188 Review of Recent Geological Literature. 
embraces a valuable brief summary of the geology of the Triassic in 
the eastern part of the United States, but has important correlative 
allusion to that of the central area. From this the following points are 
taken. 
(1) The measures are generally red, and non-fossiliferous, but in the 
Connecticut area include some dark shale charged with carbonaceous 
matter and fossil remains. Dark and dove-colored shales in New 
Jersey also contain fish remains, exhaling a bituminous odor when 
struck with a hammer. In general the principle is stated that the 
general red color in these rocks indicates the absence of organic mat- 
ter at the time of their formation ; "for where decaying organic mat- 
ter is present in any considerable quantity it reduces the peroxide of 
iron to protoxide, and makes the color, so far as influenced by the 
salts of iron, gra}"-, green or blue. "Where the organic matter is in very 
large quantity it imparts the characteristic color of carbon, and makes 
the shale or limestone which contains it black. 
(2) The plant-bearing beds are the equivalent of the Keuper (.Rhse- 
tic) or upper Trias, as formerly claimed by Hitchcock, Emmons, Mar- 
cou and Bunbury, this determination being based mainly on the re- 
searches of Fontaine. Emmons and Marcou, however, believe the 
lower bf'ds to be Permian. 
(:H) The Triassic strata underlying the Indian Territory, northern 
Texas, New Mexico, etc., originally extended to the Wasatch moun- 
tains which formed the western shore of the sea in which they were 
deposited, but are mainly without fossils. 
(4) Yet from three localities fossils have been found in them, viz: 
San Jose, New Mexico, the old copper mines above Abiquiu, and Los 
Bronces, on the Yakl river, in Sonora. "At the first mentioned local- 
ity are found Walchia and Calamites below, which mean Permian, 
and in softer beds of sandstone above — doubtless Triassic — impres- 
sions of fern fronds too indistinct for determination." 
(5) The fossil plants in these western localities go far to prove that 
the Atlantic and western Triassic beds are in the uppermost division 
of the system. 
(6) The beds containing Jurassic fossils in Utah, Colorado and "Wy- 
oming wedge out toward the south, allowing the Dakota group of the 
Cretaceous to rest on the upper member of the Trias. 
On the Tertiary and Cretaceous strata of the Tuscaloosa, Tombigbee 
and Alabama rivers. By Eugene A. Smith and Lawrencs C. Joiixson. 
Bui. No. 43, U. S. Geol. Sur. 1888. 
In the summer of 1883 a steamboat trip of two weeks duration was 
made from Tuscaloosa down the Tombigbee river to its confluence with 
the Alabama, and up the latter river to Prairie Bluff, by Dr. Eugene A , 
Smith, of the Alabama Geological Survey and Mr. L. C. Johnson of the 
U. S. Geological Survey, at the joint expense of the two surveys. The 
results of the observations made on this two weeks' trip were written 
up by Dr. Smith as a Bulletin, to be published by the U. S. Survey. 
This first report which embodied all that was done by the two Surveys 
jointly, and, with the exception of some observations made by Mr. 
Johnson in Wilcox county, to all which the joint authorship applies, 
was so imperfect and full of gaps, that, at the request of Dr. Smith, its 
publication was delayed until fuller imformation could be obtained. 
Accordingly in the summer seasons of 1884-5 and 1886 the whole ground 
was re-examined by Dr. Smith and his assistants on the Alabama Sur- 
