abstracts: geography 375 



the City of Washington. The Indians of Algonquina stock who in- 

 habited this region, ah abandoned it about the year 1700. 



The Fall Line, separating the Piedmont Plateau from the Coastal 

 Plain, runs through the District of Columbia and acts as a more or less 

 definite faunal barrier, most so in the case of plants and insects. An- 

 other interesting feature of this region is the numerous magnolia bogs 

 and their relation to the pine barrens of New Jersey. Careful study 

 of these bogs has shown that they possess a large percentage of the 

 characteristic pine-barren plants, and that they now harbor these sur- 

 vivors of the plant waves that accompanied the successive depressions 

 of the Atlantic Coast region. Furthermore, the absence of pine barrens 

 from the District of Columbia is due only to the absence of extensive 

 areas of suitable soil deposits. Other types of cohecting ground about 

 Washington, with mention of localities where such are to be found, 

 together with some of the more desirable plants and animals to be ob- 

 tained at each, are also given. One of the chief features of this bulletin 

 is an indexed edition of the recent United States Geological Survey 

 map of the District of Columbia and vicinity, to which a detailed index 

 furnishes a ready means of reference. All the old collecting spots, 

 archaeological sites, and the minor topographical details, are indicated, 

 and it is thus possible to locate any place of biological or other interest 

 in this region. Harry C. Oberhoi^sER. 



GEOGRAPHY. — The Canning River region, northern Alaska. ErnesT 

 DE K. Leffingwell. U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper No. 109. 

 Pp. 245. Pis. 35, figs. 33. 1919. 



The report deals chiefly with the geography and geology of an area 

 about 70 miles square south of Camden Bay on the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska. In addition it gives facts and interpretations relating to many 

 problems in other fields of science. 



Under geography are described the Franklin mountains, Romanzof" 

 mountains, and some other, parts of the Arctic mountain system. 

 North of the mountains is the Anaktuvuk Plateau, a rolling tundra 

 upland that slopes gradually seaward. The flat and almost featureless, 

 coastal plain rises very gradually from the Arctic Ocean southward to the 

 Anaktuvuk Plateau. The coast line is generally straight and the land 

 very low. The shore is characterized by low mud banks, shallow 

 lagoons, sand spits, islands, and mud flats. Maps accompanying the 

 reports present the first accurate chart of the north Arctic coast of 

 Alaska from Martins Point to Colville River. In the mountains the 



