1886.] Geology and Paleontoiogy. 633 
They are scoria cones, none of them probably rising more than 
1000 feet above their base. Many have breached craters, whence 
floods of black basaltic lava have flowed. The almost perfect 
State of preservation of the cones and the undecomposed con- 
dition of the lava proves that these volcanoes must have been 
active in comparatively recent times. Scarcely a year passes 
without one or more earthquake shocks in Central Madagascar, 
but they are never severe nor of long duration. Cardinal Mas- 
saja has published at Rome a work entitled “ My ‘thirty-five mis- 
sion years in Upper Ethiopia.” Numerous illustrations and a 
’ good map accompany the text. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAIONTOLOGY. 
_ THE Fossi Man oF Penon, Mexico.—On my return to this 
city after a long absence, I read the observations published in the 
New York Tribune concerning my account of the fossil man of 
the Peñon. 
It will give me great pleasure to clear up the doubt expressed by 
Professor Newberry with regard to the importance of the discov- 
ery of the man of the Peñon 
_Professor Newberry does not believe in the importance of the 
‘scovery, and argues in this manner: “The calcareous bed in 
| Which the fossil remains were found must have been modern tra- 
vertin; it could not have been deposited below the -waters of a 
l _ lake, but probably belongs to an aérial or superficial formation, 
since otherwise it would be of equal thickness and uniform on 
the bottom and on the borders of the lake; if the limestone is 
siliceous, it must belong to a hydrothermal deposit.” 
It is above all certain that the limestone is not modern tra- 
vertin, for it does not form concentric layers above the human 
: remains, nor over other recent objects, as would be the case were 
: it such, e bones are sealed up, so to speak, in the calcareous 
: rock, without being in any way coated, and were probably depos- 
ited while the rock was yet soft and under water. As the clear- 
: ances and excavations at the foot of the small mountain of Pefion 
have been continued, I have been able to prove the persistence of ; 
l the facts indicated in my article published in the NATURALIST, z 
= Published in 1884 by Professor Antonio del Castillo and by mẹ. 
~ œ S new excavations have shown more clearly yet the thre — 
formations of which I have spoken, ranged as follows: 
At) A Superficial layer 10 centimeters thick, formed of vege- 
table earth, containing lacustrine shells and fragments of modern 
A = A layer of calcareo-siliceous tufa, of but slight hardness, 
Min Nains of old pottery, 50 centimeters thick. o - 
: (3) Siliceous limestone, very hard, in a thick bed, inclined © 
-wards the north, Here are found roots transformed into men- — 
