160 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IY., No. 82. 



relics of this first-known fish have hitherto been 

 found. Some excavations, made of late in the passage 

 beds between the old red sandstone and the Ludlow 

 rocks at Ledbury in Herefordshire, have afforded a 

 fine series of the fish found in the ' bone-bed ' and 

 passage rocks. Among them, Mr. Piper has obtained 

 plates and cephalic shields of Scaphaspis, Pteraspis, 

 Cyathaspis, and Auchenaspis. Auchenaspis has been 

 found perfect; and much more of the structure of 

 these early fishes has come to light. But there is a 

 good deal of difference in the geological horizon of 

 these fish at Ledbury and that of the Scaphaspis at 

 Leintwardine. The lower Ludlows appear in great 

 thickness at Ledbury, but hitherto they have not 

 presented us with fish. W. S. Symonds. 



The Camp, Sunningdale, July 31. 



Depth of the glacial submergence on the 

 upper Mississippi. 



I desire to call attention to certain facts which 

 appear to me to indicate a submergence of even the 

 highest land at this point, which, it may be said, is 

 near the centre of the driftless area. I am not aware 

 of their having been previously noted. 



That which first called my attention to the matter 

 was the discovery that the layer of broken stone 

 which covers the undisturbed rock on the top of the 

 bluffs to a depth of four to six feet, contained nu- 

 merous shells belonging to several species of pul- 

 moniferous gasteropods. I have thus far obtained 

 specimens of the following species (the identifica- 

 tions were kindly furnished by Mr. Sanderson Smith 

 of the U.S. fish-commission) : Helicina acculeata Say, 

 Lymneae columella Say, Helix (Patula) attenuata 

 Say, Helix (Helicodiscus) lineata Say, Helix (Patula) 

 striatella Anthony. 



The condition of the shells, and the positions in 

 which found, even more than the mere fact of their 

 occurrrence, indicate submergence by giving strong 

 evidence of wave-action, evidence of which is also 

 seen in the general order and arrangement of the 

 stones composing the layer, especially in the remark- 

 able evenness of its upper surface. Overlying this 

 layer of broken stone, and sharply distinguished from 

 it, is a layer of earth from two to four feet thick, 

 destitute of either stones or shells, and having all the 

 characteristics of the loess, which, in unmistakable 

 deposits, reaches a height of two to three hundred 

 feet above the Mississippi. As the bluffs at this 

 point reach to about five hundred feet above the 

 river, a submergence to at least that extent is indi- 

 cated, — a conclusion which is sustained by other 



Trempealeau, Wis. 



G. H. Squiek. 



THE VISIT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA- 

 TION. 



Although the British association does not 

 meet officially on our own soil, we may yet re- 

 gard it as in some sort paying a visit to our 

 neighborhood, and opening up such an oppor- 

 tunity for personal communication between the 

 scientific men of England and America as has 

 never before offered itself. It is true that Prin- 

 cipal Grant, as a Canadian by adoption, sug- 



gests to the members to be satisfied with Canada 

 on this occasion, "and to leave the United 

 States and Mexico to other and more conven- 

 ient seasons. ' ' He strengthens this suggestion 

 by the statement that the time of meeting of 

 the American association was chosen so as to 

 give the members of that bod} r an opportunity 

 of visiting Montreal, thus correcting the cur- 

 rent impression that the object was to make it 

 convenient for the members of the British 

 association to visit Philadelphia. The Cana- 

 dians may also feel fairly entitled to all the 

 credit which the visit of the association can 

 bring, since so long a journey by so large a 

 body of men would hardly have been seriously 

 considered, but for Canadian enterprise. A 

 proposal was privately discussed among us, a 

 few j'ears >ago, to invite the British association 

 to Boston on the occasion of the anticipated 

 exposition of 1883. But, after the exposition 

 was abandoned, no one was so bold as to seri- 

 ously press the invitation in the absence of any 

 special attraction to second it ; and it was left 

 for our neighbors to successfully attack the 

 problem which we had abandoned as hope- 

 less. It is not, however, to be expected that 

 the individual members of the association will 

 be greatly influenced by sentiment in the use 

 they make of their time on this side of the 

 ocean, or that Canadian pride, enterprise, or 

 lo3 T alty, will prevent them from crossing the 

 border. Not even such energy as that of our 

 neighbors, and such glory as that of their 

 dominion, can compensate for the charm of 

 novelty in life and institutions offered the 

 foreigner by such countries as ' ' the United 

 States and Mexico. ' ' It ma}- be well worth the 

 while of a studious Englishman to take a long 

 journey to learn from actual inspection what an 

 English province can become under the influ- 

 ence of so energetic a people as those of 

 Canada ; but he cannot suppress his curiosity 

 to study the ampler and more varied civilization 

 which his race is working out under political 

 conditions less like those to which he is accus- 

 tomed. We therefore look upon the present 

 meeting as nearly the equivalent of a visit to 

 our own country, and, in the name of the stu- 



