these rocks could hardly be Cretacic, since the fossils were of a more recent type.

A careful study of the fossils has shown that this material is not Cretacic but Eocene in age. This fauna from Chappaquiddick represents a new and distinct Eocene province, differing from all the other Eocene provinces of the Atlantic coast, but no more widely different from these than they are from one another. Although in this fauna there are several species somewhat resembling those of the provinces to the south, on the whole it would seem to be more closely allied to the Eocene of England. The genera most abundantly represented in these Chappaquiddick deposits, e. g., Modiola, Glycymeris, are also among the most abundant in the English deposits. These same genera, although represented in the Atlantic and gulf provinces, are there more sparsely distributed and occur with other more abundantly represented genera that appear to be altogether wanting in the Chappaquiddick deposits.

A comparison of this Chappaquiddick fauna with other Eocene faunas indicates that it is of lower Eocene age, the species most closely resembling those found in this fauna being found in the lower beds of the Atlantic and gulf provinces, the Tejon of California and the lower beds of England. These deposits may possibly be of the same age as the Shark River beds of New Jersey, but being deposited in a region separated from this have no forms in common with it. But such correlation could be only conjecture. As the correlation of the well-known Eocene deposits is even yet very uncertain it is unnecessary and impossible to place these beds any more definitely than simply to say that they are Lower Eocene. Structural Relations and Origin of the Limonite Beds at Cornwall, N. Y.: C. A. HART

NAGEL.

The limonite at the Townsend iron mine, near Cornwall in Orange County, N. Y., is found at the base of the New Scotland beds where the latter are in contact with the Longwood red shales. The source of the iron is evidently from the red shales but whether the contact was due to overlap or faulting has not been previously explained. Two thirds of a

mile north of the mine the Decker Ferry, Cobleskill, Rondout, Manlius and Coeymans formations, having a total thickness of 95 feet, are found between the New Scotland and Longwood beds. In the region of the mine the strata are nearly vertical and in faulting a wedge-shaped block was forced up, bringing the red shales in contact with the New Scotland beds. A cap of limestone has until recent geologic times protected from erosion the mass of soft Longwood shales which now form a steep hill, but which is rapidly being worn away.

Types of Sedimentary Overlap: A.
GRABAU.

W.

With a normal sea shore, a rising sea level will produce the phenomenon of progressive overlap, a falling sea level that of regressive overlap. If the sea transgresses slowly, and the rate of supply of detritus is uniform a basal rudyte or arenyte is formed which rises in the column as the sea advances, and whose depositional off-shore equivalents are successive beds of lutytes or organic deposits (biogenics). Types of such basal beds which pass diagonally across the time scale, are seen in the basal Cambric arenytes of eastern North America, which as the Vermont Quartzite are lower Cambric, and as the Potsdam are Upper Cambric. Again in the Basal Cretacic arenyte of southwestern United States, this is shown, these being basal Trinity in Texas, Washita in Kansas, and Dakota or later on the Front Range. Examples of this type of progressive overlap are numerous and familiar. On an ancient peneplain surface the transgressing sea may spread a basal black shale, as in the case of the Eureka (Noel) Black shale, which is basal Choteau in southern Missouri and basal Burlington in northern Arkansas. Regressive movements of the shore succeeded by transgressive movements give us arenytes which are enclosed in offshore sediments and which within themselves comprise an hiatus the magnitude of which diminishes progressively away from the shore. An example of this has recently been discussed by Berkey who finds that the St. Peter Sandstone in Minnesota marks the interval from * See ante, April meeting.

*

lower Beekmantown to upper Stones River, which interval is represented by several thousand feet of calcareous sediments in other regions distant from the shore of that time.

In marine transgressive overlaps, later members overlap earlier ones toward the source of supply, i. e., towards the old-land. In non-marine progressive overlaps, later members overlap the earlier ones away from the source of supply. Thus in a growing alluvial cone, the later formed beds will extend farther out on to the plain away from the mountain. If several successive fans of this type are formed one above the other, owing to successive elevations of the source of supply, only the latest beds of each delta will be found on the outer edge of this compound delta, the hiatus between the beds being further emphasized by the erosion which the last bed of the first delta underwent during the time that the early beds of the second delta were deposited nearer the source of supply, i. e., before the last bed of the second delta covered up the remnant of the last bed of the first delta and thus protected it from further erosion. A good example of this type of overlap appears to be presented by the Pocono, Mauch Chunk and Pottsville beds of the Appalachian region. These formations are with exception of the negligible Greenbrier member, of nonmarine origin, representing the wash from the growing Appalachians. In western Pennsylvania only the latest beds of each (barring portions removed by erosion between the deposition of the successive fans) are found resting one upon the other, the interval between the beds becoming less and less toward the anthracite regions. A. W. GRABAU, Secretary.

SECTION OF BIOLOGY.

AT the April meeting Professor H. F. Osborn presented a discussion of 'The Ideas and Terms of Modern Philosophical Anatomy,' and Dr. O. R. Hay described 'Turtles of the Bridger Basin.' The full abstract of Professor Osborn's paper was published in SCIENCE for June 23. Dr. Hay gave a brief description of the extent of the Bridger beds and of the nature of the materials composing them.

He expressed the conviction that these deposits had not been made in a lake, but over the flood-grounds of rivers. The region was probably covered with forests, and teemed with animal life. In the streams were numerous turtles. Many species of these have been described by Dr. Leidy and Professor Cope. In the speaker's hands are materials for the description of about a dozen more species. The American Museum party of 1903 collected many specimens of the genus and these have furnished good skulls, neck, shoulder and pelvic girdles, and the limbs. These materials confirm the validity of Lydekker's group called Amphichelydia, and show that from it sprang the modern super-families Cryptodira and Pleurodira.

AT the May meeting of the section papers were presented by Professor E. B. Wilson on 'Observations on the Chromosomes in Hemiptera,' and by Professor H. E. Crampton on 'Correlation and Selection.'

Professor Wilson's paper presented the results of an examination of the mode of distribution of the chromosomes to the spermatozoa in Lygaus turcicus, Canus delius, Podisus spinosus and two species of Euchistus. In none of these forms is an accessory chromosome (in the ordinary sense) present, all of the spermatozca receiving the same number of chromosomes, which is one half the spermatogonial number (the latter number is in Podisus sixteen, in the other forms fourteen). In all these forms, however, an asymmetry of distribution occurs such that two classes of spermatozoa are formed in equal numbers, both receiving a ring of six chromosomes (in Podisus seven) that are duplicated in all the spermatozoa, and in addition a central one which in one half the spermatozoa is much smaller than in the other half. These corresponding but unequal chromosomes (which evidently correspond to some of the forms described by Montgomery as 'chromatin nucleoli,' and agree in mode of distribution with that which this author has described in the case of Euchistus tristigmus) may be called the idiochromosomes.' They always remain separate in the first division, which accord

ingly shows one more than one half the spermatogonial number of chromosomes, but at the close of this division conjugate to form an asymmetrical dyad, the number of separate chromatin-elements being thus reduced from eight to seven (in Podisus from nine to eight). A reduction of the number to seven in the first division, such as has been described by Montgomery as an occasional or usual process in Euchistus and Conus, was never observed. In the second division the asymmetrical idiochromosome-dyad separates into its unequal constituents, while the other dyads divide symmetrically. One half the spermatozoa, therefore, receive the large idiochromosome and one half the small, the other chromosomes being exactly duplicated in both.

Correlated with this asymmetry of distribution is the fact that the spermatogonial chromosome-groups do not show two equal microchromosomes (as is the case in such forms as Anasa, Alydus or Protenor, where an accessory chromosome is present) but only one, which is obviously the small idiochromosome, the large one not being certainly distinguishable at this period from the other spermatogonial chromosomes. The final synapsis of the idiochromosomes is deferred to the prophases of the second division, somewhat as that of the two equal microchromosomes is deferred until the prophase of the first division in Anasa, Alydus and some other forms. A remarkable result of the difference in this regard between the forms that possess and those that lack a true accessory chromosome is that in the former case (Anasa, Alydus, etc.) the first division of the small central chromosome is a reductiondivision and the second an equation-division; while in the latter case (Lygæus, Canus, etc.) the reverse order manifestly occurs. The relation of these observations to earlier ones by Paulmier, Montgomery and others was pointed out, with a discussion of their bearing on the Mendelian phenomena of heredity and the problem of sex-determination.

Professor Crampton presented briefly some of the conclusions drawn from the results of his work upon variation, correlation and selection among saturnid lepidoptera. The earliest

studies showed that eliminated individuals, when compared with similar members of the same group that survive, prove to be more variable and of somewhat different types, although this relation between variability and selection is not a constant one. The characters utilized for these preliminary studies, namely, certain pupal dimensions and proportions were of such a nature that they could not serve the pupa directly in any functional manner, wherefore it was concluded that their condition of correlation formed the actual basis for the selective process, formative correlation being also distinguished from functional correlation. That the general condition of correlation among the structural characters of pupæ formed, indeed, the basis for selection was further indicated by the results of a statistical study of the correlations between various characteristics of pupal groups from several different animal series; although an advantage did not always appear in favor of the surviving group. On the basis of the foregoing, a general theoretical conception was developed, according to which the whole series of internal elements and the whole series of external influences were regarded as involved in the determination of the general condition of correlation or coordination that formed the basis for selection, as adaptive or the reverse. M. A. BIGELOW, Secretary.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. PRE-PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS AT THIRD CLIFF, MASSACHUSETTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: It has been suggested by several writers (Shaler and Verrill) that Tertiary and Cretaceous deposits may occur on the floor of the sea north of their known occurrence on Marthas Vineyard and Cape Cod. Their northerly occurrence on land has not been noted except for the Miocene greensands at Marshfield, Mass. (Duxbury sheet, U. S. G. S.). During the spring field season at Harvard University the writer reexamined the coast from Boston Harbor to Peaked Cliff, fifteen miles southeast of Plymouth harbor, in order to test, by

means of the excellent cliff sections, the suggestion of the occurrence of such deposits. Pre-Pleistocene deposits were found at Third Cliff, twenty miles southeast of Boston, and possibly at Peaked Cliff, southeast of Plymouth.

The section at Third Cliff shows yellow clays at the base conformably overlain by yellow and white sands and succeeded by a bed of bright red sands with an unconformity at their base. On the eroded edges of the red and white beds are deposited dark, glauconitic and lignitic clays and sands. The entire series of beds has a total maximum thickness of sixty or seventy feet, and outcrops for a half mile along the cliff face. Absolutely no erratic material occurs either within the beds themselves or along the lines of unconformity.

The lithologic characters of the lower beds are like those so persistently characteristic of the Cretaceous from Marthas Vineyard to New Jersey; while the upper beds of dark clays appear to be homologues of the Miocene at Gay Head and at Marshfield. This fact, together with the evidence of the unconformities and of the lignites is being examined with a view toward suggesting probable correlations with the deposits worked out at Gay Head by Professor Woodworth (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., VIII., 1897, 197-212); although the absence of specific paleontologic evidence renders such correlation merely tentative. The detailed descriptions of the beds and the conclusions inferred with respect to their age will be published in a later paper.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

ISAIAH BOWMAN.

EXOGLOSSUM IN THE DELAWARE.

THE Occurrence of the little minnow, Exoglossum maxillingua (Le Sueur), in the Delaware basin is of interest. So far as I am aware, it has not been taken in any of the tributaries of the Delaware before the capture of two examples which I caught in the Red Clay Creek, Chester County, Pa., during April of 1904. In this instance I am indebted to Mr. Alfred C. Satterthwait, who assisted me in securing the specimens. When

first seen, I was under the mistaken impression that they were simply young unmottled examples of Catostomus commersonnii.

In the Susquehanna basin this fish is abundant and I have also met with it in tributaries of the Allegheny in Pennsylvania, especially near Cole Grove, in McKean County. HENRY W. FOWLER. ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA.

SPECIAL ARTICLES.

THE BRAIN OF THE HISTOLOGIST AND PHYSIOLOGIST OTTO C. LOVÉN.

PROFESSOR LOVÉN, the Swedish histologist and physiologist who will be best remembered for his discoveries of the endings of the tastefibers in the papillæ of the tongue of mammals, as well as of the vaso-dilator nerves, had expressed it as his wish that his brain be preserved after death and studied by his friend and associate, Gustaf Retzius.

With characteristic care and skill Professor Retzius has just published his studies upon Lovén's brain in Biologische Untersuchungen, Vol. XII., 1905. The brain exhibits a richness of fissures and these are marked by a superior degree of tortuousness and ramification. The subparietal region is very complex in its surface configuration, while the central (motor) regions are only moderately developed. The cortical centers for speech and language formation are notably large, and Professor Retzius brings this fact into relation with Professor Lovén's notable powers of clear, exact and logical expressions of thought in words; less so in the way of oratorical finesse than in the talented use of the best and most adequate expressions. The weight of the brain is not given in this report though its size is said by Retzius to have been well above the average. EDW. ANTHONY SPITZKA.

APPLES INJURED BY SULPHUR FUMIGATION.

RECENTLY some injured Esopus Spitzenburg apples were received at the New York Experiment Station with a request to diagnose the trouble. They were of the first grade, each fruit wrapped in paper, and packed in a bushel box. The financial loss was important, as a

considerable amount of high priced fruit had been ruined.

Scattered irregularly over the surface of each apple were conspicuous spots of various sizes where the epidermis was dead, discolored and slightly sunken. Each spot was nearly circular, though on some apples the adjacent spots had coalesced, forming a large affected area of irregular shape. Beneath each spot to a depth of a few millimeters, the flesh was dead, shrunken and dry, appearing as though affected with a dry rot. There was no disagreeable odor or taste to the dead flesh or epidermis.

In the center of each of the smaller spots, and scattered over the larger affected areas, were small bodies resembling the pycnidia of a fungus, but examination showed them to be only the normal lenticels of the apples.

Failure to find either fungi or bacteria as a cause of the injury led to the belief that some treatment of the fruit, such as fumigation, might be a cause. Sulphur, being commonly used for fumigation, was experimented with to note the effects of the fumes upon ripe apples. Fruits of different varieties including Esopus Spitzenburg were placed in a bell jar which was then filled with sulphur fumes. After five minutes the fruit was removed and found to have developed numerous spots that were in every way identical with those on the apples received for examination.

This experiment was repeated many times with wet and with dry fruits, but the characteristic spots were always produced. The spots continued to enlarge for some time after the fruits were removed from the fumes.

The presence of a lenticel in the center of each spot would indicate that the sulphur dioxid passes into the fruit at this point and causes the bleaching of the tissue. A similar effect was produced where an artificial break in the epidermis was made. A lenticel makes a strong color contrast with the bleached epidermis, thus giving it the appearance of a pycnidium.

Sulphur was the only substance used in these experiments; it is possible that other chemicals would produce a similar injury. GENEVA, N. Y. H. J. EUSTACE.

THE FLOATING LABORATORY OF MARINE BIOLOGY OF TRINITY COLLEGE. ARTICLES of incorporation have been filed with the secretary of the state of Connecticut 'to establish and maintain a floating laboratory of marine biology for exploration in oceanography and the collection and investigation of the organisms of the sea; to supply colleges, museums and other institutions with material for investigation, study and exhibition.'

A vessel of about ninety tons burden will be secured and equipped with the necessary dredges, trawles, tangles, tow-nets, etc., as well as chemical reagents and glassware for work in marine zoology and botany. When the boat is anchored in a protected harbor immediately it becomes a laboratory. The vessel, in sailing from place to place in the ocean, will furnish most favorable facilities for the investigation of the distribution and variation of organisms. On each expedition it is planned to stay in some particularly desirable. locality for about one month so that problems of cytology, embryology and physiology may be undertaken. Competent preparators, artists and photographers will be on the staff so that not only museums and laboratories may be supplied with material, but an effort will be made to meet the specifications of investigators as to fixation and preservation, together with sketches, or photographs, of the organisms desired for their work. In going to a new region each summer large collections for research will be made year after year and it is hoped to greatly extend our knowledge of the local fauna and floræ of the western Atlantic.

In the early summer of 1906 the vessel will sail to the Bahamas. After a month in the sub-tropics the boat will weigh anchor for the cruise northward, making a harbor every hundred miles or so for the purpose of getting material for comparative studies. In the Bahama Islands the conditions are very favorable for the most abundant and varied organisms since these islands are situated in the mouth of the Gulf Stream where it debouches between Florida and Cuba, bringing with it myriads of creatures caught up in the