546 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 19. 



of Prof. G. H. Cook, bids fair to outrank 

 those already mentioned, as it alone combines 

 all the elements for successful completion. It 

 has the advantage of thorough triangulation, 

 including twentj^-six primarj' stations fur- 

 nished b}- the U. S. coast-survej-, — a work 

 still in progress, but approaching an end. 

 This is illustrated bj- a very delicately pre- 

 pared map in Professor Cook's annual report 

 for 1882. The process of local triangulation 

 and levelling was begun in the northern part 

 of the state, and field-observation is alreadj' 

 done for most of the area lying north of a 

 line from Belvidere to Sandy Hook. The 

 area of which the sheets have been published 

 contains 847 a miles of New-Jerse3' land, and 

 laps eastward on New York. Its centre is 

 near Orange, and it includes Paterson and 

 Perth Amboy north and south, and Brookl^-n 

 and Boonton east and west. The scale is 

 one mile to an inch (1: 63,360), sufficiently 

 detailed to show all the artificial topography 

 even in the city portions of the -map, and to 

 include many of those mj'thieal rectangular 

 streets laid out on town plans, and ' ac- 

 cepted ' bjf the local authorities, although 

 often entirely regardless of the \&y of the land. 

 The contours are drawn in faint red lines, 

 showing differences of level of ten feet in plain 

 country', and twenty feet in the hillv portions. 

 Water-surfaces are colored blue, and depth- 

 lines are drawn at intervals of ten feet. The 

 chief topographic features thus shown are the 

 strong, regular lines of the triassic trap-ridges, 



— the Palisades and the double Wachung 

 Mountains, — with their bold eastern face and 

 long slope, on the west; the more irregular 

 highland country of the azoic rocks, on the 

 north-west ; the great area of salt-marsh lands, 

 built up to tide level along the Hackensack 

 River and Newark Bay ; the extensive fresh 

 marshes and flats on the upper course of the 

 Passaic, within the curve of the Wachung range, 



— the remains of an old lake held hy drift-bar- 

 riers, as explained in the report for 1880 ; and, 

 flnally, the line of the terminal moraine, espe- 

 cially as it crosses tlie flat sandstone country 

 from Metuchen northward to Locust Grove, 

 where it climbs the trap-range. Even in this 

 short distance, over forty of its characteristic 

 little ponds, that would be quite unnoted on 

 orduiary maps, are shown upon its rolling back. 

 The completion of this map for the entire state 

 will be an immense gain for its people. 



The distinctly- practical ends that mark the 

 work of tlie New-Jersej' survey justify the sub- 

 ordination of natural to artificial topography ; 

 the former being mostlj' indicated in the fainter 



red, and the latter in the stronger black lines. 

 It would be, however, of much practical as well 

 as scientific interest to try a reversal of these 

 colors on a special edition of the map, in order 

 to show more distiuctlj- the natural features of 

 the state, and give a properly secondary- place 

 to the towns, railroads, and lettering. As now 

 printed, the ridges of the Wachung Mountains 

 are rivalled by the Central railroad with the 

 parallel roads beside it ; and the mountain 

 form is obscured, except to a very close search, 

 among the streets of Orange and Paterson. 

 And, as where so much good work has been 

 accomplished we naturallj- look for more, it 

 seems not too much to hope that future 3-ears 

 may see the entire map appear with geological 

 colors, in which the detrital surface-deposits are 

 shown, as well as the consolidated underlying 

 formations, the latterbeing indicated only where 

 the}' outcrop, or are covered by an insignifi- 

 cant soil. 



CRUSTACEA OF THE BLAKE AND TRA- 

 VAILLEUR EXPEDITIONS. 



Recueil de figures de cruxtace's noiweaux ou peu con- 

 nus. Par M. A. Milne-Edwards. lere li- 

 vraison. [Paris], April, 1883. 3 p 4-44 pi. 4°. 



The coast-survey dredgings, under the direc- 

 tion of Pourtal^s, in the iStraits of Florida, first 

 revealed the wonderful richness of the crus- 

 tacean fauna bej'ond the shallow waters of our 

 southern coast. The earlier collections of 

 Pourtal^s were unfortunatel}' lost in the great 

 Chicago fire ; but Stimpson's preliminar}' re- 

 port on the Braehyura, published in 1870, 

 gives some indication of their extent. The 

 subsequent explorations, under the direction 

 of Pourtales, the elder Agassiz, and Stirapson, 

 more than replaced the collections destro.yecl 

 at Chicago ; while the work of the Blake, under 

 the direction of Alexander Agassiz, in 1877, 

 1878, 1879, has far excelled all earlier ex- 

 plorations in bringing to light great numbers 

 of new and remarkable forms. All the Crus- 

 tacea from these later explorations have been 

 submitted lo Alphonse Milne-Edwards of Paris, 

 who has from time to time described and fig- 

 ured a considerable number of the Braehyura 

 in his great work ou the Crustacea of Central 

 America and the Mexican region. The prog- 

 ress of this work has been exceedingly slow, 

 however, the Carciuoplacidae not yet being 

 reached ; so that the groups containing the most 

 remarkable forms were left untouched until the 

 appearance of the prelimiuar}' report on the 

 Blake Crustacea in tlie bulletin of the Museum 

 of comparative zoolog}-. This short report, 

 though extending onlj' to the higher Macrura, 



