986 
Monograph XXYV. on the Glacial Lake 
Agassiz, by Warren Upham (U. 8. Geol- 
Survey, Washington, 1895) at once takes its 
place as a standard work regarding one of 
those remarkable water bodies which for a 
time flooded an area marginal to the retreat- 
ing ice sheet. A great fund of detailed de- 
scription is here added to the reports al- 
ready published by Upham and others, 
regarding the Red river plain, outlets, shore 
lines, deltas, ete. It is important to note 
that large areas of the plain at its south end 
and along either side are mainly composed 
of unstratified till, and that only the medial 
part of the plain is covered by lacustrine 
silts. The plain, therefore, should be classi- 
fied not only under lacustrine plains, but 
also under plains of till; the latter species 
being until recent years unmentioned in 
text-books. An intricate lacustrine history 
is revealed by the complicated succession of 
shore lines which varied with gentle epiro- 
genic movements, and by the changes of 
discharge from the southern outlet to some 
more northern lines of overflow, Maps and 
views are liberally provided. As has been 
the case with many other phases of glacial 
study, it is remarkable to discover how 
largely the existing physiographic condi- 
tions of certain regions are dominated to- 
day by processes associated with glacial 
action. Yet until very lately our physical 
geographies gave practically no attention to 
land forms of glacial origin. This neglect 
cannot long continue in face of so fine a col- 
lection of examples as this great monograph 
contains. 
able to interpret intelligently the physical features of 
the State.’’ If the people of the State desire it, ma- 
terial adapted for purposes of public instruction will 
be provided in future volumes. 
Having for some years believed that our State Sur- 
veys lost a valuable opportunity of serving the public 
good, and of gaining sound public support by their 
general neglect of relations with the public schools, 
I am glad now to make explicit correction of my 
former note on the Maryland Survey in this regard. 
SCIENCE. 
{N.S. Vou. VI. No. 157. 
VOLCANOES OF NORTH AMERICA, 
Fottowine the plan of his volumes on 
Lakes and Glaciers, Russell has completed 
a valuable work on the Volcanoes of Amer- 
ica, ‘a reading lesson for students of geog- 
raphy and geology’ (Macmillan, 1897, p. 
346, many plates). A third of the book is 
given to characteristics of voleanoes, pre- 
senting an excellent summary of the sub- 
ject, excepting that ‘erosion of volcanoes’ 
is, for a geographical book, too briefly dis- 
missed in four pages, as compared to thirty 
pages allotted to products of voleanie ac- 
tion. The descriptive chapters on the vol- 
canoes of different districts summarize the 
results of our Western surveys, where Rus- 
sell’s own observations play no unimportant 
part, and abstract many accounts not gen- 
erally accessible, such as those concerning 
the explosive eruption of Conseguina, the 
building of Jorullo, the recent explorations 
of the lofty Mexican cones, and the surveys 
of the Alaskan islands. The dissected 
cones and heavy lava beds of the Yellow- 
stone Park are not mentioned. A chapter 
of theoretical considerations explains the 
ascent of lavas from their deep sources 
chiefly as an escape from the pressure 
of the enclosing crust, and characterizes 
steam explosions as relatively superficial in- 
cidents instead of prime causes of eruption. 
A final chapter gives the life history of a 
voleano. The illustrations are numerous 
and excellent. 
LAKES IN HIGH MOUNTAINS. 
E. Fueerr has an article on Hochseen 
(Mitth. Geogr. Gesell. Vienna, XX XIX., 
1896, 638-672), in which he gives especial 
attention to the small lakes occurring in the 
Karen (corries, cirques, amphitheatres) of 
the Salzburg Alps, the ‘normal lakes’ of 
high mountains. He discards the explana- 
tion by glacial erosion maintained by Bohm 
and many others, and Richter’s modifica- 
tion of this explanation, where drift. ob- 
