70 Scientific Intelligence. 



the subject with a map. The eastern margin is near the contour- 

 line of 1500 feet. He mentions as one singular fact bearing on 

 the Quaternaiy history : that the Missouri River flows for 500 

 to 600 miles from north to south along the western side of the 

 region of drift, while only 40 to 70 miles east, with nothing but 

 clay, sand and gravel between, there is parallel to it, the small 

 James River, 200 to 250 feet lower in level, and occupying the 

 bottom of a valley 25 to 60 miles wide, while that of the Missouri 

 above Yankton is comparatively insignificant. He concludes that 

 the deposition of the drift determined this westward confinement 

 of the greater river ; for evidence is afforded that the Missouri 

 has recently run 300 to 400 feet above its present level. 



The Coteau is made mostly of clays of the "St. Pierre" (Cre- 

 taceous) group — nearly horizontally bedded, capped with the 

 " Fox Hills" sandstone to the northward and the " Lone River" 

 sandstone to the southward. Its western side is intersected by 

 channels of erosion in " bad-land" style ; its eastern once had 

 such channels, but they are now occupied largely with drift 

 brought from the northeastward, making a region of morainic 

 hills and basins. There are two prominent lines of moraines, con- 

 sisting of loops convex to the westward, determined in outline 

 probably by the configuration of the surface. The outer or west- 

 ern is most pronounced ; it is crossed by the Pacific railroad 

 diagonally a little west of Sterling about 20 miles east of Bis- 

 marck, and has indications of four great lobes in the ice. The 

 limit of the drift is marked on the map as following a line 10 to 

 30 miles west of the Missom*i. The inner or eastern moraine 

 crosses the railroad a little west of Crystal Springs. 



2. Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, J. P. Lesley, State 

 Geologist. — The publication of the Grand Atlas of the Survey 

 of Pennsylvania has been carried forward by the recent issue of 

 three more parts in the same thorough and beautiful style char- 

 acterizing the two parts previously published. These include 

 Part II of Division II, On the Anthracite Coal Fields, by Chai-les 

 A. Ashburner, contain 22 sheets (the size, as in the others, 26X32 

 inches) relating to 'portions of the Northern and Eastern Middle 

 Anthracite Fields in Luzerne County ; Part I of Division V, 

 illustrating the geology and topography of Central and South- 

 eastern Pennsylvania, and including 35 sheets, 29 of them relat- 

 ing to the Paleozoic formations, five containing a map and geo- 

 logical cross-sections along the east bank of the Susquehanna 

 River, Lancaster Co., and one containing cross-sections of the 

 Philadelphia belt of Azoic Rocks ; and Part I of Division IV, 

 illustrating the topography, by contour lines, on 43 sheets, of the 

 South Mountain and Great Valley, 30 of the sheets pertaining to 

 the Durham and Reading Hills and bordering valleys in North- 

 ampton, Lehigh, Bucks and Berks Counties, and 13 to the South 

 Mountains in Adams, Franklin, Cumberland and York Counties. 

 The maps surpass in style and size those of other State publica- 

 tions of the country. 



