52 TJie American Geologist. July, 1898 
The Valley Regions of Alabama {Paleozoic Strata). By Henry Mc- 
Calley, Assistant State Geologist. — Part I. The Tennessee Valley Re- 
gion. Pages 436, with Plates I-IX, and four figures in the text ; 1896. — 
Part II. The Coosa Valley Region. Pages 862, with Plates X-XXXV, 
and figures 5-18 in the text ; 1897. 
These are reports of the Geological Survey of Alabama, which has 
been doing excellent work, under the direction of Dr. E. A. Smith, 
during twenty-five years. They describe the northern two-fifths of the 
state, in which its chief mineral resources are found, including the rich 
deposits of iron ores and coal which have been extensively worked in 
the Birmingham district. The strata of the Coosa region, folded, 
faulted, and eroded, form the southwestern end of the great Appalachian 
mountain belt, with much picturesque scenery. Northward the geolog- 
ical structure changes until the rocks are nearly level in stratification; 
but they have been eroded by the streams to form great plateaus, some 
of which rise 1,200 feet above the valleys, or 2,000 feet above the sea, 
being the highest land in the state. After general descriptions of the 
two regions, each is treated in much detail in chapters describing the 
several counties. The formations range in age from the Cambrian to 
the Carboniferous, and are illustrated by twenty-eight sections which 
cross the Coosa region from southeast to northwest, nine of these 
sections being continued across the Tennessee river. w. u. 
Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department [of Canada] 
for the year iSgy. 156 pages : Ottawa, i8g8. Price 10 cents. 
Fifteen field parties were employed by this survey last year, two 
being in British Columbia, two in the Northwest Territories (engaged 
in experimental borings for petroleum and natural gas in the Athabasca 
and Saskatchewan region), four in Ontario, one in the province of 
Quebec, one in New Brunswick, three in Nova Scotia, and two on the 
shores of Hudson strait. Extensive deposits of corundum, which will 
probably be of economic importance, have been found, as here de- 
scribed and mapped, in Hastings and Renfrew counties, Ontario. The 
West Kootenay mining district and other gold-bearing areas north of 
the Lake of the Woods and of Rainy lake and in Quebec, New 
Brunswick, and especially Nova Scotia, have been examined and are 
somewhat fully noted, for the guidance of prospectors. 
Along the St. Lawrence valley the Late Glacial lacustrine and 
marine shore lines have been traced by Mr. Robert Chalmers, who also 
has further investigated the glaciation of that region. He concludes 
that earliest a northwardly flowing ice-sheet extended from the moun- 
tainous southern watershed to the St. Lawrence; that later the very 
thick Laurentide ice-sheet, moving southward, overflowed the whole 
valley (and it may be added that it carried boulders, as shown by Prof. 
C. H. Hitchcock, to the top of Mt. Washington and across the Green 
mountain range) ; that this was succeeded by local glaciers flowing 
down from the highlands on each side of the St. Lawrence valley; and 
that lastly floating ice produced a general southwestward striation in 
the vallej- during its Champlain marine submergence. It is admitted, 
