1885.] Geology and Paleontology. 789 
Arrica.—A/frican News—Dr. Oscar Lenz was sent by the 
Imperial Geographical Society of Vienna to explore the water- 
shed between the Nile and the Congo. He started in May. 
The Austrian explorers, Dr. Paulitschke and Dr. von Har- 
degger have returned from the Gallas country. They were ami- 
cably received by the Egyptian governor of Harrar. On their 
return (March 25, 1885) they found Zeila half in ruins. 
government commission has inspected and reported upon the 
Tunisian forests. In the districts south of the Medjerda valley 
e so-called forests are a mere brushwood with groups of larger 
trees, but on the Krumis mountains to the north, exist magnifi- 
cent forests with trees equal in size to those of France, including 
cork trees and Quercus mirbockii. One forest covers 100,000 
hectares. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY. 
THE MAMMALIA OF THE OLIGOCENE OF Buenos Ayres.'—This 
memoir, by M. Ameghino, is one of much importance to the 
history of the Mammalia, and especially to the history of the 
ampean and recent faunz of the neotropicgl realm. Ever since 
M. Bravard announced the existence of species of Palzotherium 
and Anoplotherium in strata within the limits of the Argentine 
Confederation, the curiosity of palzontologists has been awaiting 
an explanation of a statement apparently so at variance with the 
paa facts of the science. M. Ameghino, aided by the labors 
of Professor Scalabrini, has fortunately resolved this problem, and 
with it has set before us a record of uncommon interest to the 
students of the Mammalia and of their evolution. 
The strata which have yielded the collections studied, are situ- 
ated on the Parana river. The number of species obtained is. 
sixty-two, which are referred to forty genera, which are distribu- 
ted into aiden as follows: Cetacea 3; Carnivora 3; Artiodactyla 
2; Perissodactyla 5; Toxodontia 4; Rodentia 11; Edentata 17. 
Of these forty genera, sixteen also occur in the Pampean fauna. 
Of these forms it is not to be supposed that all have been fully 
elucidated and their places finally ascertained. This is especially 
true of the ungulate orders, where the much-needed determina- 
genera to families characteristically Pampean, is so highly See 
ble as to require less exhaustive demonstration to command 
belief. It is in these groups that the most interesting contribu- 
A uii Restos de Mamiferos Fósiles Oligocenos Recogidos por el Prof. aad 
ni y pertenencientes al Museo provincial de la Ciudad del Parana ; por Flor- 
entino ped ain; Buenos Ayres, 1885, pp. 204. (Extract from the Bulletin Nat'l 
Academy Sciences, Cordoba, VII, p. 5.) 
