490 Scientific Intelligence. 



1-320, plates i-xxxi, figures 1-11. 1896. — The plan of commit- 

 ting the execution of the geological survey of states to the 

 geological department of its chief university is excellent in many 

 ways. Not only does it enable those who are likely to be the 

 best fitted for, and most interested in investigating the geology 

 of the state to do the work, but it must result in raising the tone 

 and value of the geological department of the university which 

 carries on the investigation. In organizing the geological sur- 

 vey, Kansas, by act of the legislature in 1889, provided that a 

 geological survey should be one of the functions of the university. 

 In 1893 active work was begun, and in 1895 the board of regents 

 declared the state geological survey organized with the following 

 officers, viz : F. H. Snow, chancellor of the university, ex-officio 

 director ; in charge of the several departments, Prof. S. W. Wil- 

 liston of paleontology, Prof. Erasmus Haworth of physical 

 geology and mineralogy, and Prof. E. S. Bailey of the department 

 of chemistry. Beginning with the summer of 1893, the profes- 

 sors, assisted by advanced students, made a preliminary survey of 

 the state, and the present report is the result of their labors. The 

 Carboniferous formations of the state have been mapped, classi- 

 fied and named, and the characteristic fossils of each of the for- 

 mations recorded. 



The nomenclature and classification adopted has already been 

 reported in these pages (vol. 1, pp. 452-466). 



The authors have followed the principle adopted by the U. S.. 

 geological survey in giving local names to each of the distinguish- 

 able formations, a principle which has the advantage of express- 

 ing the facts which the geologist observes and therefore knows, 

 without committing him to a correlation which only the paleon- 

 tologist can determine after a comparative study of the fossil 

 faunas or floras. The evil of this system is more apt to arise from 

 the limited knowledge of the observer than from any fault in the 

 system itself. New names should be given only where the strati- 

 graphic and structural continuity with formations in contiguous 

 areas already surveyed is not recognizable. For the object to be 

 attained is not to give names to the formations which shall be 

 familiar to the local geologist, but to properly distribute the 

 formations in the standard geological scale. h. s. w. 



6. Geological Survey of Canada. — The following reports and 

 maps have been recently published, viz : 



Summary Report' of the Geological Survey Department for the year 1895, by 

 the Director, G. M. Dawson, pp. 154, 1896. 



"Report on the Surface Geology of eastern New Brunswick, northwestern Nova 

 Scotia and a portion of Prince Edward. Island, with maps Nos. 558, 559, 561, 562, 

 563, by R. Chalmers, pp. 149, 1896. 



Report on the Area of the Kamloop=5 map-sheet, British Columbia, with maps,. 

 Nos. 556 and 557, by George M. Dawson, pp. 427, 1896. 



Laurentian area to the north and west of St. Jerome, Province of Quebec, by 

 P. D. Adams, pp. 20, 1896. 



List of Publications of the Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, pp. 52, 1895. 



Contribution to Canadian Paleontology. Vol. IT. Part 1. 



Canadian Fossil Insects, Myriapods and Arachnids, by Samuel H. Scudder. 



