1886. | Geology and Paleontology. "963 
miles in length to three; and Lake Abyshkan, in the early part of 
the century forty miles from north to south and seventeen from 
east to west, is reduced to three small ponds, the largest scarcely 
a mile and a half wide. Another lake, Tchebakly, which in 1784 
was forty miles by thirty, is also now reduced to three ponds, the 
largest less than two miles across. 
mong the results of the New Zealand earthquake are the addi- 
tion of 300 feet to the height of Mount Tarawera,and the subsidence 
of the beautiful Lake Rotomahana, which is transformed into an 
expanse of seething mud. Its renowned terraces are reported to 
be destroyed. Large areas are covered with volcanic dust and 
mud, Lake Rotomahana was the wonderland of the volcanic 
belt of the North island, as it was surrounded with terraces of 
silica from which issued hot springs and geysers, 
The Transcaspian railway was, on the 14th day of July, opened 
for traffic as far as Merv. The entire length of the line to Sam- 
arcand will be 1335 versts, or 890 miles. Three hundred versts 
of this is in Bokharan territory. Between Michailovsk, on the 
Caspian, and Samarcand, there are in all sixty-three stations, sev- 
eral of which have to be supplied with water by pipe-lines or 
water-trains, while others are provided with artesian wells. 
. O. Forbes has returned to New South Wales. He was 
unable to ascend the Owen Stanley range, but reached a point 
Sixty-five miles from Port Moresby. 
GEOLOGY AND PALAONTOLOGY. 
A REMARKABLE Extinct GEYSER Basin 1N S. W. COLORADO. — 
In many features the Yellowstone National Park region is closely 
an Juan mining region is covered by the deposits from ancient 
thermal springs? At this time the peculiar donanzas of the Red 
Mountain district began to receive attention, and the predictions 
_ Of the writer, based upon the foregoing conclusions, were invari- 
ably verified in the exploitation of the mines. But the develop- 
t of the ore-bodies and much more detailed examination of 
*Read before Section E., A. A. A. S., Buffalo Meeting, 1886. 
: ? Notes on the geology ua mineralogy of San Juan county, Colorado, by Theo. B. 
Comstock. Published in Trans. American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. x1, 
PP. 165-191 (with map). 
