438 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
consisting of massive whitish and grey limestone, abounding in nummulites 
and other Foraminifera, associated with corals and mollusca. The com- 
monest species are Nummulites granulosus , biarritzensis , Leymeriei , spira , 
Ramondi, and obtusus f Alveolina ovoidea, Orbitoides dispansus, and Nerita 
Schmieddiana. The Nan beds also contain nummulites, but not of the 
Khirthar species, which are replaced by N. garansensis and sublcevigatus 
and Oi'bitoides papyraceus. The Gaj group is highly fossiliferous, but no 
nummulites have been found in it ; an Orbitoides , apparently O. papyraceus , 
occurs. The Manchhar, or highest Tertiary, is of great thickness, and pro- 
bably represents the Sevaliks of Northern India, but the genera of mammalia 
are generally older, forms like Dinotherium and Merycopotamus prevailing. 
The Ursa Stage in Siberia . — M.J. Schmalhausen (“Bull. Acad., St. Petersb. 
tome xxv. p. 1) records the occurrence in Eastern Siberia of beds belonging 
to the infracarboniferous series denominated by Professor Heer the “ Ursa 
Stage,” on account of their having first been recognized by him in Bear 
Island. The existence of such deposits had been previously indicated by the 
author on the evidence of fossil plants obtained from travelled blocks, one 
of which he identified with Cyclostigma kiltorkense. The rocks containing 
plants characteristic of the Ursa Stage have now been found in situ in 
various places in the Government of Jenissei, chiefly in the banks of the 
river of that name and its affluents, as far south as 53° N. lat. The most 
important locality is the Issyk mountain, on the right bank of the river 
Abakan, near its junction with the Jenissei, which consists chiefly of a mass 
of reddish-brown sandstones, with interstratified greenish sandstones, overlain 
by a lighter-coloured mass, formed by interstratified greenish sandstones, lime- 
stones, and yellowish calciferous sandstones. On the eastern and western 
slopes of the mountain these deposits are overlain by shales and sandstones, 
with beds of coal. The impressions of plants were obtained from the light- 
coloured sandstones and the coal-bearing shales, those from the latter being 
well preserved. 
The principal plants obtained from this and other neighbouring localities, 
among which a mountain near the mouth of the river Trifonowa is the 
chief, are as follows: — Bornia 1 'adiata, Schimp., Triphyllopteris Lopatini , 
sp. n., Neuropteris car diopter oides, sp. n., Sphenopteris, sp., Lepidodendron 
Veltheimianum , Stemb., L. Wilkianum , Heer, Cyclostigma kiltorkense , 
Ilaught., Cordaites (?) palmceformis, Gopp., Cyclocarpus drupceformis , sp. n., 
and Samaropsis oblonga, sp. n. 
Currents of the Suez Canal. — M. de Lesseps has communicated to the 
Academy of Sciences (“ Comptes rendus,” July 22, 1878) the results of a 
series of observations worked out by M. Lemasson on the interesting ques- 
tion of the behaviour of the water in the great maritime canal. The author 
has treated in detail of the tides and currents of the Mediterranean and Red 
Sea at Port Said and at Suez, and their influence upon the waters of the 
Canal, and has also taken into consideration the question of the action of 
prevalent winds. It appears that Lake Timsah and the basin of the Bitter 
Lakes, the former in the middle of the line of navigation, the latter nearly 
at the middle of the southern branch of the Canal, constitute two great 
regulators, at which the tidal currents from the two seas respectively expire. 
The north and south branches of the Canal are not, however, independent as 
