1853] 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



79 



to the Institute, both as to the external appearance and the interna^ 

 arrangements ; the last of which w.e are assured will be very complete.' 



The site purchased for the purpose, and on which the excavation for 

 the basement is already completed, is situated on the north-east corner 

 of Church and Adelaide Streeis, in the immedhte vicinity of St. Jamps's 

 Cathedral and Parochial School House, and Si. Andrew's Church. The 

 principal front of the building will be on Church Street, 80 feet by 94 

 Jest front on Adelaide Street, leaving a lane 10 feet in width around the 

 north and east sides of the building. 



The ground floor will contain, besides offices for renting, the Library, 

 Reading Room. Committee and Apparatus Room, and the Lecture 

 Theatre, the seats ol which will be in circular form, and regularly 

 descending from the level of this floor to that of the basement, thus 

 affording an unobstructed view of the Platform to every person in the 

 room. The basement will also contain the Hall Keeper's apartments, 

 and a number of excellent Class Rooms, the ceilings being high and 

 well ventilated. 



On the second floor is the Music Hall, approached by a broad stair- 

 way, nine feet in width, in a "rand Entrance Hall twenty-five feet in 

 width, and two stories in height. The Music Hall is 76^' feet long by 

 56 feet broad, with a fine lofty ceiling. Connected with this room, and 

 on the same level, are two ante-rooms, about twenty-five feet rquare 

 each. Above these rooms, and extending across the "building, is a Sup- 

 per Room, 67 feet long by 35 feet wiiie, with two small rooms attached . 



On the east side of the Building it is intended to erect an extra stair- 

 way to the Music Hall, both for the security of the audience in case of 

 alarm, and also for convenience of performers, who will thus have ac- 

 cess to a retiring room immediately back of (he platform. On the side 

 o'f the room opposite the platform, will be erected a small gallery for 

 an orchestra. 



We believe it is intended to carry on the work as far as the ground- 

 floor this season, prepare as much material as possible during the winter, 

 and proceed in the erection of the building as early in the spring as the 

 weather will permit, the contractors being bound to have the building 

 enclosed and the Lecture, Theatre, Library, Reading-Room and Com- 

 mittee and Apparatus Room completed by the 1st of October, 1854. — 

 Colonist. 



Notices of Books. 



Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; and 

 incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory, by David Dale Owen , 

 United States Geologist. Philadelphia, Quarto, pp. 623, together 

 •with a Quarto Volume of Plans and Maps. 

 The contents of this magnificent Report embrace a very extensive 

 range of science. Besides the results of the observations of Dr. Owen, 

 they comprehend the reports of Dr Norwood, Col- Whittlesey, and 

 Dr. Rhurnard on particular portions of the wide region referred to. 

 Also a Memoir by Dr. J. Leidy, on the fossil mammalia and chelonia 

 collected during the survey. The appendix embraces palceontological 

 descriptions, Chemical examinations, Botanical and Ornithological 

 Catalogues. The whole work is admirably illustrated by well executed 

 wood cuts, and the supplementary volume of plates contains some 

 very beautiful engravings on steel, executed by the medal-ruling pro- 

 cess, together with engravings on copper and on stone. A description 

 of the Mauvaises Terres taken from Dr. wen's report, is given in the 

 September number of this Journal. We propose to avail ourselves of 

 the present opportunity for making additional extracts from this 

 valuable and interesting work. The introduction to the Report con- 

 tains a general view of the results of the survey, which are thus re- 

 corded by Dr. Owen : — 



The country which, during the conduct of this survey, has been 

 more or less carefully examined, and of which the geological features 

 have been determined, and are, on the general map, exhibited by 

 colouring separately each formation, is the most extensive ever re- 

 ported by any geologist or geological corps in this country; including, 

 as it does, more than four times as much territory as the State of New 

 York, and being about twice and a half as large as the Island of Great 

 Britain. 



Wisconsin, except its eastern portion on Lake Michigan, Minnesota, 

 and Iowa, were embraced in my instructions. The maps, it will be 

 seen, extend somewhat beyond these bounds, including a portion of 

 Northern Illinois, and also of Northern Missouri. These additions 

 were necessary to a proper understanding of the formations of the 

 districts expressly required to be explored ; aDd they place before the 



eye, at once, as well the size and shape of the Iowa and Missouri coal 

 fields, as its relation to that larger coal-basin, heretofore (to wit, in my 

 Report of 1839) laid down by me as the Illinois oal-field. 



With these additions, the maps reaches from latitude 31° to latitude 

 49°; and from longitude 89° 30' to longitude 96° 30'. In other words, 

 it has a length from north to south of upwards of seven hundred and 

 fifty miles: from St. Louis to the British lines, and an extreme 

 breadth of about three hundred and fifty miles: embracing the 

 Mississippi and all its tributaries, from its source to its junction with 

 the Missouri ; the Missouri, as high as Council Bluffs ; the Red River 

 of the North, from its source to the northern boundary of the United 

 States ; together with the .Northern and Southern shores of Lake 

 Superior, from Fond du Lac? North to the British Dominions, and east 

 to the Michigan line.* 



. The average width of the territory thus laid down being about two 

 hundred and seventy miles; its area extends over two hundred thousand- 

 square miles. 



Throughout this vast district, all the principal streams which water 

 it have been explored, to the number of ninety-one, and more than a 

 fourth of these have been navigated from their mouth almost to their 

 source; in bark canoes. 



An inspection of the maps will give a better idea of the relative size 

 nnd position of the various formations throughout the district, than 

 could any description by metes and bounds. The Lower Sandstones! 

 (lowest protozoic strata) will be seen coming to the surface on tile 

 East side of the Upper Mississippi, north of the Wisconsin River. 

 They doubtless underlie, also, the extensive drift and the Red MarlB 

 and Clays, of the Lake Superior Country : there assuming a red tint 

 and ferruginous, argillaceous character. 



To these succeeds the Lower Magnesian Limestone, which appears 

 on both sides of the Upper Mississippi, south-west of the Lower Sand- 

 stones, and partially intersected by narrow belts of the same, where 

 they cross out beneath it in the deep cuts of the streams, or rise to the 

 surface along the bearings of partial ax?s of upheaval. 



Next supervenes the Upper Magnesian Limestone, with its under- 

 lying shell-beds, its lead-bearing strata, and its coralline and pen- 

 tamerus subdivisions, all lying south of the two preceding. 



South-west again, we come upon the Cedar Limestones, cotemporary 

 with the Devonian formation of English geologists; separating the 

 Magnesian Limestoues of the north from the Carboniferous Limestones 

 and the great cord-fields of Iowa and Missouri. 



The intervening country, lying chiefly towards the head waters of 

 the Mississippi and its tributaries and on Red River, is overspread with 

 drift. The latter occupies, in this district, uofonly a much greater 

 area than any one of the above described formations, but nearly as 

 much as all of them put together. 



Underlying the whole of these formations, but showing themselves 

 only over limited tracts, either in cuts of the streams, or where they 

 protrude in dikes or ridges. upheaved by igueous action, are the crys- 

 talline and metamorphie rocks. 



The geological formations of the district proper range, therefore, 

 from the granite to the top of the coal-measures ; above which latter 

 except superficial deposits, no geological group has been detected^ 



no New Red, whether Permian or Triasic — no Cretaceous system no 



Tertiary Basin. t / 



Over this entire region of country, (with the exception of that part 

 of North-western Minnesota which lies between the British line of the 

 north shore or Lake Superior,)}: it will be wholly unnecessary here- 

 after to institute further examinations having reference to mineral 

 reservations. The. fact has been reliably ascertained, that it contains 

 no lands which, following the usual rules adopted by the Land Office, 

 ought to be reserved from sale for mineral purposes. Coal and iron, 

 in abundance, and also other valuable minerals have, indeed, been 

 found, and their localities carefully determined ; but it has not been 

 customary to make mineral reservations on behalf of the United States 

 ■ . > 



* The recently set off reserve, on ihe Mississippi, South of Crow Win?, and 

 now ceded to the Winnebagoes, must be here excepted. Covered to a 

 great extent with drift, without promise for the geologist, and likely to re- 

 main Indian property, its examination would have been little valuable to 

 Science, and useless to the department. 



\ The cretaceous and tertiary formation, incidentally noticed in this Re- 

 port, lie beyond the limits of '.he district West ol'the Missouri River. It is 

 not improbable, however, that cretaceous strata may underlie the dri(t in 

 the extreme north-western corner of Iowa, sweeping around the confines of 

 the carboniferous 'limestone, east and west oi Sioux River. 



% This region of country may, on closer examination, be found to contain 

 valuable minerals, suitable for reservation. But as it is still the property of 

 the Chippewas, no mineral reservations could, with propriety, be made • 

 nor, as it is still undivided, even by meridian lines, were any such reserva- 

 tions, by metes and bounds, practicable within it. 



