120 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 79. 



is only possible to a limited extent ; and the 

 enlightened efforts of the expert may end in 

 aggravating the blunders of the enumerator. 

 His own opinion or prejudice may come in, and 

 so warp the poor facts already twisted out of 

 shape by the clumsy reporter of them, that 

 they finally bear no likeness to the situation 

 the}- ought to portray. A permanent statis- 

 tical bureau, collecting its facts from year to 

 year, and correcting the mistakes of one year 

 by the better information of the next, is far 

 less likely to err in this respect than an organ- 

 ization which works, like our national census 

 bureau, only at intervals of ten years. Though 

 the latter may, and of late years does, extend 

 its labors well over the whole period from one 

 ten-years' point to another, it still lacks the 

 useful correction which annual returns inevita- 

 bly supply. 



All things considered, the eight volumes 

 before us are excellent, and indicate that the 

 whole series, when completed, will far surpass, 

 not only the work of any previous decade in 

 this country, but the published results of any 

 similar census in the world. The plan of 

 President Walker was an ambitious one, his 

 selection of experts and subordinates was 

 mainly good, and the time allowed for them 

 to complete their tasks has been ample. Un- 

 fortunately, the cost of so great an enterprise 

 was not well understood ; and the needful ap- 

 propriations of money have not been made, or 

 have been so delayed as to impede the work. 

 The undertaking also suffered from its own 

 vastness, and much of that which was hoped 

 for was found unattainable. The important 

 subject of pauperism, for example, — the cor- 

 relative to our unexampled growth in material 

 wealth, — receives inadequate treatment in the 

 ' Compendium,' and cannot be so exhibited in 

 the quarto volume as to do it justice. Mr. 

 Wines, who has charge of this topic, has given 

 up in despair the effort to collect statistics of 

 out-door relief, and only reports on the alms- 

 house expenditure, and number of inmates. 

 This is, in fact, to omit more than half the ma- 

 terial belonging to the subject, and that portion, 

 too, which best exhibits the growth of pauperism 

 from year to year. In other divisions of the 

 work a similar class of omissions may occur, 

 in consequence of which the results will appear 

 in some respects more defective than those of 

 the last census. But in fact, and on the whole, 

 they are much more complete ; and the volumes 

 now issued, with those which are to appear, 

 will furnish material to economic and scien- 

 tific students for years to come. The more 

 they use them, the better will they appreciate 



the foresight, labor, and research of the men 

 who compiled them, although they will also 

 perceive more clearly how defective the most 

 perfect statistics are foreordained to be. 



GEOLOGY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

 RIVER REGION. 



Second geological survey of Pennsylvania : report oj 

 progress G 7 . The geology of the Susquehanna River 

 region in the six counties of Wyoming, Lackawanna, 

 Luzerne, Columbia, Montour, and Northumberland. 

 By I. C. White. With a colored geological map 

 in two sheets, and 31 page plates in the text. 

 Harrisburg, 1883. 30 + 464 p. 8°. 



The region to which this report relates em- 

 braces nearly two thousand square miles of 

 the Devonian and Silurian rocks lying north 

 and west of the great anthracite-coal basins, 

 along the north branch of the Susquehanna 

 River. Although there are some small out- 

 liers of the true coal-measures in this dis- 

 trict, Professor White has referred to these 

 only incidentally ; his report beginning at the 

 base of the Pottsville conglomerate (millstone 

 grit) No. xii., and extending down to the old- 

 est formation exposed, which is the Medina 

 No. iv. 



The volume begins with a long prefatory 

 letter by Professor Lesley, director of the sur- 

 vey. This is essentially a somewhat critical 

 summary of the more interesting features of 

 Professor White's report, which embraces two 

 distinct portions ; the first third of the volume 

 being a comprehensive account of the geology 

 of the entire district, and comprising nearly 

 every thing of general interest, while the re- 

 mainder of the work is devoted to a detailed 

 report by townships on each of the six coun- 

 ties. 



A brief account of the drainage and topog- 

 raph}- is followed by a description of the inter- 

 esting glacial phenomena. The great terminal 

 moraine crosses Carbon, Luzerne, and Colum- 

 bia counties in a general north-westerly di- 

 rection, dividing the region into a north-east 

 glaciated portion and a south-west unglaciated 

 portion. Back of the moraine is the mantle 

 of unmodified drift, derived entirely from the 

 local rocks. In front of the moraine, or to the 

 south and west, the whole country is covered, 

 up to a height of seven hundred and fifty to 

 eight hundred feet above tide, with a strati- 

 fied deposit of modified drift. According to 

 Professor White, this deposit was spread by 

 the gigantic rivers resulting from the melting 

 of the ice-sheet ; but Professor Lesley finds it 

 necessary to suppose a subsidence of the land, 



