AUTHORS’ ABSTRACTS 245 
rise in the surface temperature since glacial times, and suggested that 
the Wheeling record indicated that, or it might also be due to the 
cooling effect of downward percolating waters. He urged the advan- 
tage of an exploratory boring from the bottom of one of these shafts 
which might thus penetrate nearly 15,000 feet into the earth’s crust. 
Lhe Soils of Texas. By E.T. DumBie. Texas Academy of Science, 
1895, pp. 60 and 1 map. 
A preliminary classification of Texas soils is offered based upon 
their geological relations and origin. It is preceded by a brief state- 
ment of the general geology and of the main topographic features of 
the state. This is followed by a general description of the character- 
istic residual soils of the principal horizons of the various geological 
formations present. A brief statement is then made as to the charac- 
ters of the drift soils and a somewhat more extended description of the 
great body of fertile alluvial soils is given, especial attention being 
called to those of the Brazos and Rio Grande. 
The Yardley Fault. By BeNjaMIN SmitH Lyman. Proc. Am. Phil. 
HOE ty, ViOly XXXIV. 1805; 
A conspicuous normal fault in the railroad cut near Yardley, 
Bucks county, Pa., had seeming importance from a mistake, through 
certain optical illusions, in the direction of its dip and downthrow; 
but a correct geometrical construction shows the displacement to be no 
more than perhaps twelve feet. The blackish, highly quartzose filling 
is derived from neighboring gneiss, or still closer sand rock, and not 
from trap, as once imagined. Small geological and topographical 
maps of the neighborhood and of the fault, with a cross-section, are 
given. 
The Chalfont Fault Rock, So-called. By BENJAMIN SmiTH Lyman. 
Proc. Am. Phil. Society, Vol. XXXIV., 1895. 
The so-called fault rock of the Chalfont railroad cut, Bucks county, 
Pa., formerly supposed to fill confusedly a fault 100 feet wide that heaved 
a nearly vertical trap dike about five miles, is merely much cleaved, 
somewhat folded, dark shale-beds, dipping seventy degrees, or less, and 
striking acutely across the railroad. Two photographic views along 
the strike are given in demonstration. 
