1889.1 Geology and Palcsntology. 437 
by observations made in sinking piers of bridges at Blair and 
Omaha. 
{b). The Missouri is still deepening its trough with every 
flood. This has been determined by soundings at such times. 
This fresh water lake, from its time and location, may be 
quite confidently considered a portion of the great body of 
water which occupied the western plains during late Tertiary 
times, and which was named by King, Lake Cheyenne. 
Geological News. — General. — The Rev. B. Baron states 
his belief, derived from an examination of the flora, that Mada- 
agascar separated from the African mainland during or even 
before the early Pliocene. This agrees with the deductions of 
Wallace. Five-sixths of the plant genera occur elsewhere, but 
four-fifths of the species are peculiar. The central part of the 
island is mainly gneiss and other crystalline rocks, with a strip 
parallel to the main axis of the island, and roughly to that of 
the crystalline rocks of the continent. The sedimentary strata 
occur chiefly in the west and south, and comprise eocene, upper 
cretaceous, neocomian, Oxfordian, lower oolite, and lias. The 
highest elevations are topped with lava, which is mostly ba- 
saltic. There is no active volcano now upon the island. 
Caenozoic— E. T. Newton (Geol. Mag.) describes some 
recent additions to the preglacial Forest-bed fauna; including 
Cervus rectus n. sp. He refers the bovine remains to Bison hon- 
asus, and the phocineto Phoca barbata. The narwhal, beluga, 
and Phocacna coniuiunis are also added to the list. 
Sig. Ristori describes a Scylla found near Verona, but not 
sufficiently well preserved to warrant the formation of a new 
species, though it evidently differs from S. scrrata and 5. 
ntichclini, M. Edtvd., and also from S. hassiaca Th. Ebert. 
It is the only example of the genus yet found in the Italian 
Territory. 
Sig. Ristori (Boll. Soc. Geol. ii., vii. 188) describes an Inuus, 
/. caiidatus, from the Pliocene of the Valdarno. This species 
had previously been erected into the type of a new genus by 
Igino Cocchi. 
Oreopithecus bimbolia Gervais, is declared by Sig. Ristori 
not to be an anthropoid ape, but to appertain to the Cynopi- 
thecinae. The example is from the Miocene of Montebamboh. 
