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[May, 
ANALYSES OF BOOKS. 
Geology of Wisconsin. Survey of 1873 to 1879. Vol. I. Pub- 
lished under the Direction of the Chief Geologist by the 
Commissioners of Public Printing. 
The liberality with which both the Federal Government and the 
Governments of the various States of the North American Union 
distribute the elaborate reports of their surveys and explorations 
deserves the warmest recognition from the savants of all nations. 
The volume before us consists of three parts, treating respect- 
ively of the general geology, the natural history, and the indus- 
trial resources of Wisconsin. For the present we shall confine 
our attention to the second of these sections. 
Its first chapter contains analyses of the principal limestones, 
sandstones, crystalline rocks, clays, soils, and native waters of 
the State. One of the latter, the Bethesda Spring at Wankosha, 
presumably free from human contamination, contains the large 
proportion of 1-983 grains of organic matter per gallon. The 
minerals and rocks are next enumerated and described, and are 
followed by a very elaborate catalogue of the fossils. 
Next follows the local flora. Turning to the ferns here men- 
tioned, we find a greater proportion of species which Wisconsin 
has in common with Britain than occurs in most other orders. 
Thus the common brake, the polypody, the “ female fern,” and 
the royal Osmund are as decidedly native in Wisconsin as 
with us. 
In the Lepidopterous fauna we find a larger proportion of 
diurnal species, the Rhopalocera, common to both sides of the 
Atlantic, than we do of the Sphingidae or hawk-moths. This is 
exactly what we should not have expected, ci priori, if we take 
the great strength and swiftness of the latter group of inseCts 
into account. We rather demur to the statement that all the 
hawk-moths are decidedly noxious, as a very large proportion of 
them feed upon plants which are not objeCts of man’s care and 
cultivation. 
Among the NoCtuidse we notice the great development of the 
genus Catocala, to which the beautiful “ red underwings ” belong. 
Of this genus 27 species have been taken within two miles of the 
town of Racine ! 
In Chapter IX. Dr. Hoy gives an important catalogue of the 
cold-blooded Vertebrates of Wisconsin. There are only three 
lizards. The non-venomous snakes are numerous. Two poisonous 
