PUBLICATIONS. 591 
Some geologists think that about this time the upper part of the 
St. Lawrence basin, including all the lakes, excepting Ontario, dis- 
charged its waters northward from Lake Superior. But even without 
this doubtful part the drainage area of this one great northern river 
would be seven times that of the present St. Lawrence. Judging from 
the ancient erosion of the valleys and from other considerations, the 
annual precipitation was at least as great then as now, so that this 
former river must have been of gigantic proportions compared with 
any river of the present world. 
Its catch-basin would extend from the sources of the Saskatchewan 
and the Athabasca beyond the Rocky mountains to near the eastern 
coast of Labrador, and from the Minnesota river in the south to the 
northern part of Baffin Land and would also include the southern part 
of the great McKenzie basin. It would flow through the center of 
Hudson Bay and down Hudson Strait. The former existence of this 
great river was not a mere speculation as to what might have been, but 
a necessary consequence of the elevation and change in the slope of 
the land, and it was proved in detail by a multitude of concordant facts. 
all over the territory involved. 
Missourt Geological Survey. Vols. IV. and V., Paleontology of 
Missouri, by CHARLES ROLLIN Keyes, A.M., Ph.D., State 
Geologist, pp. 271 and 266. Vols. VI. and VII., Lead and 
Zinc Deposits, by ARTHUR WINSLOw, assisted by James D. 
ROBERTSON, pp. Xxi. + 763. Jefferson City, 1894. 
The issuance in rapid succession of four volumes of the reports of 
the Missouri Survey indicates a laudable administrative activity. They 
bring us a grateful relief from the solicitude that was recently felt for 
the future of the survey. While much of the work of which these four 
volumes are an expression was done under the previous administration 
of Mr. Winslow and is to be credited to him and his colaborers, much 
credit is also due to the administration of Mr. Keyes for their present 
creditable issuance, as well as for his own large contribution to them. 
Volumes IV. and V. relate to paleontology and were prepared by 
Director Keyes. Volume IV. opens with an introductory chapter on 
the nature and importance of paleontological data. This is followed 
by asynoptical description of the formations of Missouri, and a chap- 
ter on the biological relations of fossils, these three chapters being pre- 
