348 



SCIENCE. 



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



Numerous half-tone and other illustrations, 

 maps and tables of statistics aid the reader in 

 obtaining a most satisfactory understanding of 

 the extent and importance of the mining indus- 

 tries of California. 



R. H. T. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Bicliier's Organic Chemistry. Edited by Professoe R. 



ANSOHUTZ. Translated by Edgae F. Smith. 



Third American Edition. Philadelphia, P. Blakis- 



toii's Son & Co. 1900. Vol. II., pp. vi -f 671. 



$3.00. 

 Malay 3Iagic. Walter WILLIAM Skeat. With 



preface by C. O. Blagden. London and New York, 



The Macmillan Company. 1900. Pp. xiv + 665. 



$6.50. 

 Lessons in Elementary Physiology. THOMAS H. Hus- 



LEY. Edited by Feedeeio S.Lee. NewYorkand 



London. 1900. Pp.xvi — 577. 

 The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. DAVID E. 



Smith. New York and London, The Macmillan 



Company. 1900. Pp.xv + 312. $1.00. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The Plant World for February has for its lead- 

 ing article ' IST otes on the Edible Berries of 

 Alaska,' by Walter H. Evans, who states that 

 they are of wonderful abundance and variety. 

 John M. Coulter treats of the ' Geograpical 

 Distribution of Conifers,' Byron D. Halsted pre- 

 sents a note on ' Coloration of Leaf for Seed 

 Distribution,' and K. C. Davis discusses the 

 ' Wild and Garden Pffiouies in America.' Mrs. 

 Caroline A. Creevey continues her series of 

 articles on ' Plant Juices and their Commercial 

 Values,' amber, copal and turpentine being 

 among those discussed in this number. The 

 Supplement on ' The Families of Flowering 

 Plants ' contains the Ginkgoales, the Pinacese 

 and the Taxacese. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 97 th regular meeting was held at the 

 Cosmos Club, February 14, 1900. 



Under informal communications, Mr. Bailey 

 Willis stated that a diamond drill hole at The 

 Dalles, on the Columbia River, had reached a 

 depth of 916 feet and had penetrated several 

 flows of Columbia basalt, distinguished by layers 



of clay and by differences of texture. No exact 

 section has been kept. A piece of core from 

 916 feet in depth is shown by examination in 

 thin section to be basalt. The object of the 

 boring, which is a private enterprise, is to pros- 

 pect for coal. 



Mr. H. W. Turner proposed the adoption and 

 use of the term Sierran, originally suggested by 

 Professor Le Conte, to distinguish the erosion in- 

 terval of the early Pleistocene. The actuality 

 and importance of this early Pleistocene erosion 

 were illustrated with reference to the eastern 

 slope of the Sierra Nevada. It was shown that 

 the Sierran caiions had in some cases been oc- 

 cupied by lava flows upon which the moraines 

 of Glacial time are resting. 



The following papers were presented on the 

 regular program : 



(1) ' A peculiar Clastic Dike and its As- 

 sociated Ore Deposits,' by Mr. F. L. Ransome. 

 This dike is exposed in the workings of the 

 Wedge and Bachelor mines, near Ouray, Colo- 

 rado. It fills a normal fault-fissure, of small 

 throw, cutting nearlj' horizontal beds of sand- 

 stone and shale. The filling material came from 

 above, and is largely composed of flakes of black 

 shale, derived from a bed which is traversed 

 by the fissure, but which limit the upward ex- 

 tension of the dike. This material was subse- 

 quently forced by pressure into all the branches 

 of the fissure and has the form of an eruptive 

 dike. It has been explored to a depth of 630 

 feet and has an average width of 2 or 3 feet. 

 The ore, which is an argentiferous tetrahedrite, 

 or freibergite, occurs alongside of, or in the 

 dike, in spaces opened by later movements. 

 These have been in part bedding faults, which 

 have dislocated the dike along nearly horizontal 

 planes. 



(2) 'Wood River Mining District, Idaho,' by 

 Mr. Waldemar Lindgren. The silver-lead 

 mines of Wood River are located in southern 

 central Idaho, some 50 miles north of Snake 

 River. The geological formations consist of a 

 sharply folded series of Paleozoic, probably very 

 largely Carboniferous, sediments consisting of 

 limestones, quartzites, and slates. Imperfect fos- 

 sils indicating Upper Carboniferous were found 

 in it at two localities. The large granite area 

 of southern Idaho abuts against the sedimentary 



