734 REVIEWS 



meaning. The relation of soils to underlying rocks, and of crops to 

 soils make very instructive points. Considerable mineral wealth is 

 found in coal, gypsum, and lithographic limestone in large slabs. 

 These of sufficient size to be valuable are not obtainable elsewhere in 

 the United States. 



The notes and diagrams on climate are good but disappointing 

 because they do not indicate the significance of the condition of the 

 meteorologic elements from a geologic point of view. There is little 

 utility in giving space in a geologic report to climatic notes unless 

 some use is made of them. The climate must have characteristic 

 influence on erosion, soil formation, soil transportation, etc. The posi- 

 tion of volcanic ash to the eastward of the volcanoes, now extinct, just 

 west of the Black Hills shows similarity of winds in the White River 

 time to those of the present time. 



Why cannot the U. S. G. S. reports, in discussing such a region as 



this, have a section on geography ? It should embrace most if not 



all of the section here devoted to topography, but should go farther 



with the question, incorporating some that is said under soils, climate, 



water resources, etc., and then discuss the influence of relief, soil and 



water on products, transportation, distribution of plants and animals, 



man, and his various occupations. 



Geo. D. Hubbard. 



Eastern Illinois State Normal School, 

 Charleston, 111. 



The High Plains and Their Utilization. By Willard D. Johnson. 



[Extract from the Twenty-first Annual Report of the U. S. 



Geol. Surv., 1899-1900, Pt. IV, Hydrography; pp. 601- 



768; Plates CXIII-CLVI.] 

 The High Plains, as defined in the first chapter, correspond 

 approximately to the Central Plains. They form a belt extending 

 from central Texas northward across Oklahoma and western Kansas 

 into Nebraska, but are more characteristic in Texas because less 

 eroded. By topographic difference they constitute a topographic 

 unit of the great geographic unit — the Great Plains. The High 

 Plains practically have no drainage, hence their surface is in general 

 a dead level known locally as the "Flats." 



Chapter 11 discusses the origin of these plains. They are the 



