344 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 270. 



Kansas, Nebraska, northwestern Iowa into 

 South Dakota, following the Dakota Cre- 

 taceous, the great waterbearing beds of the 

 plains. Over one hundred boxes of material 

 were collected, with the result that new 

 forms were found, some valuable rock-bear- 

 ing beds located, and the second or third 

 largest known collection of Cretaceous leaves 

 made, numbering 4000 to 5000 specimens. 

 Mr. Gould is devoting his undivided energy 

 to these collections, working them out, re- 

 cording and numbering them, classifying 

 and describing them. This work is to be 

 finished by July 1, 1900. 



A third party consisted of Mr. G. E. 

 Condra, a graduate student of the Univer- 

 sity of Nebraska, who spent the spring and 

 summer collecting the fossil Bryozoa in the 

 Carboniferous exposures, with the result 

 that some 30 localities were visited and a 

 large collection made, in which are already 

 represented over 40 species, several forms 

 being undoubtedly new. Mr. Condra will 

 spend the remainder of the year upon his 

 collections, preparing the material, num- 

 bering, recording, identifying and describ- 

 ing the same. Numerous microscopic sec- 

 tions are already cut, and as many more 

 are to be prepared, and this work which 

 was begun two years ago will be continued 

 for at least another year before a paper is 

 to be presented. 



A fourth party, consisting of Miss Carrie 

 A. Barbour, assistant curator of the State 

 Museum, and an assistant, visited quarries 

 in the Carboniferous, and Permian for the 

 sole purpose of collecting fossils. Over 

 20,000 of the commoner species were pro- 

 cured, some of them apparently new to the 

 State, with three or four species supposed to 

 be undescribed. A fifth party consisted of 

 the acting State Geologist, who visited all 

 quarters of the State, and attempted to cor- 

 relate work as far as he was able. There is 

 such an accumulation of data and material 

 that it will tax the department to dispose of 



it in time to begin the work of 1900. Be- 

 sides, several lines of investigation are 

 under way, the most noteworthy of which 

 is that of Mr. W. W. H. Moore, who is 

 making freezing and pressure tests of the 

 mortar, cement and building rocks collected 

 during the summer. This investigation 

 bids fair to yield some useful if not impor- 

 tant results. It is the intention that every 

 line of work and investigation shall be so 

 well finished and so nearly in hand that 

 there will be little or no overlapping of the 

 work of one year upon the next. It may be 

 reported that the initial work of the survey 

 seems to be as well systematized as is to 

 be expected the first year. Barring unex- 

 pected difficulties and adversities, it seems 

 assured that fair progress may be reported 

 to this academy at the close of the present 

 biennium. 



Another sum of $500 will be available 

 for a continuance of the work in 1900, and 

 not less than five or six papers will be ready 

 to submit to the Legislature, as the result of 

 the work of the first biennium. The plan 

 being to ask for a special appropriation for 

 publishing. These papers, according to 

 present intention, will be confined studi- 

 ously and strictly to economic phases of our 

 geology, with the hope and full expectation 

 that a legislative as well as a university ap- 

 propriation may be a reality for the second 

 biennium. 



Erwin Hinckley Barboue. 



The University of Nebraska. 



SCIENTIFIC books: 

 Text- Book of Vertebrate Zoology. By J. S. 



KiNGSLEY, Professor of Zoology in Tufts 



College. New York, Henry Holt & Co. 



1899. 8vo., pp. viii-t-439. 378 figures in 



text. 



Professor Kingsley has prepared a text-book 

 for college students " intended," so says the pre- 

 face, "to supplement both lectures and labora- 

 tory work and to place in concise form the more 

 important facts and generalizations concerning 



