1024 The American Naturalist. [December, 
The Shasta-Chico Series.—The protracted investigations of 
Messrs. Diller and Stanton concerning the Cretaceous formations of 
western United States result in an accumulation of data on which are 
based a number of interesting conclusions. The Knoxville, Horse- 
town and Chico beds of northern California and Oregon are found to 
be continuous series of deposits and the authors accordingly propose 
for them the name Shasta-Chico series. The Wallala beds represent a 
phase of the Chico. The Mariposa and Knoxville beds are distinct 
faunally and are unconformable. Ther former is Jurassic, the latter 
Cretaceous. The attentuation of the Shasta-Chico series westward from 
the Sacramento Valley and the overlapping of the newer beds upon 
the older crystalline rocks of the coast range shows that the coast 
range was formed before the deposition of the Shasta-Chico series, and 
probably at the close of the Jurassic when the Mariposa beds were 
upturned. 
The subsidence of the whole Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico 
is shown by the successive peripheral attenuation of the lower beds 
and the landmark overlapping of the upper ones. The subsidence was 
probably not uniform throughout the whole region. 
The final folding of the Sierra Nevada rocks and an uplifting of the 
range occurred at the close of the Jurassic. 
The Shasta-Chico series represents the Cretaceous time from the 
beginning of the Lower Cretaceous to the Middle of the Upper Creta- 
ceous, and it may be closely correlated with the Queen Charlotte 
Island and Nanaimo groups. 
The evidence from fossil plants indicates that the Potomac epoch is 
included in that represented by the lower part of the Shasta-Chico 
series. It is also highly probable that the Comanche series of Texas 
and Mexico is contemporaneous with a large part of the Shasta-Chico 
series. (Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 5, 1894). 
A Gypsum *'' Cloche."—While excavating stone for plaster in 
the southern borders of the forest of the Montmorency à Taverny 
(Seine-et-Oise) a eloche, or natural cavity, was found in a mass of gyp- 
sum. This cloche is ellipsoidal in form, about 10 metres in length, and 
9 to 6 metres high. The top of the cavity presents the peculiar 
. appearance resulting from the slow dessication of the homogeneous 
rock. The sides are polished, with the edges of all the angles rounded 
off. The floor is an irregular heap of gypsum blocks of various sizes. 
Certain parts of this cavity are lined with small gypsum crystals. 
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