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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As if to crown Mr. Bonham's effort we 

 find in his work an entire absence of sensa- 

 tional effect. No temporary expedients of 

 argument are resorted to, and altogether its 

 tone is genuinely altruistic. 



In the series of Correlation Papers on 

 the several formations of North America, now 

 being issued by the Geological Survey, the 

 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth papers have 

 been published as Bulletins 82 to 85. The 

 third paper has the special title Cretaceous, 

 being an examination of the formation of 

 this name, by Charles A. White. The chief 

 cretaceous area of the United States is an 

 irregular belt extending from Texas north- 

 ward through the region of the great plains 

 and continuing into western Canada. There 

 are also small areas in the middle and south- 

 ern Atlantic coast States. The next paper 

 is on the Eocene, by William B. Clark. The 

 author finds that the marine faunas of the 

 Atlantic and Gulf coasts permit a separation 

 of the Eocene as a whole from formations be- 

 longing to earlier and later periods with a 

 high degree of confidence, but that with 

 present evidence the lines of separation are 

 not sharply drawn among the marine and 

 fresh-water formations of the Pacific coast 

 and the interior region. The Neocene is dis- 

 cussed by William H. Dall and Gilbert D. 

 Harris. Besides assembling the published 

 material concerning its subject, the memoir 

 makes original contributions based on inves- 

 tigations by Mr. Dall. In respect to Florida 

 these contributions are so important that it 

 has seemed best to expand the chapter on 

 that State so as to include practically all that 

 is known of its geologic history. The sixth 

 in this series is by Israel C. Russell, on The 

 Newark System. This system is confined to 

 a chain of small areas extending from North 

 Carolina to Massachusetts, with a continua- 

 tion in Nova Scotia. Each of these mono- 

 graphs contains a bibliography and is illus- 

 trated, the last one being especially well em- 

 bellished with colored maps, and its bibli- 

 ography occupying over two hundred pages. 



Three recent Bulletins of the United States 

 Geological Survey embody physical researches 

 by Dr. Carl Barus. No. 92 is on The Com- 

 pressibility of Liquids, and embodies results 

 which it is hoped will throw light upon the 

 behavior of the liquid mass underlying the 



crust of the earth, and the phenomena of 

 upheaval and subsidence of the crust. No. 

 94 deals with The Mechanism of Solid Vis- 

 cosity, steel and glass being the substances 

 taken for experiment. A paper on The Vol- 

 ume Thermodynamics of Liquids appears as 

 No. 96. The results that it contains are con- 

 fined to volume, pressure, and temperature ; 

 questions involving entropy and energy are 

 under investigation. The researches upon 

 which Dr. Barus is engaged were suggested 

 by Mr. Clarence King, who has pointed out 

 the importance of a deeper insight into the 

 volume changes of liquids and solids. 



Mr. Bashford Dean, of Columbia College, 

 has supplemented his report on oyster culture 

 in France with one describing the methods 

 used in other countries of western Europe, 

 under the title Report on the European Meth- 

 ods of Oyster Culture. The topics treated 

 comprise the management of natural oyster 

 grounds, production of seed, rearing young 

 oysters, and the governmental regulation of 

 oyster grounds. The monograph is illus- 

 trated with fourteen plates. It forms part 

 of the Bulletin of the United States Fish 

 Commission for 1891. 



In Volume XII of the Transactions of the 

 New York Academy of Sciences are papers 

 on Dionsea, by Bashford Dean; The North 

 American Species of the Genus Lespedeza, 

 by N. L. Britton ; Fact and Fallacy in the 

 Boomerang Problem, by C. H. Emerson ; 

 Phosphate Nodules from New Brunswick, by 

 W. D. Matthew ; Progress of Chemistry as 

 depicted in Apparatus and Laboratories, by 

 H. C. Bolton ; The Sunapee Saibling, by J. 

 D. Quackenbos ; Memoir of Prof. J. S. New- 

 berry, by H. L. Fairchild; Petrography of 

 the Gneisses of the Town of Gouverneur, 

 N. Y., by C. H. Smyth, Jr., and the Creta- 

 ceous Formation on Long Island and East- 

 ward, by Arthur Hollick. There is a frontis- 

 piece portrait of Prof. Newberry. 



An extended Report on the Brown Coal 

 and Lignite of Ttxas, prepared by the State 

 geologist, Edwin T. Dumble, has been is- 

 sued. The origin, character, and modes of 

 using brown coal in general are stated in 

 considerable detail, after which the geology, 

 occurrence, and composition of the deposits 

 found in Texas are set forth. Comparisons 

 of the Texas product with European and 

 with bituminous coal follow, and a chapter 



