140 GEOGRA PHIC LITER A TURE 



transportation and deposition. His inquiry was suggested, and indeed 

 started, by a question of the eolic origin of the loess of the Mississippi 

 valley; afterward it extended to dunes and other deposits of drifted 

 sand ; still later he turned his attention to the air itself, devised inge- 

 nious appliances for collecting atmospheric dust, and proceeded to ex- 

 anii ne and sort the material with infinite patience. The various materials 

 from dunes and lee-slopes and air were classified into groups or grades of 

 eleven diameters, and the quantities (including, of course, the relative 

 proportions of each) were carefully determined, and are represented 

 graphically in the memoir. The determinations indicate that the wind 

 is an assorting agent of great delicacy ; for the range in magnitude of 

 particles in any particular deposit is slight and consistent. The general 

 result of the study is to establish criteria for discriminating wind deposits 

 and ascertaining the conditions under which they were laid down. The 

 bearing of the inquiry on the origin of the much-discussed loess of the 

 Mississippi valley is noted, though Professor Udden judiciously refrains 

 from final expression ; it may be hoped that his excellent work will 

 stimulate corresponding investigation of the mechanical composition of 

 glacier mud and river silt. Professor Udden's memoir is bound to become 

 a standard. 



W J M. 



Twelfth Annual Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Advance 

 copy without appendices. Pp. 91. Washington, January 11, 1899. 

 Tentli A nnual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the 

 year ending June SO, 1897. Prepared by the Statistician to the Com- 

 mission. Advance copy without tables. Pp. 114 and map. 

 The announcement of the practical failure of the interstate commerce 

 law contained in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Commission was 

 so distinct and unequivocal that it has been difficult to anticipate what 

 would be added after another twelve months of legislative inaction. In 

 the language of the present report, "to state that the law in its present 

 condition cannot be enforced is onlj' to repeat what has already been 

 said," and the commission, after a brief though emphatic characteriza- 

 tion and a few pertinent illustrations of the situation as it was at the 

 close of 1898, passes to the discussion of practicable remedies. Compar- 

 ing the rather definite intimations in this connection with the significant 

 omissions in that of last year, one feels warranted in describing the later 

 emission as a record of the progress of the commission toward a fuller 

 appreciation and fairer expression of the necessities of the railway situa- 

 tion and of the fact that railway corporations and investors have rights 

 to protect as well as duties to perform. It is not that the recommenda- 

 tions of last year's report were in themselves objectionable, or that they 

 reappear substantially altered in form or substance ; it is rather the 

 change in the order in which they are presented and the transference 

 of emphasis that is remarkable and significant. Last year there was a 

 great deal in regard to the power to correct rates, the imperfections of 

 the long and short haul clause, the lack of finality accorded the proceed- 

 ings before the commission, but very little concerning the desirability 

 and means of restraining competition, and that little expressed in exceed" 



