ology and Mineralogy, 67 



II. GEOLOGT and MlNEBALOGY. 



l. North American Geology and Palaeontology t for the use 



of Amateurs, Students and Scientists ; by S. A. Mii.t.kk. 664 pp. 

 large Bvo, Cincinnati, Ohio. — All geologists ami paleontologists 

 who have bad occasion to use Mr. Miller's invaluable " American 

 Paleozoic fossils" 1 and who thereby know of the thoroughness 

 ami accuracy of his work, will give this new volume a hearty 

 welcome. All but the first 100 pages constitute really a new 

 and enlarged edition of the above mentioned work, increased 

 much in value by the introduction of numerous figures, there 

 being scarcely a page without one or more. All Paleozoic species 

 are included in the tables with their latest names and synonymy, 

 and references also to places of publication. 



The first part of the work is a brief review of the geological 

 formations commencing with the oldest, giving descriptions of 

 the rocks, their distribution, their characteristic fossils, and other 

 feat in i 



The author, in this part, uses the term Taconic of Emmons, 

 dating, as he states, from 1842, in place of Cambrian for beds 

 below the rocks of the Xew York series or the Postdam sand- 

 stone, and says that the word Cambrian was first proposed in 

 England " some years after that of Silurian," 1885 being the date 

 of the latter. He overlooks the fact that Sedgwick proposed the 

 term Cambrian also in 1835. "Silurian" was proposed by Mur- 

 chison in the Philosophical Magazine for July of that year. 

 Then at the meeting of the British Association the next month, 

 August, a communication on the "Silurian and Cambrian" was 

 presented by "Professor Sedgwick and R. I. Murchison," in 

 which each explained his own system of rocks. Sedgwick's 

 first systematic account of the Cambrian system was pub- 

 lished in 1838, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society 

 of London, the same year in which, though later, Murchison's 

 completed monograph, "The Silurian System " appeared. This 

 was lour years before Emmons's report of 1842. 



Mr. Miller's work will be found of great value to geological 

 and paleontological students and the necessary companion of all 

 investigators of the Paleozoic rocks. j. d. d. 



2. The Geological <hl<1 Natural History Survey of JSluniesota 

 the year 1888, the 17th Annual Report; by N. H. Wixciikix, 

 State Geologist. 273 pp. 8vo, St. Paul, Minn. — This volume 

 contains a report by Prof. Winchell on the lower rocks of Min- 

 nesota; a second, by Mr. II. V. Winchell on the work of 1888 in 

 the Iron Regions of the State; and a third, by Mr. U. S. Grant, 

 on work in 1888 in northeastern Minnesota. 



Prof. Winchell goes over the questions relating to the Archaean 

 and Cambrian (" Taconic ") rocks, and presents his views at 

 length with reference to their characters and arrangement. The 

 Archaean of the state is divided into (l) the Laurentian, gneiss, 

 (2) the Vermilion schists, and (3) the Kewalin schists, the 



