374 The American Geologist. June, i89i 
The whole volume is an enduring monument to the ability and faith- 
fulness of its authors, and one of the best examples in the language of 
how such a work ought to be done to conform to the demands of the 
State and to satisfy the expectations of scientific men. F. 
Summary report of the Geological Survey Department (Canada) for Ihe 
year 18!)0. Octavo, Ottawa, 1891, pp. 57. By Alfred R. C. Selwyx, 
Deputy head and, Director. This gives the law of the new organization 
of the survey as a department of the civil service, and a brief summary 
of the operations of the fourteen parties which carried on the fieldwork 
during the season of 1890. 
We note in Mr. Tyrrell's report on northwestern Manitoba the dis- 
covery of a phosphatic shale in the Niobrara formation containing 17.25 
per cent, of phosphoric acid, composed largely of fragments of fish re- 
mains. He also identifies the Pierre shales and the Benton formation. 
Niagara was found on the shore of Cedar lake, but on lake Winnipeg the 
Trenton and Utica formations only exist. The St. Peter sandstone of 
Minnesota, and the Keewatin series of schists of the Lake of the Woods 
district were identified. One of the important results in Manitoba is 
the discovery of considerable deposits of amber on the west shore of 
Cedar lake mixed loosely with sand and many fragments of partly de- 
cayed wood, on a low beach. It constitutes from five to ten per cent, of 
the volume of the whole deposit, and is estimated to amount to at least 
1.457,280 pounds. From the Dakota sandstone at Morden a flow of salt- 
water was obtained at the depth of something less than 600 feet. The 
expenditures of the survey for the year ending June 30, 1890, were 
$102,8(34.99. 
A new basis for Chemistry; a chemical Philosophy. By Thomas 
Sterry Hunt. Third Edition, with new preface, 12mo. Scientific 
Publishing Co., New York, 1891. 
For more than forty years Dr. Hunt has held a conspicuous position 
among the chemico-geologists of America, and his late works, which are 
the culminating results of long researches, embody the conclusions of 
his life-work. These convictions, however, so far as they fall into the 
sphere of this volume, were many of them announced, though not 
with full elucidation and demonstration, over thirty years ago. Since 
then great advances have been made in dynamical and chemical knowl- 
edge, and this little volume is a re-embodiment, with additional philo- 
sophical discussions, of principles which were announced from time to 
time in the scientific journals, since 1848. 
On the Biological and Geological Significance of closely similar Fossil 
Forms. By Dr. C. A. White, U. S. Geological Survey. (Proc. A. A. A. 
S., Vol. ,\ XXIX, pp. 239-243.) 
In the study of fossil molluscan faunas it is frequently found that a 
few apparently identical or closely similar forms occur in formations 
widely separated, both in time and space, while the accompanying faunas 
have no other species in common. Of these forms the greater number 
are monomyarians, though there are also many heteromyarians and 
