236 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



maintained, this view being negatived by the absence of sea- 

 shells and by the occurrence in quantity of Cyrena flumi- 

 nalis. On the contrary, he regards these plains as deposits 

 from a great expanse of fresh water, kept back by a barrier 

 of polar ice extending far toward the south. In its greatest 

 extension this ice barrier would produce the crushing of the 

 bed rock, and, as it retreated, the water coming down from 

 the higher ground in the south would cover a continually in- 

 creasing surface. 



The present character of these steppes, as seen in a section 

 at Pavlodar, exhibits fifty feet of sand and silt, with occa- 

 sional lines of pebbles. These stones become larger as we 

 advance southward, until the soil is full of large angular 

 quartz boulders. Farther south the bed rock comes to the 

 surface in ridges and low hills, increasing in height until 

 some of them attain two thousand feet. All the rock sur- 

 faces are much shattered, as if by the action of frost, but they 

 show no sign of glacier action. 16 A,Octobei\ 1874, 546. 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 



INDIANA. 



The fifth annual report of the Geological Survey of Indi- 

 ana, for 1873, as prosecuted by Professor E. T. Cox, State 

 Geologist, and his assistants, Professor John Collet, Profess- 

 or W. W. Borden, and Dr. G. M. Levette, has made its ap- 

 pearance. 



A portion of the present volume is occupied by a report 

 upon certain interesting geological matters connected with 

 the Vienna Exposition ; next follows a paper on the manu- 

 facture of Spiegeleisen, by Hugh Hartmann ; and then the 

 report proper, by the Professor and his assistants. Several 

 counties are taken up in detail ; first, as to surface geology ; 

 then in regard to local details, their economical geology and 

 archaeology also being treated of. Several maps accompany 

 the volume, the most important of which is that of Knox 

 and Gibson counties. 



DISCOVERY OF COAL IN SPITZBERGEN. 



The discovery of large beds of coal in Spitzbergen is an- 

 nounced as having been recently made by the captain of the 

 schooner Samson. ]2 A, October 8, 1874, 472. 



