Geology and Natural History. 265 



4. The Interpretation of Topographic Maps ; by Rollin D. 

 Salisbury and Wallace W. Atwood. U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, Professional Paper No. GO. Pp. 78, pis. 170, figs. 34. 

 Washington, 1908. — The use of the topographic maps published 

 "by the United States Geological Survey will doubtless be greatly 

 extended as the result of this publication. The interpretation of 

 156 maps is given and they are grouped, with reference to the 

 features the}' represent, under the following heads : The work of 

 wind ; stream erosion ; alluviation ; topographic effects from 

 unequal hardness of rocks ; erosion cycles ; stream piracy and 

 adjustment ; effects of ground water ; glaciation ; coast lines ; 

 volcanism; faults; lakes of special types. From the standpoint 

 of the teacher, this paper is one of the most valuable ever issued 

 by the Geological Survey. Its value could have been increased, 

 however, by more complete explanations of the various topo- 

 graphic types. h. e. g. 



5. The Zonal Belt Hypothesis, a New Explanation of the 

 Causes of the Ice Age; by Joseph T. Wheeler. Pp. 401. 

 Philadelphia and London, 1908 (J. B. Lippincott Co.). — An 

 attempt is made, in this book, to account for the great changes 

 of climate through geological time, on the assumption that the 

 earth has been, until recent times, surrounded by belts of 

 "planetesimal or gaseous matter." The author has apparently 

 read widely, in search of geological and meteorological pheno- 

 mena which might be explained by this hypothesis. On the 

 theory that the last zonal belt was in existence during the early 

 history of man, the myths of the various races, together with 

 Genesis and Plato, are called in as proofs of this phenomenon. 

 Although the book contains much interesting matter, it can 

 hardly be classed as a scientific treatise. h. e. g. 



6. Handbuch, cler Miner alo g ie ; von Carl Hintze. Erster 

 Band. Zwolfte Lieferung. Pp. 1761-1920; 43 text-figures. 

 Leipzig 1908 (Veit & Co.). — The twelfth part of the first 

 volume of Hintze's great work on Mineralogy has recently been 

 issued. This is largely devoted to exhaustive descriptions of the 

 species hematite and ilmenite ; also of several of the protoxides, 

 including cuprite. This part is the twenty-fourth of the entire 

 work begun in 1889; a title page is issued with it to be used in 

 binding the first part of Vol. I (pp. 1-1208), embracing the 

 elements and sulphides. h. e. g. 



7. Chemische Krystallographie ; von P. Groth. Zweiter 

 Teil. Die anorganischen Oxo- und Sulfosalze. Pp. 914, 522 

 text-figures. Leipzig, 1908 (W. Engelmann). — The scope of the 

 important work on Chemical Crystallography undertaken by 

 Prof. Groth was discussed in a notice of the first part published 

 in 1906 (volume xxiii, p. 153). We have now the second 

 instalment of the work, a volume of more than 900 pages, 

 embracing the Inorganic Oxy- and Sulphosalts. This volume 

 will be of especial interest to mineralogists, as well as to chemists, 

 since it contains so large a part of the well-known mineral com- 



