March 12, 1903] 



NA TURE 



449 



and Pleistocene strata are described, with especial reference to 

 underground and surface waters, soils and mineral resources. 

 Cretaceous coal, also gypsum, petroleum, fuller's earth in 

 Tertiary strata, and other economic products are noted. 



A report on the High Plains and their utilisation is con- 

 tributed by Mr. VV. D.Johnson. This region lies on the borders 

 of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, and it corresponds 

 approximately to what is sometimes called the Central Plains 

 region. In the broad sense, it is a plain ; in reality, it is a surface 

 of degradation with topographic diversity. There is practically 

 no drainage, the local precipitation being absorbed. The question 

 of utilisation must depend on wells. The author deals fully 

 with the origin and capabilities of the area, but his report has 

 been left incomplete. 



Part V. — Forest Reserves. 



This volume, with accompanying atlas, deals exhaustively 

 with timber regions. 



Part VII.— Texas. 



This contains an account of the geography and geology of the 

 Black and Grand Prairies, Texas, with detailed descriptions of 

 the Cretaceous formations and special reference to artesian 

 waters, by Mr. R T. Hill. 



Pre- Cambrian schists, granites and crystalline limestones, and 

 a series of Palaeozoic and Permo-Triassic rocks form the floor of 

 this region, and above are Cretaceous formations which are by 

 far the most important in area and economic value. Their 

 texture and stratigraphic arrangement conduce to the trans- 

 mission or retention of underground waters in extensive and 

 prolific artesian well-systems. They yield the most valuable 

 soil, building material, cement, and some oil-fields. These 

 Cretaceous strata are therefore described in considerable detail, 

 and numerous plates of fossils are given. Various superficial 

 deposits are likewise described. 



We have received several series of Bulletins of the United 

 States Geological Survey. 



Series A. Economic Geology. — No. 1S0 is on the occurrence 

 and distribution of corundum, by Mr. J. H. Pratt. The 

 localities for corundum in the United States, wiih the exception 

 of those in Montana, Colorado and California, are limited to the 

 Appalachian region, and the mining has been confined to Georgia 

 and North Carolina, and to the emery mines at Chester, Mass. 

 The author includes, not only the ordinary translucent to opaque 

 varieties of corundum, but also the sapphires and emery, which 

 is a mechanical admixture of corundum, magnetite and haema- 

 tite. He deals very fully with the uses and distribution of the 

 minerals. 



No. 1S2 is a report on the economic geology of the Silverton 

 Quadrangle, Colorado, by Mr. F. L. Ransome. Gold, silver, 

 copper and lead have been obtained, and it is probable that zinc 

 ores may be worked. Fissures carrying variable amounts of ore 

 occur in all the rocks of the area, from the Algonkian schists to 

 the later monzonitic intrusions that cut the Tertiary volcanic 

 series. By far the greater number are found in the volcanic 

 rocks of the San Juan series (andesitic breccias) and of the 

 Silverton series (massive andesite, rhyolitic and other breccias), 

 both of Tertiary age. Detailed descriptions of the mines and 

 of special areas are given, and the origin of the lodes is 

 discussed. 



No. 184, on the oil and gas fields of the Western Interior 

 and Northern Texas Coal-measures, and of the Upper Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary of the Western Gulf Coast, is by Mr. G. I. Adams. 

 The shales of the Coal-measures are very bituminous and give 

 evidence of the presence of organic matter in great abundance at 

 the time of their deposition. The burying of this material and 

 its subsequent decomposition gave rise to the oil and gas. The 

 reservoirs are usually sandstones which vary in porosity, while 

 the shales serve to seal in the oil and gas. The oil which occurs 

 in the Cretaceous and Tertiary strata is associated with sulphur, 

 gypsum and rock salt. MendeleefPs theory, that petroleum is 

 formed by the action of heated water on carbide of iron, is briefly 

 discussed. Particulars are given of the production of oil and 

 gas in different localities. 



No. 193, geological relations and distribution of platinum 

 and associated metals, by Mr. J. F. Kemp. This gives a 

 general account of these metals, and of their mode of occurrence 

 and distribution. It is concluded that platinum is very sparsely 

 distributed in its mother rock. It has been mostly derived from 



no. 1 74 1, VOL. 67] 



peridotites, and the chances of finding it in quantities sufficient 

 to mine are small. 



No. 178 (not included in the economic series) deals with the 

 El Paso tin deposits in Texas. The ores comprise abundant 

 cassiterite and wolframite in a quartz gangue, and the veins 

 exhibit characters similar to those of Cornwall. 



Series E. Chemistry and Physics. — No. 186, on pyrite and 

 marcasite, by Mr. H. N. Stokes. The author points out that 

 much uncertainty exists in distinguishing these minerals by the 

 usual methods. Specimens crystallising in the regular system are 

 true pyrite, while those lorming rhombic crystals are marcasite. 



Series F. Geography. — Comprises Nos. 1S1, 185 and 194, 

 which deal with the results of primary triangulation, of spirit 

 levelling and observations on the north-west boundary of 

 Texas. Nos. 183, 187, 190 and 192 are gazetteers of Porto 

 Rico, Alaska, Texas and Cuba. 



Series G. Miscellaneous.— Comprises No. 1S8, bibliography of 

 North American geology, &c, for 1892- 1900, inclusive, and 

 No. 189, index to the same. These will prove ol great value 

 for reference. With them we may include No. 179, a biblio- 

 graphy and catalogue of the fossil vertebrala of North 

 America, and No. 177, catalogue and index of the publications 

 of the United States Geological Survey, 18S0-1901. 



Monograph vol. xli. of the United States Geological Survey 

 (1902) ' contains an essay on the Glacial formations and 

 drainage features of the Erie and Ohio basins, by Mr. Frank 

 Leverett. He describes in some detail the drift deposits which 

 extend over a large area southwards from those lake-basins to 

 the vicinity of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. The soils, peat- 

 beds and weathered zones which mark intermediate stages in 

 the glaciation ; the lakes which were formed in front of the 

 letreating ice ; and, generally, the past and present systems .of 

 drainage are discussed and explained. 



A separate volume on the mineral resources of the United 

 States for the year 1900, by Mr. David T. Day, is the seventeenth 

 annual report on this subject issued by the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey. It shows a continuation of the remarkable 

 activity in the mineral industries of the country. While coal 

 and iron are the most important products, copper, lead, gold and 

 manganese ores show an increase, as do petroleum, natural gas, 

 stone, clays and other materials. The production of quick- 

 silver, antimony and nickel, of phosphate rock, bauxite and 

 fuller's earth has decreased. 



We have, further, received the fourth volume issued by the 

 Mar) land Geological Survey, a work, as usual, sumptuously 

 printed and illustrated. Mr. Bailey Willis contributes an essay 

 on the history of Maryland during Palaeozoic time. He gives an 

 account of the growth and wasting of several mountain systems, 

 the expansion of great plains and their submergence, and of 

 the folding and dislocation of the strata. He concludes with a 

 brief account of the influence of the older history on the later 

 geological changes. 



Other portions of this volume deal with the economic geology, 

 the highways and tests of road-materials, and there is an im- 

 portant report on the clays of Maryland, by Mr. Heinrich Ries, 

 the leading clay expert in the country. He discusses the pro- 

 perties of clay, chemical and physical, and shows how their bad 

 qualities can be offset by the addition of proper ingredients. 

 There is also a full account of the principal clay deposits of the 

 State. A great variety of clays is found, but at present no 

 fuller's earth. The essay may be profitably studied by all 

 interested in clay-deposits. 



ANTHROPOLOGY: ITS POSITION AND 

 NEEDS. 1 



'"THE practical difficulty of drawing a dividing line be- 

 -*- tween the legitimate scope of anthropology and that 

 of other studies is so great that we are often told there is 

 no science of anthropology. This absence of definiteness 

 adds a charm to the subject and is fertile in the production 

 of new ideas, for it is at the fringe of a science that 

 originality has its greatest scope. It is only by a synthesis 

 of the various studies which are grouped together under the 

 term anthropology that one can hope to gain a clear con- 

 ception of what man is and what he has done. After giving 

 1 Abstract of an address to the Anthropological Institute by the retiring 

 president, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., January 26. 



