November 3, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



611 



The geology given is naturally largely of a 

 mineralogical nature, though the possible 

 effects of uplift and erosion were partially 

 comprehended. The following description of 

 the marble beds of Swedes Ford, Pennsyl- 

 vania, is characteristic: 



These strata, resting one upon another almost 

 perpendicularly, are very clearly distinguished by 

 divers rifts and clefts as well as by changed colors. 

 This can scarcely have been their original bearing ; 

 rather it is likely they have suffered a powerful 

 alteration in their bed. 



Copious notes are given on the mineral re- 

 sources, together with descriptions of mines 

 and remarks on the condition of the metal- 

 lurgical industry and the effects of tariff leg- 

 islation. The need of a " trust buster " was 

 evidently manifest even at that early date. 

 Concerning an unsuccessful attempt to check 

 imports by high duty on the part of the iron 

 workers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania we 

 are informed: 



Therefore several of the larger furnace and 

 forge masters proposed to hinder the further im- 

 port of foreign iron by coming to an agreement 

 among themselves that whenever iron came in from 

 Europe they would offer their own at a certain 

 loss under the prices of the European merchants 

 so as to frighten them off from further imports. 



The volumes are of convenient size, good 

 paper and type, and the rendering into Eng- 

 lish well done. It is a work which those in- 

 terested in the beginning of science, or the 

 early history of the country may peruse with 

 pleasure and which aU may read with profit. 

 One can but hope that it will meet such a re- 

 ception as may lead to a like rendering by 

 Dr. Morrison of the " Beytrage " above men- 

 tioned. George P. Merrill 



IRE INTEBCOLLEGIATE GEOLOGICAL 

 EXCURSION 



The eleventh Intercollegiate Geological 

 Excursion, though it began on " Friday the 

 13th," was blessed with perfect weather and 

 the attendance was over 70. We regretted 

 the absence of Professor William Morris 

 Davis (to whom a greeting was sent) and 

 Secretary Professor Cleland (detained at the 



last moment) yet the presence of Dr. C. A. 

 Davis, the peat expert of the Bureau of Mines, 

 and David White, from Washington, and a 

 delegation headed by Professor Chadwick 

 from St. Lawrence University, helped to make 

 up. The state geologists of Connecticut, 

 Rhode Island and Vermont (there is none 

 in Massachusetts) were present and mera- 

 bers of the faculties of Dartmouth, Ver- 

 mont, Amherst, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Yale, 

 Worcester, Boston and Salem Normals, as 

 well as the immediately adjacent institutions 

 of Harvard, Tech. and Wellesley. Professor 

 Lane, of Tufts, had charge of the excursion. 

 Starting Friday noon from Davis Square, 

 Somerville, at Morrison Avenue a diabase 

 dike ridge of La Forge's " Older " E.W. fam- 

 ily was visited, then at the corner of Francesca 

 Avenue was a temporary exposure showing 

 the Somerville slates beautifully glaciated 

 and the preglacial weathering not entirely 

 removed, a north striking camptonite dike 

 with brotocrystals of biotite and an older 

 labradorite porphyrite. Then near the old 

 powderhouse the diabase with quartzite inclu- 

 sions was shown on the terraces and its pe- 

 culiar spheroidal weathering. This was visited 

 again at Governor's Avenue in Medford 

 and unpublished analyses by C. N. Whitney, 

 showing that the weathering is largely oxida- 

 tion and hydration without leaching, were 

 shown that evening by Professor Lane, who 

 called attention to the fact that the phosphorus 

 seemed higher in the weathered material and 

 thought that the weathering was in some ways 

 like that of an arid region. He also said that 

 his studies^ showed that if the consolidation 

 temperature was something like 1100° C, the 

 initial temperature was near 2000°. Thence 

 passing along Broadway, hills and drumlins 

 were being cut away, showing rock core, with 

 accumulation of the till on the lee side exhibit- 

 ing also some sign of nipping by an old ocean 

 shore 35 feet above the present level. 



On Simpson Avenue (Nos. 69 and 31) in 

 temporary excavations for cellars, sections 

 of washed gravel were exposed — largely an 



^ ' ' Die Korngrosse der Auvergnosen. ' ' 



