1885. ] Geology and Paleontology. 391 
identified. The “necks” or “chimneys” which are left standing 
in the valley plains beyond the farthest verge of the lava-capped 
mesas form one of the most striking features of the country. 
One is nearly two thousand feet high. In the wide valley-plains 
between the mesas are newer fields of lava, some so fresh that 
one might think them scarcely a century old, and it is clear that 
they were erupted after many a square mile of strata overflowed 
by the older basalts had been eroded away. No vents are found 
in connection with these younger eruptions, nor have any scoriz 
been discovered. Some of them seem to have flowed from small 
depressed cones at their upper ends. One stream is sixty miles 
long. The ejecta found in connection with the older basalts are 
in relatively small quantity. Cliffs, mesas, terraces, carved buttes 
and gorgeous colors are as characteristic of the New Mexico 
plateau region as of that of Utah, and the Cretaceous system is 
better preserved. The younger basalt is much like the rougher 
lava of Mauna Loa. As a conclusion of his studies upon the 
origin of phosphates of lime in sedimentary formations M. Dieu- 
lafait announces that the waters which have excavated the calca- 
reous rocks of the north-west of France, and formed the phos- 
phorites, are exterior waters circulating from above downwards, 
It thus follows that, contrary to current ideas, deposits similar to 
those of which the phosphorites form part, wherever found, and 
whatever their importance, do not owe their origin to internal 
but to external causes. 
animals Paleophones nuncius. The four pairs of thoracic feet in 
this scorpion are like those of the embryos of many other Tra- 
cheata and resemble those of Campodea, The same appendages 
in the Carboniferous scorpions are like those of existing species. 
Cenomanian—The Elobi islands, upon the west coast of Africa 
and in the first degree of north latitude, are formed of horizontal 
beds of sandstone, poor in fossils. One of the species met with, 
Schléinbachia inflata, characterizes the Lower Cenomanian of Eu- 
rope, and is particularly abundant in the French departments of 
Yonne and Aube. These beds, according to M. Ladislos Szaj- 
nocka, are continued along the Gaboon coast to the islands of 
Muni and Mounda, and appear also to stretch along the west 
coast of Africa along the Sierra da Crista and the Sierra Camp- 
lida to Mossamedes and Benguela. 
