936 The American Naturalist. [November, 
Estacado is singularly void of surface water, but throughout its 
whole extent there is an underground supply stored in the mortar 
beds and grits of Cenozoic age. It is the most remarkable sheet of 
underground water in the land. The structure of the Raton Plateau 
is inimical to favorable artesian conditions. 
The Great Basin regions are characterized by the occurrence of 
disconnected mountain blocks separated by wide plains, most of which 
in comparatively recent times were occupied by vast inland seas. 
These basin plains are covered with loose unconsolidated sediment 
derived from the bordering elevations. The water precipitated upon 
the mountains finds its way to the plain, where it is quickly imbibed 
by the porous soil, percolating downward until it reaches an imper- 
vious stratum. This water is available by bored wells, but it may or 
may not possess, according to the stratifications and topography. The 
possible success of artesian borings in these basins is also suggested by 
the fact that numerous flowing wells have been obtained in similar’ 
basin deposits in California, Colorado and Utah. The paper is abund- 
antly illustrated by wood-cuts, diagrams, sectional drawings, maps and 
charts 
Evolution in Science, Philosophy and Art.’—For a number 
of years it has been the custom of the Brooklyn Ethical Association 
to choose a subject for study during the winter months, and as an 
incentive to work a series of lectures are given, followed by discussions 
of the topic assigned for the evening. The present volume comprises 
seventeen lectures on the subject of Evolution, grouped under the 
several heads of Science, Philosophy, and Art. 
The opening lecture of the course, on the work of Alfred Russel 
Wallace, shows that the general drift of American thought is toward 
the neolamarkian school of evolutionists. Chemistry, Electric and 
Magnetic Physics, Botany, Zoology, Optics, and Form and Color in 
Nature are monographed by specialists in those departments. 
The group under the head of Philosophy comprises the life-work, 
and philosophical system of Prof. Ernst Haeckel; an exposition of 
the scientific method, a presentation of the principles of Spencer’s 
Synthetic Philosophy, Life as a Fine Art, and a discussion of the doc- 
trine of evolution, its scope and influence. 
The progress of art in general is traced in the lectures on Architec- 
ture, Sculpture, Painting, and Music. Thus it is that while some of 
Evolution in Science, Philosophy and Art. Popular lectures and discussions 
before the Brooklyn Ethical Association, New York. D. Appleton & Co., 1891. 
