 1893. 
“It is now forty-two years since Geoffroy Ste-Hilaire announced to 
the French Academy of Science the discovery of gigantic eggs and 2 
few of Æpyornis from superficial deposits in the Island of — 
