Geology and Mineralogy. 435 



by a number of axes, or uplifted belts, not always in the same 

 direction, but conforming more or less to the longer axes of these 

 great bodies of water. The period at which this great upheaval 

 of the region took place appears to have been that of the deposi- 

 tion of the Saxicava sands, or rather during the latter part of that 

 period. 



Regarding the Carboniferous Flora of Nova Scotia, Mr. 

 Whiteaves reports that "the fossiliferous sandstones and shales 

 of the Union and Riversdale regions in Colchester and Pictou 

 counties, are seen to lie unconformably beneath the fossiliferous 

 marine limestones, sandstones and shales of Lower Carboniferous 

 age. They hold plants and animals which in their broad general 

 characters resemble those of the eastern American Carboniferous 

 — if we leave out of consideration the types which occur in the 

 { fern-ledges ' of Lancaster county in New Brunswick, described 

 and regarded as Devonian. The fossils which show this affinity 

 to types of Carboniferous age include, besides the presence of a 

 protolimuloid crustacean closely allied to Prestioichia and erect 

 trees of doubtful affinities, such genera as : Calamites, Astero- 

 phyllites, Alethopteris, Sphenopteris, Cyclopteris, Cordaites, 

 Spirorbis, Naiadites, (Anthracomya), Lepidodendron, Leaia, 

 Carbonia, JEstheria, etc. All these have been' found in the 

 Riversdale and Union rocks, and the following species are com- 

 mon to these rocks and those of Lancaster county, New Bruns- 

 wick : Cyclopteris (Aneimites) Acadica, Lepidodendron corru- 

 gation, Stigmaria ficoides, var., Cordaites Robbli, (sometimes 

 with numerous specimens of Spirorbis covering the surface of the 

 leaves,) besides closely related forms belonging to the genera 

 Calamites, Aster ophyllites, Alethopteris and Sphenopteris. From 

 this it would appear that the strata of Union and Riversdale may 

 be regarded as equivalent to those in Lancaster county, which 

 have been described and held to be of Devonian age." h. s. w. 



3. The Geological History of the Isthmus of Panama and 

 portions of Costa Rica. Based upon a Reconnoissance made for 

 Alexander Agassiz ; by Robert T. Hill. Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., Harv. Coll. Vol. xxviii, No. 5, pp. 151-285, figs. 1-24, 

 plates i-xix. June, 1898. — A notice of this important paper is 

 deferred until another number. 



4. Tlie physical geography of Worcester, Mass. ; by Joseph 

 H. Perry; pp. 1-40, plates i-viii. 1S98. — A popular description 

 of the surface features about Worcester, illustrating the drumlins 

 and other evidences of glacial action. The plates are reproduc- 

 tions of photographs finely prepared by J. Chauncey Lyford, 

 the whole doing credit to the Worcester Natural History Society, 

 which publishes the paper. h. s. w. 



5. Handbuch der Mineralogie ; von Dr. Carl Hintze. Erster 

 Band, Zweite Lieferung, pp. 161-320. Leipzig, 1898 (Veit & 

 Company). — The second part of Volume I of Hintze's Mineralogy 

 (No 14 of the entire series) has just been issued. Its hundred 

 and fifty pages are devoted to descriptions of native iron, copper, 



