Review of Recent Geological Literature. 121 
about thirty years in the vicinity of Gaspe basin, on the eastern part of 
the Gaspe peninsula, Quebec. The oil-bearing formation consists of a 
great thickness of sandstones and underlying limestones, the whole be- 
ing of lower Devonian and perhaps partly Upper Silurian age. Recently 
a well bored here by an English company is said to have reached a depth 
of 3,000 feet, passing through 2,150 feet of yellow and white sandstone, 
and then through 850 feet of bluish shaly limestone, in which, at a 
depth of about 2,600 feet, a small quantity of high-grade oil was found. 
The further exploration of this oil district, in view of the probable ex- 
haustion of the Petrolea field in Ontario, will be watched with interest. 
Two Neocene Rivers of California. By Waldemar Lendgeen. 
Bulletin, G. S. A., vol. iv, pp. 257-298, with five plates of maps, sections, 
and grades; June 19, 1893. This paper embodies a part of the results 
of the author's work under the direction of Dr. G. P. Becker, for the 
U. S. Geological Survey in the Gold belt of the Sierra Nevada. In con- 
nection with the detailed mapping of the country on the scale of about 
two miles to the inch, much accurate information has been obtained 
concerning the Neocene or late Tertiary river channels, now largely 
covered by deep volcanic flows or removed by erosion. The auriferous 
gravels of the remaining portions of these channels give to them a great 
practical importance. It seems to be proved that the Sierra Nevada in 
Neocene times, in the watersheds of the Yuba and American rivers, 
formed a mountain range as distinct as that of to-day, and that its first 
summit in general coincided with the corresponding present divide. But 
the grades of the remaining Neocene gravel channels indicate that the 
western slope of the Sierra has been made considerably steeper since the 
ante-volcanic rivers flowed on its surface, through uplifting of the 
middle part of the range and relative subsidence of its western border. 
The process of this deformation is shown to have probably taken place, 
as Dr. Becker first pointed out, by a multitude of distributed faults of 
slight throw, rather than by tilting as a single rigid block in the man- 
ner advocated by LeConte. With the latter hypothesis, the maximum 
amount of tilting would appear to be 60 to 70 feet per mile, giving to 
the range a maximum increase of elevation of between 3,600 and 1,200 
feet; but the hypothesis of Becker and Lindgren, which seems to ac- 
cord better with the often apparently local and irregular deformation, 
may allow greater increase of hight. The author thinks that the Sierra 
Nevada, before the accumulation of the Neocene gravels began, was a 
mountain range greatly worn down by erosion, but not reduced to a 
baselevel. 
Malaspina Glacier. By Israel C. Russell. Journal of Geology, 
vol. i, pp. 219-245, with map: April-May, 1893. Among the characters of 
this glacier or ice-sheet which are brought out here for the first time or 
are presented more prominently than in the author's previous papers on 
this subject, perhaps the most noteworthy is the supply of much, prob- 
ably the greater part, of its ice by outflow from the extensive high 
neve field which lies north of the Augusta and St. Elias ranges. This 
vast neve expanse has a general elevation of 8,000 or 9,000 feet, and is 
