582 abstracts: paleontology 



GEOLOGY. — Guidebook of the Western United States, Part D, the 



Shasta route and coast line. J. S. Diller and others. U. S. 



Geol. Survey Bull. 614. Pp. 142, with maps and illustrations. 



1915. (For sale by Superintendent of Documents, Washington, 



D. C; price $1.) 

 A manual for the traveler between Seattle or Los Angeles and San 

 Francisco, which describes in clear, simple language the geography, 

 geology, history, and natural resources of the region visible from the 

 car window. Geology is made interesting to the reader by an avoidance 

 of details and by the selection for treatment of the features that are 

 likely to attract the eye. Care is taken also to point out the connection 

 between the story of the earth and the present human activity in the 

 region. 



The book is divided into two parts, one dealing with the route from 

 Seattle to San Francisco and one with the route from Los Angeles to 

 San Francisco. Both routes go through regions that present great di- 

 versity in geology, scenery, climate, and resources. For the northern 

 route the history of civilized settlement goes back to the early fur 

 traders and trappers, and for the southern route to the Spanish padres 

 and their Indian converts. 



As in the other guidebooks in this series the route is completely 

 covered by convenient maps and the text is well illustrated by views 

 and diagrams. F. L. R. 



PALEONTOLOGY. — Contributions to the knowledge of the mammals 

 of the Pleistocene of North America. Oliver P, Hay. Proceed- 

 ings of the U. S. National Museum, 48: 515-575, pis. 30-37. 

 April 8, 1915. 

 The results detailed in the present paper include descriptions of 

 two extinct horses, one new extinct bison, one new and one previously 

 described musk-ox, and measurements of certain limb bones of fossil 

 horses, with discussion of variations observed. There are given also 

 measurements from many skulls of various equids, as Przevalsky's 

 horse, a number of fossil horses, domestic horses, three species of 

 zebras, the chigetai (Equus hemionus), and the kiang {E. Kiang); 

 from which certain indices in equine craniometry have been computed. 

 From these measurements and indices an attempt has been made 

 to determine to what extent the various unmixed and wild species 

 which are considered deviate from an average condition; to ascertain 

 the value of some of the measurements and indices which have been 



