342 The American Geologist. May, 1893 
but varied with occasional liaid bands. Tlie grains, which are 
chiefly of white quartz, seem to be all well rounded. The top of 
the formation is a band of hard sandstone on which the casing 
rested till the rock was undercut beneath it. No specimen of this 
top band was seen by the writer. 
A considerable flow of a slightlj- saline water was obtained from 
this sandstone. The water does not rise to the surface but stands 
about a hundred feet below it. 
The specimens of drillings examined are as follows: — 
1841. Sand consisting of rather small rounded grains of white quartz, 
mixed with fragments of clay. Water was here struck, and rose 
rapidly to the surface. 
1843. Coarse sand, consisting of large well rounded grains of white 
quartz, with some small masses of pyrite. 
1857. Similar coarse rounded quartz sand, with fragments of calcareous 
nodules. 
18(33. Similar well rounded quartz, a few small masses of which are 
firmly cemented together with pyrite. 
1943. Fine, light brown, well rounded, homogeneous quartz sand. The 
boring did not reach the base of the Dakota sandstone. 
EDITORIAL COMMEI^T. 
Prof. Youmans and the United States Geological Survey. 
In the April number of the Popular Science Monthly is an article by 
professor E. W. Claypole, criticising the assailants of professor Gr. F. 
Wright for their severe and in several cases uncourteous attacks 
upon him on occasion of his recent publication of "Man and 
the Glacial Period. " The paper is a merited and reasonable rebuke, 
and though sometimes severe it does not exceed the l^ounds of 
justice or go outside the coterie chiefl}' concerned. 
In the same number the editor of the Monthly has printed a 
caustic note calling attention to Dr. Claypole's article and adding 
some severe criticisms of his own. So far as concerns the writers 
at whom the remarks in the former paper were aimed these are 
richh' deserved and will we trust I)e read with profit. Professor 
Youmans tells them some good and wholesome truths which it 
