3i<5 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXII. No. 566 



sliarplj along its dorsal line to a dejjtb of half its total 

 height; followed by another belt of lowland eight or ten 

 rods in width ; and lastly a peculiarly irregular, low, broad 

 ridge, which quickly terminates southward, and is bor- 

 dered on the east by the present lake beach. 



It seems probable from a study of this region and com- 

 parison with the park to the north, that the Administration 

 Building stands on a continuation of one or more of the 

 ridges just described, while the broad, low belt mentioned 

 above has its continuance embracing that part of the park 

 on which were located the dairy and stock barns, the Stock 

 Pavilion, the Agricultural Building, the Court of Honor 

 or Grand Basin, and part of Manufactures Building, to- 

 gether with the area covered by the South Pond. Pre- 

 sumably the ridge on which stands the Administration 

 Building is one which extends northward, forming part of 

 the Wooded Island, and, as the native oaks give evidence, 

 extends past the site of the Turkish, osta Kica and other 

 foreign buildings, continuing along the east end of the 

 north lagoon and Art Annex to the northeast corner of 

 the park. 



The presence of the large native oaks on a part of the 

 Wooded Island shows the former existence of the drj-, 

 sandy soil of a ridge, while the absence of the trees in 

 other parts becomes negative evidence that it is filled or 

 artificial laud, as the mud which was scooped out from 

 the low places, forming the artistic lagoons, was piled 

 along the margins to till sinuses and level depressions. 



The presence of a few large trees near the Government 

 Building bespeaks a ridge, and the grading of the 

 grounds indicates traces of the same, desjjite the garden- 

 er's skill. But whether here was a distinct ridge on 

 which stands jjart of the Manufactures and the Govern- 

 ment Buildings, and running over toward Victoria House, 

 or whether it was only an outlier, or whether it was a 

 ridge at all, is involved in uncertainty. 



From the Convent La Rabida a ridge seems to take its 

 origin, on which stands also the Krupp Gun Works, part 

 of Shoe and Leather, thence extending southward along 

 the east margin of South Pond and west of Anthropologi- 

 cal Building, and continuing, as the ridge described as 

 lying east of the wide belt of lowland south of the park. 

 The ridge mentioned as adjacent to the present lake beach 

 and very irregular in its outline and disappearing sud- 

 denly southward, just enters the park touching the 

 Forestry Building. 



Another distinct ridge crosses the northwest corner of 

 the grounds, on which stands the California State Build- 

 ing, Washington, South Dakota, the Esquimaux Village 

 and others. This soon disappears from the grounds to the 

 westward, the oaks in Buffalo Bill's enclosure indicating- 

 its location upon the ridge. The lagoon or j)ond which 

 extends into the Esquimaux Village is probably a natural 

 sag or lagoon scooped out deeper, but it is impossible to 

 determine, since the grading outside the park fence has 

 destroyed all traces. 



From these observations it is seen that the lagoons of 

 Jackson Park — those objects of so much delight and 

 pleasure to World's Fair visitors, those gem- stones of earth 

 in a silver setting of water, which comjjleted the indis- 

 pensible features of the perfect landscape and gave the 

 finishing touch of beauty to this fairy dreamland of nature 

 and art — are the excavated marsh-belts which formed the 

 lowlands between the oak-covered ridges above described, 

 the deep muddy, marshy or water-covered places being 

 made deeper and the excavated material being used to fill 

 sinuses and depressions, — in fact, that these lagoons were 

 a necessity in the reduction of a dismal desert waste to a 

 perfect landscape garden ; were formed because nothing 

 else could be done with the water ; in short, the process 

 was but one of giving back to the sea her own, the low- 



laud belt becoming what it originally was before being 

 filled by the processes of time — a lagoon. 



We have not space to discuss the geological history of 

 this region, but may say in closing that Lake Michigan 

 has, at a not early time, geologically occupied many square 

 miles of territory now embraced in part in the city of 

 Chicago and vicinity — that a great region about the head 

 of the lake is entitled to the Indians' appellation of " Chi- 

 ca-gow " or " Skunks' Nest," and that these ridges are 

 beach-ridges successively piled up by the waves of the 

 receding lake, and the marsh-belts are the filled and filling 

 lagoons which are formed in such shore processes. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Tavo numbers of a new university publication upon 

 geology have lately come to notice, reminding one in 

 their form and general aspect of the bulletins of the 

 Geological Society of America. The new publication is 

 the Bulletin of the Department of Geology of the Uni- 

 versity of California. It is edited by Prof. Andrew C. 

 Lawson. In the two parts of the first volume there are 

 seventy-two pages and five p)lates. The articles are "The 

 Geology of Carmelo Bay," by A. C. Lawson and J. de la 

 C. Posada, and "The Soda-Ehyolite north of Berkeley," by- 

 Charles Palache. The new enterprise has a wide field 

 open to it. Comparatively spieaking, very little work has 

 been done upon the geology of California, and the prob- 

 lems are numerous and important. Aside from the two 

 quarto volumes upon the Geology of California, the work 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey and the few early govern- 

 ment expeditions, little has been done in the State. Many 

 of the problems are so intricate that it is not to be ex- 

 pected that they will be solved in the short time given 

 to them by government expeditions. The great extent of 

 the State, and the vast variety of soils and geological for- 

 mations found in it, will form fertile themes for discus- 

 sion and investigation for many years to come. It is the 

 intention of the university to issue the parts at intervals 

 as material accumulates, and when a volume of 350 or 

 100 pages has been jjrinted the subscription price of $3.50 

 will be requested. Subscriptions can be sent to Prof. A. 



C. Lawson, University of California, Berkeley, California. 

 — G. P. Putnam's Sons will publish immediately the 



first volume of "Social England: a record of the progress 

 of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, science, 

 literature, industry, commerce and manners, from the 

 earliest times to the present date," edited by H. D. Traill, 



D. C. L. The work is to be completed in about six vol- 

 umes, and the one about to be published presents the 

 record from the earliest times to the accession of Edward 

 I. They also announce Le Gallienne's "Keligion of a 

 Literary Man," "Wah-Kee-Nah, and Her People," a 

 study of the customs, traditions and legends of the North 

 American Indians, by James C. Strong, late Brevet 

 Brigadier-General Reserve Corps, U. S. A. 



— J. B. Lippincott Co. announce another of Robert S. 

 Ball's popular books on astronomy, entitled "In the High 

 Heavens," to be profusely illustrated by drawings in the 

 text aud full-page colored plates. 



— The large and curious philological library of the late 

 Prince Lucien Bonaparte is soon to come into the market. 

 It numbers about 25,000 volumes. The Prince early de- 

 termined to make a collection of works which would rep- 

 resent not only every written language in the world, but 

 their connection one with another, and also their dialectal 

 varieties ; and he was able to a large extent to carry out 

 this idea. His collection includes a specimen of every 

 English dialect. His usual plan was to get the Gospel of 

 St. Matthew or the Song of Solomon translated into the 

 different dialects by experts. 



