Review of Recent Geological Literature. 203 
Geological Survey of Illinois, A. H. Worthed, director ; Vol. viii. 
Geology and Palaeontology ; edited by Josua Listdahl, Ph. D. Geology 
by A. H. Worthen ; Palaeontology by A. H. Worthen, Charles Wachs- 
mtjth, Frank Springer, E. O. Ulrich and Oliver Everett ; with an 
appendix. One volume of text of pp. 1-9, 1-728 and 1-151, and a 
volume of lxxviii plates prepared by E. O. Ulrich, Charles Schuchert, 
and Charles K. Worthen. Royal 8vo : Springfield ; published by authority 
of the State of Illinois, July, 1890. 
This volume, which has been in course of publication for a long time, 
completes and commemorates the scientific work and the life of its chief 
author, the late state geologist of Illinois. Dr. Lindahl who was ap- 
pointed successor to Prof. A. H. Worthen in June, 1888, faithfully and 
efficiently devoted his efforts to the completion in a thorough and credit- 
able style, of the great enterprise that had been left unfinished by his 
predecessor, and he has manifested his appreciation of the work and his 
skill and capacity in editing it. 
In the preface Dr. Lindahl takes occasion to recommend the continua- 
tion of the geological survey of Illinois, noting particularly the need of 
preserving the records of deep wells and mining shafts, of a hypsometric 
survey similar to those of New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, 
the determination and delineation of the coal-beds, the water-bearing 
strata, the characters of the clays and other parts of the drift, the lead 
deposits which adjoin the state of Wisconsin, physical and chemical 
tests of the rocks, clays and coals, and finally a work giving the sys- 
tematic paleontology of the state. The facts that should be brought to 
light by these investigations he would have embodied annually in a 
report to the Legislature, thus producing a scries of volumes similar to 
that which is maintained by Minnesota and by New Jersey, and now 
lately begun by Ohio. There is no doubt that it is the better policy for 
state surveys to be originated and maintained on that plan, with a 
calculation that it takes time, and much of it, to gather and compare 
the data that enter into a final geological report. Some of the early 
state surveys, considered "completed " when they were closed, would be 
counted as mere reconnoissances in comparison with the requirements of 
more recent geological work. Had they been continued for several 
years longer, at but slight annual expense, they might have been more 
useful, and probably some of the doubts and discussions which have 
sprung from those "final reports," would never have appeared. In 
paleontology Illinois and New York have led all the States of the Union, 
but in economic geology they are as markedly behind. Therefore it is 
to be hoped that the people of Illinois will supplement, the technical 
geology which has been so ably conducted by Worthen, by as searching 
an inquiry into the economic geology of the state. In that way only can 
they reap in full the reasonable results thai may be expected from the 
work of Worthen. Such economic research should be executed deliber- 
ately and thoroughly, and for that, it needs much time and a stated small 
annual appropriation. The survey then would become a bureau where 
