Review of Recent Geological Literature. 327 
135-170, Rochester, 1896.) The detailed observations made on the 
structure of the common echinoid from the Saint Louis limestone, Mel- 
onites multiporus of Owen and Shumard, forms the foundation of a 
more extended investigation of the Paleozoic forms in general. The 
species is first described at length. The results of the minute examina¬ 
tion of the arrangement, and a consideration of the development, of the 
ambulacral and interambulacral plates are of special significance, show¬ 
ing clearly that there is great regularity presented and that there is a 
progressive introduction of ossicles in the non-porous fields. The pores 
in each genetal plate are regarded as normally three or four in number. 
In no case were the oculars found to be perforated. Careful research 
failed to reveal any evidence whatever of the madreporic character of 
any of the genetal plates, though the sieve-like nature of one of these 
plates has been clearly distinguished and figured by others, c. r. k. 
Petrology for Students: An introduction to the study of rocks under 
the microscope. By Alfred Harker. (12 mo., 306 pp., with figures of 
rock sections; C. J. Clay and Sons, London, 1895.) The work is chiefly 
a description of rock structures and of classifications, the illustrations 
having been derived principally from British localities, yet with frequent 
reference to American authorities. The work must not be understood 
to deal largely with microscopic methods, nor with the crystallographic 
characters by which minerals are identified with the microscope. 
Given their identification, their grouping and appearances in the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of rocks are detailed. It will make a very useful book for 
reference for all students who are familiar with microscopic methods. 
N. H. W. 
Geological Survey of Canada , Report on the area of the Kamloops 
map-sheet , British Columbia. By George M. Dawson. (Pages iii, 427, 
with two large folded maps, seven plates [admirable views from photo¬ 
graphs], and 17 figures [sections and sketch maps] in the text; forming 
Part B, of the Annual Report, vol. vn, new series: Ottawa, 1896. Price, 
35 cents.) The area here described is square, measuring 80 miles on 
each side and comprising 6,400 square miles, situated wholly in the 
drainage basin of the Frazer river. The enclosing most eastern and 
western ranges of the great Cordilleran belt in British Columbia are 
referred, in their latest chief elevation, to the close of the Cretaceous 
period; but the intermediate Gold ranges are regarded as much older. 
The interior plateau, within the Kamloops district, is now 3,500 to 4,- 
500 feet above the sea; but during the middle and somewhat later por¬ 
tions of the Tertiary era it was probably reduced by stream erosion to 
form a low peneplain. Toward the end of the Pliocene period, however, 
this area appears to have been much uplifted. Concerning some of the 
changes which it has undergone, Dr. Dawson writes: “The great valleys 
by which the Interior Plateau is now conspicuously trenched—those of 
the Frazer, the Thompson, and their main tributaries—are relatively 
modern, being referable to the later part of the Pliocene Tertiary. This 
system of valleys is superposed upon an older one, believed to date from 
