78 Scientific Intelligence. 



pendent on clay deposits, occurring in Cape May County; three 

 wells at Sea Isle City affording water at depths of 35, 150 and 

 160 feet. At a greater depth varying from 382 to 697 feet, in 

 the region of Atlantic City, water is obtained from fine hard clays 

 and sandy clays over 300 feet thick ; and this 3C0-foot stratum 

 contains, through nearly every foot, great numbers of diatoms, 

 so that it is a Diatomaceous clay-bed. The bed consequently is 

 easily identified. Two levels of water-supply occur in it, one 

 midway in it, and the other just below. The former at Atlantic 

 City has a depth of 550 feet. The depth increases to the south- 

 east at a rate of 25 or 26 feet a mile. A water-horizon beneath 

 the clay-bed at Atlantic City has a depth of 700 to 720 feet. 

 This Diatomaceous clay-bed extends under part of Delaware and 

 Maryland. In the New Jersey Geological Report for 1890 Mr. 

 Woolworth mentions the large Diatom bed near Richmond, Vir- 

 ginia, described by Prof. W. B. Rogers, as of the same charac- 

 ter and as possibly related in position. He cites from Prof. 

 Rogers the fact of diatoms brought up from a depth of 558 feet 

 in a well-boring at Fortress Monroe. 



3. Progress of the Kentucky Geological Survey, John R. 

 Procter, State Geologist. — A Report of progress on the work of 

 the Survey for 1890, 1891 (to January, 1892) has been recently 

 published. It announces that Prof. Crandall has been continuing 

 the investigation of the Coal region of Eastern Kentucky, with 

 reference to a general report on the coal-field as a whole, in which 

 the extension and the equivalency of the various coal-beds will be 

 treated. The study of the Coal-field and of the general geology 

 of Western Kentucky has also gone forward under Prof. Lough- 

 ridge, J. H. Crump, J. B. Hoeing and E. O. Finch, and their 

 reports will soon be published on Livingston, Meade, Warren, 

 Caldwell and Crittenden Counties. 



4. Kentucky Geological Survey: Report on Petroleum 

 Natural Gas and Asphalt Rock of Western Kentucky • by 

 Edward Orton. 233 pp. Svo. Frankfort, Ky. — Prof. Orton, after 

 reviewing in an instructive way the history of petroleum dis- 

 coveries and the origin of mineral oil and gas, treats of their 

 modes of geological occurrence, and the bearing of the facts on 

 practical questions connected with exploration for gas and oil. 

 Composition, fuel-value and uses are other subjects considered. 

 Next the facts connected with the geology of Kentucky, its bor- 

 ings, wells, gas and petroleum, are o-iven in detail. There is no 

 better authority on the subject than Prof. Orton. A fine colored 

 map of the geology of Kentucky accompanies the Report. 



5. Geological Survey of Alabama. — Bulletin No. 2 (1S92), 

 on the Phosphates and Marls of Alabama, by Prof. E. A. Smith, 

 State Geologist (82 pp. 8vo) has been issued. 



6. The Mannington Oil-field and the history of its develop- 

 ment, by I. C. White (G. S. Amer., iii, 187.) — In this excellent 

 paper Prof. White sustains the view brought out by him first in 

 1885, that success in boring for gas in Pennsylvania depends as a 



