so abundant in the limestone that it may practically be called a Lower Cambrian coral reef. This reef was traced for nearly thirty miles, and the same types are also known to occur in the Silver Peak range, about twenty-five miles to the eastward.
So far as known to me, this is the oldest of the Cambrian faunas known in the western portion of the United States. Just what its relations to the Olenellus fauna of central Nevada and British Columbia are I am unable at present to state, except that I believe it to be older than the Olenellus fauna of central Nevada.
It is not impossible that a fauna will be found in the lower limestone, but in the hasty reconnoissance in which I was engaged, only a portion of one day was given to the examination and measurement of the section. I hope in the future to extend the study of the White Mountain range, as Mr. Fairbanks has written me that he has discovered Fusilina cylindrica in the southern end of the range, east of Keeler, which is about fifty miles south of Tollgate Canyon. If the section is unbroken, the Middle and Upper Cambrian and Ordovician faunas should be found before reaching the Carboniferous horizon, discovered by Mr. Fairbanks.
Art. XV.—On the Pithecanthropus erectus, Dubois,[1] from Java; by O. C. Marsh. (With Plate II.)
A recent discovery of great interest is recorded in the memoir here cited. In many respects, this discovery appears to be one of the most important since the Neanderthal skull was brought to light in 1857, and hence the main facts concerning it deserve early notice in this Journal. This memoir of forty pages contains a full description, with illustrations, of part of a skull, a molar tooth, and a femur, found in the later Tertiary strata of Java, and pertaining to a large anthropoid ape, which is believed to represent a new genus and family intermediate between the Simiidæ and Hominidæ. This would make it a veritable "missing link" between the higher apes and man, the discovery of which has so long been confidently predicted by many anthropologists.
The locality of these remains was near Trinil, in the precinct Ngawi of the Madiun province, in central Java. The three specimens, the tooth, the skull, and the femur, were
- ↑ Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschenaehnliche Uebergangsform aus Java. Von Eug. Dubois, Militairarzt der niederlaendisch-indischen Armee. Mit zwei Tafeln und drei in den text gedruckten Figuren. 4to, Batavia, 1894.
