American Journal of Science, December 1890.—Long Island Sound in the Quaternary era, with observations on the submarine Hudson River channel, by James D. Dana. The discussion of a chart containing some new soundings recently made under the direction of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey leads Prof. Dana to conclude that during the Glacial period “Long Island Sound, instead of being, as it is now, an arm of the ocean twenty miles wide, was for the greater part of its length a narrow channel serving as a common trunk for the many Connecticut and some small Long Island streams, and that the southern Sound river reached the ocean through Peconic Bay. Under these circumstances the supply of fresh water for the Sound river would have been so great that salt water would have barely passed the entrance of the Sound.” He attributes the origin of the channel over the submerged Atlantic border to the flow of the Hudson River during a time of emergence.—The preservation and accumulation of cross-infertility, by John T. Gulick. The author discusses some of the conclusions arrived at by Mr. Wallace in his work on “Darwinism.”—The deformation of Iroquois Beach and birth of Lake Ontario, by J. W. Spencer. The author believes that the great Iroquois Beach was constructed approximately at sea-level and that its upheaval was the means that gave birth to Lake Ontario. This episode commenced almost synchronously with the creation of the Niagara Falls.—Experiments upon the constitution of the natural silicates, by F. W. Clarke and E. A. Schneider.—Eudialyte and eucolite, from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, by J. Francis Williams.—Prediction of cold waves from Signal Service weather maps, by T. Russell. In addition to the regular fall of temperature that takes place from day to night, irregular falls occur from time to time. When the fall in the latter case exceeds 20°, and covers an area greater than 50,000 square miles, and the temperature in any part of the area falls as low as 36°, it is called a cold wave. The author has investigated the shapes and relative positions of the various high and low areas of pressure preceding cold waves, and proposes a method for the prediction of them.—On a peculiar method of sand transportation by rivers, by James C. Graham. Numerous blotches of sand, some about six inches square, have been observed floating on the surface of the Connecticut River. This indicates that, by surface tension, it is possible for coarse sand to be floated away on a current having less velocity than would otherwise be required, and affords a possible explanation of the coarser particles of sand usually found in otherwise very fine deposits.—Note on the Cretaceous rocks of Northern California, by J. S. Diller.—Magnetic and gravity observations on the west coast of Africa and at some islands in the North and South Atlantic, by E. D. Preston.—On the Fowlerite variety of rhodonite from Franklin and Stirling, N.J., by L. V. Pirsson.—Some observations on the beryllium minerals from Mount Antero, Colorado, by S. L. Penfield.