500 Scientific Intelligence. 



quakes ; IV. The geological work of subterranean gases ; V. 

 Meteorites, and the constitution of the globe. It is greatly to the 

 advantage of the science that Prof. Daubree has made his import- 

 ant memoirs so conveniently accessible to those interested in the 

 subject. This second edition contains several new figures. 



2. The Pleistocene History of Northeastern Iowa ; by W. J. 

 McGee; pages 189 to 577 of the eleventh annual report of the 

 director of the IT. S. Geological Survey for 1889-90. A notice of 

 this very complete memoir on northeastern Iowa is deferred to 

 another number. 



3. Geological Survey of Iowa. — A bill for a new geological 

 survey of Iowa passed the legislature of the State last winter. 

 The appointments made for the Survey are Prof. S. Calvin, 

 Geologist, Charles R. Keyes, Assistant Geologist, and G. E. 

 Patrick, Chemist. 



4. Tiefencontacte an den intrusiven Diabasen von New Jersey. 

 A. Andreae and A. Osann. (Verhandlungen des Naturhist.- 

 Med. Vereins zu Heidelberg). — The locality which was personally 

 studied by the writers is that at Jersey City and the diabase that 

 of the well known Palisades. The contact of this diabase with 

 the Newark shales is remarkable in that in extent and character 

 it resembles that of the coarse granular abyssal rocks and not the 

 ordinary diabase contact. The shales and arkose are completely 

 changed to silicate hornstones, of which several varieties, one rich 

 in tourmaline, are described. Thus the opinion that this diabase 

 is intrusive receives strong support. l. v. p. 



5. Eleolite- Syenite of Litchfield, Me. and Red Hill, N. H. 

 W. S. Batlet (Bull. Geolog. Soc. Am., vol. iii, pp. 231-252). — 

 This paper gives a careful and minute petrographical and chemical 

 study of two varieties of eleolite-syenite. The occurrence at 

 Red Hill, N. H., had been previously described by Hawes in his 

 Lithology of New Hampshire as a hornblende syenite, the nephe- 

 lite having been overlooked. It consists of augite, hornblende, bio- 

 tite, sodalite, nephelite, albite, orthoclase and sphene. The study 

 was made on hand specimens and nothing is yet known of its 

 geological occurrence and connections. The same may be said of 

 the rock from Litchfield, search in the field not yet having shown 

 the source of the bowlders in which it occurs. This latter is 

 shown to be a new variety of eleolite syenite in that the alkali 

 feldspar is chiefly albite, not orthoclase. Hence regarding the 

 albite as the most acid of the plagioclases, by a strict interpreta- 

 tion of Rosenbusch's system of classification, the rock would fall 

 among the theralites and to avoid this difficulty the author pro- 

 poses to distinguish the variety by the name of " Litchfieldite." 

 This shows the rather unfortunate result of attempting to classify 

 rocks by set schemes as if they were species. Ii we accept the 

 conception held by most petrographers that eleolite-syenite is 

 an alkali magma — rich in alumina, moderate in amount of silica, 

 poor in ferro-magnesia aud lime — crystallizing into a granular 

 rock composed essentially of nephelite and alkali feldspar with 



