LITERARY NOTICES. 



29 



erably. We may profoundly lament this 

 tragical state of things, bat we can neither 

 controvert it nor alter it. ' Many are called, 

 but few are chosen.' The selection, the 

 picking out of these chosen ones, is inevita- 

 bly connected with the arrest and destruc- 

 tion of the remaining majority. Another 

 EugHsh naturalist therefore designates the 

 result of Darwinism very frankly as the 

 ' survival of the fittest.' At any rate, this 

 principle of selection is nothing less than 

 democratic ; on the contrary, it is aristo- 

 cratic, in the strictest sense of the word. 

 If, therefore, Darwinism, logically carried 

 out, has, according to Virchow, an ' uncom- 

 monly suspicious aspect,' this can only be 

 found in the idea that it offers a helping 

 hand to the efforts of the aristocrats. But 

 how the socialism of the day can find any 

 encouragement in those efforts, and how 

 the horrors of the Paris Commune can be 

 traced to them, is to me, I must frankly 

 confess, absolutely incomprehensible." 



Report of the Geological Sprvet of Ohio. 

 Vol. III. Geology and Paleontology. 

 Part I. Geology. Published by Author- 

 ity of the Legislature of Ohio. Colum- 

 bus: Nevins & Myers, State Printers. 

 1878. 



This volume, the third in the series, fully 

 sustains the high character which the two 

 previous ones gave to this important work. 

 The officers on whom rests the responsibility 

 of the survey are J. S. Newberry, chief geol- 

 ogist ; E. B. Andrews and Edward Orton, as- 

 sistant geologists ; T. G. Worniley, chemist ; 

 and F. B. Meek, Paleontologist, A corps of 

 local and special assistants have rendered 

 important service. Those of the corps who 

 have contributed reports for the present 

 volume are Messrs. John J. Stevenson, M. 

 C. Read, A. W. Wheat, John Hussey, F. C. 

 Hill, A. C. Lindemuth, J. S. Hodge, and F. 

 Hesser. All of these reports are of a high 

 order, and show in how careful and thor- 

 ough a manner the work is being done. 

 Reports of surveys of six counties are by 

 the geologist-in-chief, who also contributes 

 an important paper reviewing the general 

 geological structure of the State. This pa- 

 per is a wonderfully clear statement of the 

 facts brought out by the local surveys, and 

 of the conclusions which they suggest. It is 



VOL. XVI. — 9 



the more interesting from the fact that it 

 reviews conclusions presented in previous 

 reports of the survey which had been criti- 

 cised by several eminent geologists in other 

 States. Much of the uncertainty which ex- 

 isted as to the age and geological equiva- 

 lence of the Ohio rocks seems now to be 

 removed. Concerning the Cincinnati uplift 

 it is said that " the Cincinnati axis in Ohio 

 is an anticlinal ridge of which the arched 

 strata of the Cincinnati Group form the 

 core." This uplift formed an elevated ridge 

 through the Upper Silurian, Devonian, and 

 Carboniferous ages. Many of the great de- 

 posits thin out on the sloping sides of this 

 elevation. It constituted, indeed, two isl- 

 ands, one in Tennessee, the other in Ken- 

 tucky and Ohio. 



The Cincinnati Group referred to is 

 shown to contain the characteristic fossils 

 of the Hudson River Group, Trenton Lime- 

 stone, and some which are found in the 

 Black River and Birdseye Groups. But, 

 says Professor Newberry, they are so inter- 

 mingled as to make it impossible to identify 

 any one of the subdivisions of the Cincin- 

 nati Group with either of the Lower Silu- 

 rian Limestones of the East. 



The Oolitic Iron-ore band of the Clin- 

 ton is in Ohio, sometimes two or three feet 

 in thickness, sometimes it is scarcely more 

 than a ferruginous stain. This is stated to 

 be in no sense a clay iron-stone, as has 

 been suggested. It is a red hematite, and 

 is called dye-stone ore in Tennessee. It is 

 a marine not a marsh deposit, as shown by 

 the fossils present. The iron was probably 

 brought by drainage water from ferruginous 

 districts and deposited. 



The Corniferous Limestone in this State 

 is a vast storehouse of fossils. Extensive 

 collections of these will be fully described 

 in Part II., which treats of paleontology. 

 The land-plants found in this limestone at 

 Sandusky and Delaware may have formed 

 part of the luxuriant vegetation that covered 

 the Cincinnati Island in the Devonian age, 

 " the first land flora of which we have any 

 traces in the United States." 



Of the Huron Shale, much has been writ- 

 ten. It occurs through Central Ohio in a 

 line of outcrop with a maximum thickness 

 of 350 feet. This formation is a nearly ho- 

 mocreneous bituminous shale, containing at 



