SCIENTIFIC SEMMART. 
315 
basins -were parts of ordinary valleys, excavated by rain and rivers, tbe beds 
of wbicb bad undergone disturbances after the valley had assumed approxi- 
mately its present contour. He showed that the lakes were in most cases 
maintained at their present level by drift ; and that, while in a region so 
subject to slight disturbances as the Alps, positive evidence for his theory 
would be almost impossible to obtain, no lake offered any against it, undone, 
the Konigsee, was very favourable to it. 
Death of Lady Lyell. — On the 24th of April, died Mary Elizabeth, the 
wife of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., in the 65th year of her age. I.<ady Lyell 
was the eldest daughter of Leonard Horner, Esq., E.K.S., a prominent 
member of the Geological Society from its foundation down to his death in 
1864. In 1832 she was married to Sir Charles, then Mr. Lyell, and ever 
since constantly accompanied him in his several geological visits to North 
America, as well as on almost all his journeys on the Continent of Europe 
as well as in England. Lady Lyell entered warmly into the scientitic 
pursuits of her husband, and keenly appreciated the continual changes and 
advances in geological knowledge. By her energetic assistance in writing 
from dictation, the labour of bringing out the several editions of the works on 
Geology, by Sir Charles Lyell, was materially lessened ; and scarcely a proof 
sheet was finally sent off to the printer without being first submitted to her 
for criticism and approval. In this way one of the last acts of her life was 
to read over the concluding chapter of the fourth edition of the Antiquity 
of Man,’' just published. — Geoloyical Magazine. 
On Holaspis sericeiis, and on the Relationships of the Fish-Genera 
Pteraspis, Cyathaspis, and Scaphaspis, is a paper in the “ Geological 
Magazine” for June, by Mr. E. Bay Lankester, B.A. It is a paper of some 
length, and of such a nature that it could not be abstracted in a convenient 
space. But it is a paper well worthy of perusal, and it will be found, we 
think, that Mr. Lankester is fully justified in the somewhat severe terms he 
uses in speaking of Hr. A. Kunth’s labours. 
The Ancient Glaciers of the Sierras. — Professor J. Le Conte, of California, 
has an excellent paper on this subject in “ Silliman’s American Journal ” 
for May last. It has a map, and is worthy of perusal. The author himself 
says that during the past summer, in company with several jmung men, 
mostly students and graduates of the University of California, he spent 
some four or five weeks in camp, among the high Sierras, examining the 
traces of the ancient glaciers of that region. Two years ago he carried a 
similar party over nearly the same ground. In addition to what has already 
been made known by the Geological Survey, he observed many phenomena 
which he thinks cannot fail to interest geologists and physicists. 
MECHANICS. 
A Novel Traction Engine, which seems to do work over a considerable 
space of ground, and yet has no ordinary steam-producing power, has been 
described in a recent American Scientific Journal. The machine consists of 
a, strongly made cylindrical reservoir, enclosed in a very thick clothing of 
