1885.] Geology and Fateontology. ” TOQI 
from Polyodon. The probable body of this species was described 
in the NATURALIST, 1883, p. 1152, under the name of Crossopholis 
magnicaudatus Cope. 
parts of Africa, and to Australia. The species, which is repre- 
sented in my collection by two fine specimens, is about as large 
as a fully grown pickerel, but of more slender proportions. The 
head is short and the mouth small and edentulous. In its gene- 
ric characters it agrees generally with Gonorhynchus, but differs 
in the absence of prominent hyoid and pterygoid teeth. The 
scales are broadly fringed at the margin, like those of the cotem- 
porary genus of Aphredodiridæ, Amphiplaga, and the Tricho- 
phanes of the Amyzon beds. The dorsal and anal fins are poste- 
rior and opposite. Radii, D.I. 13; V. 8; A. II. 8. Vertebræ Ab. 
34 C. 1434. Depth six and three-quarters times in length ; head 
six and a half times in length. The genus and species may be 
called Notogoneus osculus. 
_ _ A survey of the fish-fauna of the Green River shales yields the 
following results: Of North American existing fresh-water types 
we now have represented Lepidosteidz, Polyodontide, Aphodo- 
diride and Percidze. Of southern hemisphere types, Gonorhyn- 
chide and Osteoglosside—BEZ. D. Cope. 
A Crizique oF Crott’s GractaL THEoRY.—A paper before 
the Geological section of the British Association, by W. F. Stan- 
ley, F.G.S., had the following points: The theory of Dr. Croll, 
accepted by many geologists, is that former glacial periods in the 
` Northern hemisphere were due to greater eccentricity of the 
earth’s orbit and to this hemisphere being at the time of glacia- 
tion in winter perihelion. This theory is supported upon condi- 
tions that are stated to rule approximately at the present time in the 
Southern hemisphere, which is assumed to be the colder. Recent 
researches by Ferrel and Dr. Hann, with the aid of temperature 
observations taken by the recent transit of Venus expeditions, 
have shown that the mean temperature of the southern hemi- 
sphere is equal to, if not higher, than the northern, the propor- 
i The conditions that 
tude, whereas in the north frozen ground in certain districts, as 
in Siberia and Northwestern Canada, extends beyond the fiftieth 
parallel; therefore, by comparison, the north, as regards the lati- 
tude in which Great Britain is situated, is at present the most 
