486 



NATURE 



{Aprils,, 1877 



We have now before us a portion of the final Reports 01 

 the Survey. These consist of two volumes of Geology, two 

 of Palasontology, and two of Sheets of Vertical Sections (a 

 sheet of Vertical Sections, by the way, is called a " Map" 

 in the American language). Besides these there have 

 already been published three volumes of Annual Reports 

 of Progress, two of them containing Accounts of the 

 Geology of Counties, in substantially the same form as 

 that followed in the Final Reports. A third volume of 

 Geology, to comprise by far the most important counties 

 in the coal-field, is ready for publication and " awaits the 

 action of the Legislature." " The matter for the third 

 volume," says Prof. Newberry, "has been, to a con- 

 siderable extent, prepared since the appropriations for 

 the salaries of the geological corps were discontinued. 

 Much of it is, therefore, a gratuitous contribution with 

 which the corps should be credited when a comparison is 

 made between the value of their services and the com- 

 pensation they have received." Materials for a third 

 volume of Palaeontology have been accumulated, but the 

 chief geologist does not speak confidently of his chances 

 of getting a grant to defray the cost of its publication. 

 It would be a thousand pities that the State which has 

 been at the expense of collecting this information should 

 not secure the credit and advantages involved in its offi- 

 cial publication. Otherwise, the materials will have to 

 be hunted through the transactions of American and 

 foreign societies, and will be as good as half lost. 



A volume on Economic Geology is far advanced, but 

 six months' time and from $4,000 to $5,000 are estimated 

 as necessary to complete it. A volume on the Zoology 

 and Botany of the State is also ready for publication at a 

 trifling expense. 



Lastly, " a general geological map of the State can be 

 prepared at a cost not greater than g 1,500." 



It will thus be seen that there still remain to be pub- 

 lished some of the absolutely essential parts of the work 

 of the survey. For scientific purposes the geological 

 map stands first in point of necessity. It is not too 

 much to say that it is chiefly by its general geological 

 map that the survey will be known and judged abroad. 

 It is indeed possible to construct a sort of geological 

 map from the county and other sketch maps and infor- 

 mation scattered through the volumes, and the writer has 

 done so for his own satisfaction and as a means of 

 mastering the Reports. But we can affirm with con- 

 fidence that this is a labour that few will undertake, and 

 which it would be much better that the officers of the 

 Survey should perform once for all. The county maps, 

 as will readily be understood from what has been said 

 about the undisturbed condition of the rocks, are sim- 

 plicity itself, being generally rectangles, crossed on an ave- 

 rage by three boundary-lines inclosing four dabs of colour. 

 But the general map will doubtless contain outcrops of 

 coal and ironstone seams, the positions of oil and brine 

 wells, fossil localities, and numerous other details, whose 

 bearings can only be properly estimated when seen in the 

 mass, or which it is the function of a geological survey to 

 record, since for economic purposes the registration of 

 all mining enterprises, whether failures or successes, is 

 of permanent value. In her own interests we cannot 

 doubt that the State will at once provide for the pubhca 

 tion of the volume on Economic Geology, depending as 



she does to a large extent at present, and as she is certain 

 to do still more in the not very distant future, on her 

 mining industries. 



If we may judge of the promised volumes on Palaeon- 

 tology, Zoology, and Botany from the results already 

 before us, we are confident that their publication will 

 place scientific workers in Europe as well as America 

 under a debt of gratitude to Ohio, and we trust they will 

 not be withheld. 



It appears that when the first volume of the Final 

 Report was ready, the Legislature ordered that the 

 edition should consist of four times the number of copies 

 estimated by the chief geologist as likely to meet the 

 public demand. It is to be hoped that a similar spirit 

 will induce them to complete the Survey's publications. 

 A survey by four geologists, in three years, of a country 

 one-third larger than Scotland, must soon have been felt 

 to be impracticable, more especially if it was meant that 

 the whole of the surveyor's labours, writing as well as 

 field work, were to be compressed within the three years 

 over which it was originally planned that their salaries 

 were to be continued. A conscientious desire to finish 

 their work having kept the officers of the survey in the 

 field (doubtless with the approval of the legislature) for 

 two years beyond the estimated time, the results of their 

 zeal and skill ought not to be thrown away. There need 

 be no hesitation in admitting Prof. Newberry's assertion, 

 when he " claims " " that an honest and energetic use was 

 made of the time and money expended on the Survey, and 

 that its fruits will be worth much more than their cost to 

 the people of Ohio." 



We must refer the reader to the Reports themselves for 

 the valuable information with which they are crowded. 

 We can only notice briefly the leading scientific results, 

 and some points of more than usual interest. 



The rock-formations exposed in Ohio form an almost 

 unbroken series, ranging from Lower Silurian to Car- 

 boniferous, inclusive. The principal feature in the geo- 

 logy of Ohio is undoubtedly the " Cincinnati axis," and to 

 this the late Survey has justly devoted much attention. 

 This great arch, passing through Cincinnati and the west 

 end of Lake Erie, brings to light the oldest rocks of the 

 State. It has hitherto been understood to be a minor 

 flexure of the same date as the elevation of the Appala- 

 chian chain, to which it is, roughly speaking, parallel. 

 But the investigations of the recent Survey have proved 

 it to be much older. While the Appalachian chain does 

 not appear to have been eleyated until after the Carboni- 

 ferous epoch, Prof. Orton has made the discovery that a 

 large portion of the Cincinnati region was a land-surface, 

 and suffered erosion towards the close of Lower Silurian 

 times. The denudation of a synclinal arch and conse- 

 quent exposure of deep-seated strata would not, of course, 

 alone suffice to prove this ; but the insular character of 

 the Lower Silurian land of Cincinnati is rendered certain 

 by the occurrence of pebbles derived from it in conglo- 

 merates at the base of the Upper Silurian deposits, and 

 by the manner in which calcareous strata of that age, as 

 as well as some Deronian limestones, thin out on ap- 

 proaching what must have been the shores of the island. 

 It is not so clear whether the island was or was not 

 entirely submerged in Devonian and Lower Carboniferous 

 times. On the other hand, Prof. Newberry and his col- 



