252 Recent Literature, [ April, 
considerably in the different States, but a common number 
attached to them throughout the book, serves for their identifica- 
tion by whatever name ‘they are called. 
A majority of those having occasion to use this work, will 
probably regret the almost complete absence of references to 
palzontology and mineralogy, nothing being given in most cases 
beyond the mere name of the arith with very rarely an 
allusion to its lithological character; so t e have here little more 
than achronological guide. It is true the n ar tells us that to have 
included fossils, rocks and minerals in the scope of the work, would 
have made an unwieldly volume of what to be serviceable must 
be small; but this objection to fuller information appears less 
valid when we reflect that an addition of even fifty pages would 
not make the book inconveniently large , 2. é., it would still be 
smaller than many railway and tourists’ a idle, ‘and that the char- 
acteristic fossils, rocks and minerals are not required for every 
station, but only for those points, comparatively few in number, 
where they are best developed and may be studied to best advan- 
tage; and then it would be quite unnecessary to name the fossils, 
except, perhaps, in a.general way. at is, one usually likes to 
know, not only the name and extent of the formation he is trav- 
ersing, but also the points along his route where its palzontologic, 
lithologic and other characters are most favorably exposed, as 
this will often determine the choice of a route and the stoppages 
to be made. To some extent the meagre information on these 
points contained in the tables is supplemented by foot notes; but 
these are copious only for New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
while for the most of the States eye are almost entirely wanting. 
The foot notes to the chapters on the Dominion of Canada and 
New England, for example, Daa scarcely half a page, while 
for New York alone they amount to eight and one-half pages, 
and for Pennsylvania there are nearly six pages, and the great 
State of Ohio has not a single line. 
On railroads where the stations are separated by short dis- 
tances, the léss important are sometimes omitted, but we are in- 
formed that this only occurs where the same formation is con- 
tinuous across the break; a casual examination, however, shows 
that this precaution has ‘not always been observed. The most 
important exception noticed is on the Boston and Albany rail- 
road, in Massachusetts, where eight stations in succession are 
omitted between Brighton and South Framingham, although the 
two stations named are correctly marked as being on entirely dis- 
tinct formations. Brighton and the five stations next to the west 
are on Cambrian, then come Grantville, Wellesby and Natick, on 
typical Huronian with a breadth of seven miles before we reach 
South Framingham, which is marked as Laurentian, though in 
the writer's view more probably Montalban. 
Although the book is deemed TE of improvement in 
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