VOL. I. | Recent Literature. : 93 
California State Mining Bureau—Ninth Report of the State Min- 
eralogist, pps. 1-352, 1889. This volume is largely made up of 
“ Special Articles,’’ of most interest being The Auriferous Gravels ’ 
of California, by J. H. Hammond,with a series of geological sections 
and photographs of mining operations; San Nicolas Island, by 
Stephen J. Bowers; River Mining, by R. L. Dunn; The Value of 
Fossils as Indications of Important Mineral Products, by Dr. J. G. 
Cooper; and the papers on pottery and clays, by Linna Irelan and 
W. D. Johnston. 
In the article on Santa Cruz Island W. A. Goodyear discusses 
the origin of this and neighboring islands, and denies that they were 
ever connected to the mainland, or, as Mr. Greene suggested, that 
“* Our little archipelago may actually have been connected with some 
other continent than ours.” The author discredits the statement 
that ‘‘any ‘elephant’ or ‘mammoth’ bones were ever found on 
Santa Rosa Island.’’ It will be a relief to the friends of those 
gentlemen that he does not accuse Dr. Joseph Le Conte or Mr. 
R. E. C. Stearns of falsehood in this connection, but lays, by im- 
plication, the blame upon the collector. The argument of the “ vast 
difference between the flora of these islands and the flora of the 
mainland,”’ which is used by the author to strengthen his theory, is 
a remarkably weak one. As a matter of fact there are in all these 
islands only three genuine types not yet found on the adjacent 
mainland. One of these (Hazardia) is, according to Dr. Gray, not 
to be separated from the South American genus Diplostephium ; 
the second is Lyonothamnus, said by Mr. Greene to be “ rather too 
near Vauquelinia [a mainland genus], really a section of it.’ The 
remaining one, Lavatera, is a tender perennial, rapidly becoming 
extinct on the islands, and possibly may formerly have existed un- 
der less favorable conditions on the mainland. Most of the numerous 
species ‘‘ peculiar’ to the islands are found to be either identical 
with, or closely related to species found on the mainland, and nearly 
all the statements made about the great difference in relative abund- 
ance or distribution have been shown by later investigations to be 
founded in error. 
Insular Floras, by Lorenzo G. Yates, is a list of the species of 
_ plants collected on the islands of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel 
and Anacapa, by E. L. Greene, T. S. Brandegee, H. C. Ford and 
himself. The author confers the title of ‘“ Prof.” upon all these 
