478 Eeviews — Kingsley^s Town Geology. 



matter per gallon ; others a notable amount of lithia, for example : 

 the Pavilion spring at Saratoga 9'4:8 grains of bicarbonate, the 

 Hathorn spring 11 -44 grains, and the Conde Dentonian artesian well 

 at Ballston 10"51 grains, A very remarkable acid vrater comes to the 

 surface at Oak Orchard, State of New York ; of the 211 grains of 

 mineral matter found in it, no less than 133-3 are sulphuric acid, 

 32-2 sulphate of iron, and 13*7 sulphate of lime. Hardly less curious 

 is the water of the borax lakes of California, containing 535 grains 

 of borate per gallon. Several pages on the characteristics of a good 

 drinking water contain much that is very entertaining and of prac- 

 tical value, and though we should like to quote some portion of it 

 on the connexion apparently traced between the spread of goitre 

 and cretinism and the impregnation of the waters of the districts 

 where these maladies prevail, with lime and magnesian salts, we 

 must content ourselves by concluding this brief notice of a useful 

 pamphlet with a fact or two regarding the water supply of New 

 York. The Croton water is' brought to the city by an aqueduct 

 forty-five miles in length, — the average quantity supplied daily 

 being 65,000,000 gallons. The three reservoirs at present in use 

 having proved insufficient during long continued dry weather,^ an 

 additional one of colossal magnitude, covering an area of 303 acres, 

 is now in process of completion ; this will hold a quantity sufficient 

 to supply the city with its present population for fifty-five days. 

 The Croton water is of remarkable purity, containing only 6*87 grains 

 of solid constituents to the gallon, of which but 0-67 of a grain is 

 organic matter. When will London be supplied with such water ? 



VII. — Town Geology. By the Eev. Charles Kingslet, F.L.S., 

 F.G.S., Canon of Chester. Svo. pp. 239. (London : Strahan and 

 Co., 1872.) 



THIS little work consists of six chapters which were originally 

 given in the form of lectures to the members of the Cheshire 

 Natural History Society. Written in a simple homely style, they 

 are intelligible to the most unscientific reader, and indeed they are 

 intended rather to excite an interest in geology in the unlearned, to 

 give them some idea of scientific reasoning, than to furnish any 

 new facts to the student. Chapter 1, entitled " The soil of the 

 Field," deals with modern denudation. Chapter 2, on " The Pebbles 

 of the Street," treats of glaciers and glacial deposits, and changes of 

 climate. Chapter 3, on " The Stones in the Wall," contains an ac- 

 count of the Triassic rocks, and also, by means of an imaginary rail- 



1 "We may direct attention, as bearing somewhat on this question, to the protest 

 entered by Mr. Verplank Colvin in the twenty-fourth annual report of the New York 

 State Museum of Natural History, against any further destruction of the forests of 

 the Adirondack wilderness. He calls to mind the fact that year by year the water 

 supply of the principal rivers of New York and her canals experiences notable dimi- 

 nution, and sees in this the result of the clearing of the slopes of the high mountains 

 of Central New York, and looks forward to the time when, if these operations are not 

 checked, the Hudson will cease to be navigable more than half-way to Albany, and 

 other streams will suffer in proportion, kprecis of his arguments is given in Harper's 

 Weehhj for August 10th, 1872, page 623. 



