NATURE 



[July 28, 19 10 



fauna includes numerous new species, and a new 

 moUuscan genus, Manzanella, allied to Nucula, is estab- 

 lished (p. 75). The stratigraphical simplicity introduced 

 by this systematic piece of work may be realised from the 

 previous reference of the beds to Permian, Triassic, and 

 Jurassic series (p. ii). 



Mr. L. M. Prindle's account of part of the Yukon- 

 Tanana region in Alaska, extending nearly to the Arctic 

 Circle (Bulletin 375, 1909), is interesting for comparison 

 with Canadian work, and has also an economic value. 

 The lignites of the " Kenai formation " are placed, with 

 other " Arctic Miocene " deposits, in the Eocene (p. 26). 

 Our old friend Corylus MacOuarrii appears in the flora, 

 which may, of course, prove ultimately to be Oligocene. 



Professional Paper 61 (1909), by Mr. W. W. Atwood, 

 describes the glacial history of the Uinta and Wasatch 

 Mountains, which lie to the east of the now desiccated 

 area of the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Here " it is certain 

 that there were at least two ice epochs separated by a 

 long interglacial interval " (p. 92). Lake Bonneville sedi- 

 ments rest upon the earlier drift, and are overlain by the 

 later drift, and support is given to Gilbert's conclusion 

 that " the inter-Bonneville epoch of low water was of 

 greater duration than the time that has elapsed since the 

 final desiccation." The correlation of glacial advance with 

 lake-extension is interesting in connection with the 

 association by Messrs. Davis and Huntington of pluvial 

 flood-gravels in Central Asia with the growth of ice upon 

 the highlands. Mr. Lee, in his Arizona bulletin, referred 

 to above, seeks to connect epochs of erosion in the 

 Colorado basin with those of high water in Lake Bonne- 

 ville, so that we may now realise a good deal of " the 

 face of the earth " as it appeared soon after Pliocene 

 times, from the Wyoming border down to the Gulf of 

 California. 



Mr. G. H. Girty's memoir on the fauna of the Caney 

 shale of Oklahoma, in which cephalopods are prominent 

 (Bulletin 377, 1909), will interest students of Carboniferous 

 zoning. Professional Paper 58 (1908), a quarto of 652 

 pages, is by the same author, on the Guadalupian fauna 

 of New Mexico. The Guadalupe mountains are formed of 

 marine limestones and sandstones, the Capitan Limestone 

 in the upper part yielding a scarp reminding one of 

 Tyrol. A large Fusulina, F. elongata, is abundant in 

 the higher beds. The fauna as a whole furnishes a 

 localised type (p. 28), and differs from the Upper Carbon- 

 iferous and Permian faunas of the eastern and most of 

 the western States, while it is younger than beds styled 

 Permian in Kansas. The Guadalupian series is compared 

 most nearly with the Fusulina Limestone of Palermo (pp. 

 35 and 50), and it is urged that the beds may possibly 

 be younger than the European Permian, although truly of 

 Palaeozoic age. New genera of lithistid sponges and calci- 

 sponges are described. Attention is especially directed to 

 the bryozoan species grouped under Domopora, as In- 

 dicating Mesozoic affinities, and throughout the memoir 

 •discussions arise which must be considered by workers on 

 Permo-Carboniferous horizons. In Professional Paper 59 

 '(1909) Mr. W. H. Dall describes the Miocene of Astoria 

 and Coos Bay, Oregon, including some Oligocene forms 

 from the .\turia beds. Reprints of rare papers on Cainozoic 

 strata of the Pacific coast are usefully given as appendices. 

 Mr. True (p. 143) contributes an account of the Miocene 

 sea-lion, PorttoJis magniis, which has interesting alliances 

 with Eumetopias juhala, still living in the district. The 

 plates of fossils are of exceptional beauty, and include 

 whorl-like groups of a singularly large Crepidula. 



The Survey has also issued numerous bulletins on 

 economic geology, among which may be mentioned those 

 on the granites of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and 

 Rhode Island (No. 354) ; on the Great Falls Coal Field of 

 Montana (No. 356), where the Carboniferous strata con- 

 tain gypsum and the Lower Cretaceous sandstones contain 

 valuable seams of coal ; on the Book Cliffs Coal Field of 

 Colorado and Utah (No. 371), where the coal is in the 

 higher beds of the Upper Cretaceous ; on the iron ores 

 of southern Utah (No. 338^ where igneous intrusions have 

 introduced iron salts into limestone, and where the petro- 

 graphic observations of the geological surveyor (p. 86) have 

 a special bearing on future exploration : and on magnesite 

 in California (No. 355I, from which it appears that this 



NO. 2126, VOL. 84] 



mineral is in special demand for refractory bricks and for 

 the production of carbon dioxide, the residue being more 

 valuable than lime. Bulletins 328, 335, 337, and 345 

 deal with mineral resources in Alaska. In the first of 

 these (p. 151) the famous beach-placers of Nome are 

 described, which were practically exhausted, with great 

 profit, in two years. In No. 335 the level Bering Glacier, 

 a companion of the Malaspina, and also in part forest- 

 clad, is described and illustrated (p. 46). No. 337, by 

 Mr. Prindle, should be read in connection with No. 375, 

 by the same author, noticed above. Professional Paper 62 

 (1908), by Messrs. Ransome and Calkins, describes the 

 ore deposits of the Cceur d'.Al^ne district, Idaho. The 

 post-Glacial gravels (p. 77) are in this case referred to 

 the epoch of the dwindling and recession of the ice, which 

 was here localised in cirques and valleys. Lead, silver, 

 zinc, copper, and gold are worked, and the district pro- 

 duces more lead than any other in the United States. 

 The labour-wars in the district, waged with dynamite and 

 rifles, show that the difficulties have not been all due to 

 geological structure. The rich lead-silver ores, ranging 

 through 4000 feet of contorted Algonkian rock, are believed 

 to represent emanations from a great batholite (p. 137), 

 which is represented by -its uppermost intrusions 

 (monzonite) at various points. 



The papers on water-supply issued by the United States 

 Survey are well known by their brown covers, and usually 

 contain matter of geological as well as of economic import- 

 ance. Two of them have been recently noticed in Nature 

 (vol. Ixxxii., p. 379). No. 223 (1909), by Mr. F. G. Clapp, 

 on the underground waters of S. -Maine, includes a 

 coloured geological map and useful illustrations of joiat- 

 structures in granite, diorite, and slate. In No. 221 (igog) 

 Mr. C. A. Fisher describes the Great Falls region of 

 Montana, where the .Missouri is still fresh and vigorous, 

 and liable to considerable additions when the snow melts 

 off the mountains to the west. The destruction of forests 

 by fire on these high slopes has further increased the risks 

 of flooding. The copious water-supply is now being 

 utilised for a system of irrigation-canals in the somewhat 

 arid plains to eastward. In No. 220 (1908) Mr. G. A. 

 Waring records a piece of pioneer work in southern 

 Oregon, where no good topographical map previously 

 existed. The country reminds us of N.W. Europe in 

 Triassic days, with its large shallow lakes, liable to dry 

 up at times, and at others to extend their boundaries, so 

 as to find outlets and swell the diminished streams. Goose 

 Lake has thus been known to flow over southward into 

 Pit River. It receives, in all prob.ability, a considerable 

 supply from subterranean sources (p. 42). The problem 

 of the region, of course, lies in the alkali-lands, where 

 sodium chloride, sulphate, and carbonate may be brought 

 to the surface during irrigation, the carbonate being much 

 the most injurious. Sodium carbonate not only blackens 

 the surface of stems and roots just below the surface, 

 whence its name "black alkali," but also deflocculates 

 the soil. References are, of course, made to the bulletins 

 issued by the U.S. Department of .Agriculture, and this 

 memoir shows a promising correlation between the work 

 of the Geological Survey and of the Bureau of Soils. 



No. 225 (iqog), by Mr. W. C. Mendenhall, continues 

 the history of the Salton Sea, from its disastrous forma- 

 tion by the drawing in of the Colorado River in 1905 (see 

 Nature, vol. Ixxv., p. 501) to the closing of the gap by 

 the energy of the Southern Pacific Railroad early in 1907. 

 If the work holds, it is estimated (p. 40) that the great 

 lake will have disappeared by evaporation in igsj, to the 

 detriment of the users of ground-waters in the valley to 

 the north-west. This vallev, and the Colorado Desert 

 generally, were once occupied by the head of the Gulf of 

 California. The surface of the Salton Sea had fallen to 

 200 feet below sea-level early in 1907. A remarkable 

 water-line, 40 feet above sea-level, is traceable round the 

 bluffs, and is attributed (p. 18) to an important predecessor 

 of the Salton Sea, formed before the Colorado took up its 

 present course across its delta (Fig. 3). In this rainless 

 region it is estimated that such indications, often accom- 

 panied by deposits of calcium carbonate, have lasted 

 through a thousand years. The same author describes, in 

 Paper 222 (190SI, the conditions of the San Joaquin Valley, 

 California, and urges the importance of small farming 



