c 
082 
graphic taste, which characterize the house of 
this imprimeur-libraire ; and, being under the 
immediate charge of so eminent and able an 
astronomer as Tisserand, we venture to pre- 
dict for the new journal an auspicious future. 
. vee, 
SCIENCE. 
Tisserand will have as collaborateurs Callan- 
dreau and Bigourdan of the Paris observa- 
tory, and Radau; and the Bulletin is expected 
to be issued hereafter at the beginning of each 
month. 
INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 
Paleozoic paleontology. — During March the survey 
turned over to the National museum the collection 
of Devonian fossils from the Eureka district of 
Nevada. It embraces the Devonian fauna of central 
Nevada, described by Mr. Charles D. Walcott in the 
paleontology of the Eureka district, exclusive of the 
Actinozoaand Bryozoa. It contains 2,397 specimens, 
including 203 species, 89 of which are Brachiopoda, 
44 Lamellibranchiata, 40 Gasteropoda, 11 Pteropoda, 
9 Cephalopoda, 3 Crustacea, and 7 Poecilopoda. 
During the last field-season, Mr. C. D. Walcott and 
his assistants spent some time in the study of the 
Potsdam localities in New York, and considerable 
collections were sent in to the office of the survey. 
He is now engaged in the preliminary preparation 
and study of material to illustrate the Cambrian 
fauna of the United States. It is very desirable 
that large quantities of material should be brought 
together from all the Cambrian groups; and the 
survey would be glad to receive collections, whether 
large or small, fromall portions of the country. Care 
should be taken in packing, and a record kept. Cor- 
respondence has been begun with numerous col- 
lectors in Wisconsin, in order to obtain material from 
the Potsdam group. 
Mesozoic paleontology.— Dr. C. A. White, in 
charge of this branch of paleontologic research, has 
lately prepared a bulletin on mesozoic fossils. It is 
illustrated with nine plates, and contains three 
papers devoted respectively to the mesozoic fossils of 
Alaska, Arkansas, and Texas. Hyatt’s new genus, 
Enclimatoceras, is described and illustrated in this 
bulletin. The fourth annual report, which is just 
about being issued, contains a paper of sixty pages, 
With forty-nine plates of illustration, entitled ‘‘A 
review of the fossil Ostreidae of North America, and 
a comparison of the fossil with the living forms.”’ 
Dr. White is making preliminary studies of fossils 
from the Pacific coast, preparatory to visiting that 
section to undertake a special study of its mesozoic 
and cenozoic faunas, 
At intervals ever since 1880, Dr. White has been 
engaged in the description of the mollusks and echin- 
oderms of the cretaceous formation of the provinces 
of Sergiee, Pernambuco, Bahia, and Para, in Brazil. 
The collections were made by the Imperial geological 
survey of Brazil, in charge of Ch. Fred. Hartt. Dr. 
O. A. Derby, his former assistant, is in charge of 
the geological division of the National museum of 
Brazil, under the auspices of which this work is done. 
The specimens described include 82 species of Chon- - 
chifera, 91 of Gasteropoda, 18 Cephalopoda, 11 of 
fresh-water faunas, and 15 echinoderms. Among 
them he has established four new genera. The 
specimens are all referable to the Neocomian series, 
as is also a fresh-water fauna from Bahia, described 
in the same volume. The manuscript, with twenty- 
eight quarto plates of illustration to be lithographed, 
is now ready for the printer, and will be published 
in Portuguese in the Archivos of the Brazilian na- 
tional museum. It is expected that the descriptions, 
at least, will also be publishedin English. Dr. White 
finds that this cretaceous fauna is quite unlike any 
in North America, but more like that of southern 
India, A portion of the specimens have been iden- 
tified with some described by Stoliczka in the ‘ Pale- 
ontologia Indica.’ 
Mr. J. B. Marcou, Dr. White’s assistant, has been 
busily engaged in sorting and arranging the type 
speciméns described by Prof. F. B. Meek in the 
various reports of Hayden, King, and other govern- 
ment publications. Many of the types of Conrad 
and Whitfield are also in the collections that he is 
arranging. 
Mr. L. C. Johnson, who is in the same division, is 
arranging the large collections of fossils made by him 
in the Gulf states last summer, and is preparing geo- 
logical sections from his notes taken while collect- 
ing these fossils. 
Vertebrate paleontology. — Prof. O. C. Marsh, who 
is in charge of this division, reports progress in the 
preparation of the various memoirs, and states that 
field-work which began in April starts under good 
auspices, careful preparations having been completed 
to place four parties in the field early in the season, 
to be followed by others later. 
Paleo-botany.— Among the collections of fossil 
plants made by Prof. L. F. Ward from the Fort- 
Union group in the upper Missouri and Yellowstone 
region, a number of new specimens have been found, 
which will eventually be published in Professor 
Ward’s memoir on the subject. Professor Ward at 
present is engaged on the introduction to this work, 
in which he proposes to review the subject of paleo- 
botany from the historical, geological, and biological 
stand-point. The work of figuring the types from 
the Fort-Union collections has been commenced, and 
a card-catalogue has been made of all the species of 
fossil plants in the National museum, which renders 
it much more available as an aid to research than it 
has ever been before. | 
[Vor Sie No. 6 
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