Geology. 169 



frequently connected into consecutive stages by the presence of 

 joint lines which extend from beneath sea level up into the mass 

 of the lithosphere above sea level ; these lines are also horizontal 

 and thus act to produce flat surfaces. 



"-!. Degradation of the lithosphere surface may occur also by 

 the vertical displacement of these joint segments irrespective of 

 atmospheric or marine contact. 



"5. Joint control of lithosphere degradation has been active 

 since the period when the lithosphere possessed a solidified 

 structure and has been a fundamental factor in the evolution of 

 the lithosphere, or geomorphology." c. s. 



3. The .Fauna of the Chapman Sandstone of Maine, includ- 

 ing Descriptions of Some Related Species from the Moose Itioer 

 Sandstone ; by Henry Shaler Williams, assisted by Carpel 

 Leventhal Breger. U. S. Geol. Surv., Prof. Paper 89, 1916, 

 pp. 347, 27 pis., 2 text tigs. — This excellent monograph consists 

 of a very detailed description of the genera and species of one of 

 the Lower Devonian faunas of Maine, the Chapman sandstone, 

 and comparisons are made witb the related forms from all parts 

 of the world. The fauna consists of 125 species, chiefly bivalves 

 and brachiopods, of which 70 are new (10 brachiopods, 42 bivalves, 

 li gastropods, 2 cephalopods, 5 Crustacea). Of new genera there 

 is one of brachiopods, Antispirifer ;■ of bivalves, Grammysioidea, 

 Nuculoidea, Preavicida, Sphenotomorplia • and of ostracods, 

 Zygobexjrichia. The work was completed in 1910 and un- 

 fortunately has remained unpublished until now. It therefore 

 does not consider the later publications by the New York and 

 Maryland State Surveys. 



The Chapman fauna, Professor Williams holds, " is intimately 

 related on the one hand to the Tilestone fauna of England and 

 on the other hand to the so-called Heroynian fauna of the Con- 

 tinent" (296). Its age " seems to be strictly Lower Devoidan " 

 and agrees best " with that portion of it below the Upper 

 Coblenzian. It is a later fauna than the Tilestone orDowntonian 

 of Great Britain or the terminal marine fauna of Arisaig, Nova 

 Scotia" (297). On the basis of the brachiopods alone "the 

 Chapman fauna is to be correlated with the Helderbergian fauna 

 of the interior seas" of the LTnited States (298). With this 

 latter conclusion the reviewer does not agree because of the 

 presence of Hipparionyx icnyw'formis, Cyrtina rostrata, Mer/a- 

 lanteris, Iieachia, Rensselaer ia, and JEunella, all of which are 

 more or less decisive indicators of Oriskanian time ; the fauna 

 seems to the reviewer to be not older than the early Oriskanian. 



c. s. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. A Comprehensive Plan of Insurance and Annuities for 

 Collec/e Teachers • by Henry S. Pritchett. Bulletin Nine of 

 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

 Pp. xiii, 67. New York City, 1916. — Ten years of experience in 



