190 The American Geologist. September, 1893 
age; so that nearly every stage passed through by the higher genera 
has a fixed representative in a lower genus. Moreover, the lower genera 
are not merely equivalent to or in exact parallelism with the early stages 
of the higher, but they express a permanent type of structure, as far 
as these genera are concerned, and after reaching maturity do not show 
a tendency to attain higher phases of development, but thicken the 
shell and cardinal process, absorb the deltidial plates, and exhibit all 
the evidences of senility and reversion presented during the old age of 
the higher genera." (p. 388.) 
" Progressively through each series, the adult structure of any genus 
forms the last immature stage of the next higher, until the highest 
member in its ontogeny represents serially, in its stages of growth, all 
the adult structures, with the larval and immature stages of the simpler 
genera." (p. 38G.) 
The genera of the family Terebratellidx are arranged by the author 
as follows: 
Dallinin^e, n. sub-fam.: Macandrevia, Dallina, n. gen., Eudesia, 
Terebratalia, n. gen., Trigonosemus, Lyra, Lacqueus, Muhlfeldtia, 
Kingena, Imenia, and Platidia. 
Magellaniin.e, n. sub-fam.: Magellania, Terebratella, Magasella, 
Magas, Megerlina, Bouchardia, and Kraussina. 
Megathyrin.e: Megathyris,Cistella, Zellania, and Givynia. 
The second paper is supplementary to the first and treats of the shell 
development of Terebratella (= Terebratalia) occidentalis, var. obsoleta, 
Dall. The specimens were dredged by the U. S. Steamer Albatross off 
Cerros island, Lower California. The ontogeny of this species is in 
harmony with other northern forms and is distinct from the true Tere- 
bratella of austral seas. C. S. 
The Fishing Banks between Cape Cod and Newfoundland. By 
Warren Upham. (Proc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xxvi, pp. 42-48.) It 
appears from the descriptions and statements of this paper that in the 
thousand miles east-northeastward from Cape Cod the submarine bor- 
der of the American continent differs remarkably from that portion 
which extends southwardly from the same place. It is of irregular con- 
tour, consisting of numerous submerged hills and broad plateaus which 
rise from 100 to 1,000 feet above the intervening valleys. The depth of 
water ranges mostly from 10 to 50 fathoms. The general contour re- 
sembles that of New England in general, or of eastern Canada. It 
appears to have been a land area at some time previous to the Quater- 
nary and to have been eroded by rains and rivers. Mr. Upham shows 
that this elevation must have been since or cotemporary with the close 
of the Tertiary era, introducing the Quaternary, and amounted to about 
2,000 feet above the present land level. Numerous pieces of a peculiar 
calcareous sandstone have been brought from the bottom of the ocean on 
these banks by the nets of the fishermen and they contain, according to 
Prof. A. E. Verrill (Am. Jour. Sci. (3), v. 1G, p. 323-324), abundant fossil 
shells and fragments of lignite of late Tertiary age, and of northern 
forms now living on the New England coast, indicating an extensive 
