1 26 'Review of ^Recenl Geological Literature. 
the continental mass to which the Sierra Nevada range belonged, which 
strait has since been filled bj the lavas of the Lassen's peak volcanic 
ridge, (g) As far as is definitely known the Cascade range was not rep- 
resented by a ridge of metamorphic rocks corresponding to the Sierra 
and Coast ranges, but belongs rather to the great volcanic field which 
now occupies the area once depressed between the Cretacean island and 
the continent. These conclusions are based on the field-work of three 
seasons under the general supervision of Capt. C. E. Dutton, who states- 
that he is entirely in accord with Mr. Diller's results. 
The great "cinder cone," near Snag lake, about ten miles northeast 
of Lassen's peak in northern California is the seat of the latest volcanic 
eruption in that region. It rises 620 feet above the lowest portion of its 
base, rising at an angle of 30° to 35° and consists of small scoria and 
lapilli. The lava field surrounding it extends over about three square 
miles and consists of rough blocks of quartz-basalt in which Mr. Diller 
considers the quartz to have originated in the magma itself. The field 
of volcanic ashes extends beyond the lava field from ten to twelve miles 
in all directions and sustains the heaviest pine forests. At a quarter of 
a mile from the "cinder cone " the layer of ashes was found seven feet 
thick. This gradually thins out to the border of the field. There are 
numerous dead trunks of pine that rise from the underlying original 
soil through the ash layer, evidently killed at the time of the eruption. 
The ash and the cinder cone are considered products of the same erup- 
tion and somewhat older than the quartz-basalt with which they are 
associated. 
Ovibos cavifrons from the Loess of lo-Ma. By W. J. McGee. (Am. 
Journal of Science, vol. xxxiv, Sept., 1887). Mr. McGee's paper relates 
to a specimen of the extinct musk-ox of North America, which was 
found during the summer of 1887, in loess deposits at Council Bluffs, 
Iowa. The "find" consisted of a very perfect cranium with horn-cores 
complete, and a portion of the sviperior molars still in place, half the 
lower jaw, the atlas and portions of other vertebrae, one femur, and a 
number of other bones more or less fragmentary. All these specimens 
are now in the cabinet of the State University of Iowa. 
Specimens of Ovibos cavifrons were previously known from Fort Gib- 
son, Ind. Ter., St. Louis, New Madrid and Benton Co., Missouri, Trum- 
bull Co., Ohio, Big Bone Lick, Ky., and (probably) "the frozen cliffs of 
Eschscholtz bay." 
The Ovibos cavifrons resembles structurally its northern congener, Ovibos 
nwschatus, and its habits were undoubtedly very similar. Leidy expresses 
the opinion that it was clothed with a long fleece. The Council Bluffs 
discovery is therefore significant for two reasons. First, "it adds an 
important link to the already strong chain of evidence as to to the cli- 
mate of the loess period;" and second, "it greatly extends the applica- 
bility of cavifro?is as a criterion for correlating deposits of widely diverse 
genesis in widely separated localities." 
