1094 General Notes. [ November, 
Geol. Soc., Feb., 1884) describes the British Cretaceous Nuculide. 
Paleontology bears out the separation of the Nuculæ and Lede 
from the Arcide. He recognizes fifteen species of Nucula in the 
limits treated, ten of the group of Ovatæ, the remainder of the 
group Angulate. The Lede are ten in number. Nucula meyeri, 
Nucula gaultina and Leda seeleyi are new species. 
as “Pretertiary continental formations”: Vegetable soil (loam 
with lignite in its upper bed), flint conglomerate (sand with be- 
neath it clay with flints), Pretertiary loam (loam, plastic clay 
and sand) and transported Pretertiary deposits. The Eocene is 
divided into Montian, Landenian, Ypresian and Parisian, the last 
characterized by Rostellaria ampla, Nummulites levigata and 
variolaria, Ditrupa strangulata, and its glauconitic zone by Pecten 
corneus. In the Eocene of Northern France the only vertebrates 
known are Arctocyon primevus and Pachynolophus maldani, but 
the Oligocene has yielded Anthracotherium and many birds, also 
Crassitherium robustum, allied to Rhytina. M. Gosselet divides 
the Oligocene into Tongrian (principally marls and sands) and 
Rupelian (Beauce limestone). The Neogene is represented in 
Northern France and Belgium only by its upper or Pliocene 
beds. The description of chilostomatous Bryozoa from Al- 
dinga and the Murray Cliffs, S. Australia, by A. W. Waters, 1S 
still continued in the quarterly journal of the Geological Society. 
The number of fossil species now known is 220, just about hal 
of which have been found living. They are principally from the 
Tertiary, but a few are Cretaceous. È. T. Newton (Geo. Mag., 
Aug., 1885,) describes some bones of a gigantic bird obtained 
from the Lower Eocene at Croydon, Eng. The most interesting 
portions are two large tibiæ-tarsi and parts of a femur. ese 
bones very closely resemble the corresponding parts of Gastorms 
arisiensis, but present specific differences. The bird, which 
must have been as large and heavy in build as the Dinornis 
crassus of New Zealand, has been named G. -Al/aasenii in honor 
: of its discoverer, Mr. H. M. Klaasen. 
Recent.—The two articles of Prof. J, D. Dana (Amer. Journ. of 
Science, Aug., Sept., 1885), are an able defence of the until p 
cently almost universally accepted theory of the origin of pe 
reefs and islands by subsidence. The great number of atolls an 
barriers in all stages to be found in the deep belt of the Pacific, 
_ are shown to be inexplainable upon any other theory, while 
islands like the Marquesas, though without reefs, yield a 
able evidence of the wide spread subsidence. The views, P 
and Dana are shown to be those of men who had a wi a 
