Review of Recent Geological Literature. 245 
other areas, that the author devotes a greater portion of the work ; and 
it is the first attempt at a thorough description of these beds. They 
tell a remarkable history in their faunal and chemical sequence. They 
are sub-(livided into appropriate divisions and horizons, and the author 
shows that the uppermost arenaceous [or glauconitic division as they 
could l)otter be called] is the southward continuation of the New Jersey 
Cretaceous below the middle marl ))ed horizon, and of all the Mississ- 
ippi section except the Eutaw of Hilgard, (Tuscaloosa of Smith and 
Johnson). Below these glauconitic beds in Arkansas and Texas are 
nearly two thousand feet of upper Cretaceous marls, chalks, clays and 
sands, which have hitherto been erroneously correlated with the Hil- 
gard section. The top of these upper Cretaceous beds has been eroded 
during the land epoch between the Cretaceous and Tertiary times, and 
of the Tertiary overlap. The most remarkable feature of these upper 
Cretaceous beds is the beautiful white cliffs of Little river. "These 
clirts which have long been a landmark of the region are about 150 feet 
high, perpendicular and as white and almost as pure as the celebrated 
chalk cliffs of Dover." Their remoteness from lines of travel is prob- 
ably the only explanation of their having so long been overlooked by 
American geologists. It is the remnant of a great area, which has 
clearly been eroded away during Tertiary and Quaternary times. 
A chapter is devoted to the "Occurrence of chalk in the North Amer- 
ican Cretaceous" in which the predominant chalky origin of the typi- 
cal section of the American Cretaceous as seen in this northwestern 
region is shown, and it is asserted that "we have in a general manner 
"not only the equivalent of the upper, but also of the lower Cretaceous 
"beds of Europe, while chemical stratigraphical and microscopical 
"investigations prove conclusively that the culminating lithologic 
"character of each of the two grand divisions of the region are Creta- 
"ceous (chalky) in fact as well as in name. In other words the great 
"mass of the Cretaceous rocks in the American as in Europe are, or 
"were, mostly composed of more or less chalky foraminiferous, infra- 
"littoral sediments, and that the uppermost, or arenaceous beds of 
"New Jersey, Alabama, and the Northwest are only the northward ex- 
"tension of the upper and shallower beds, and not representative of 
"the whole. 
Following upon these facts, and "without endeavoring to establish ex- 
"act synchronism of minute horizons, the writer has shown much 
"closer relations between these American formations and those on the 
"opposite side of the Atlantic than the accepted canons of American 
"geology allow. This has not been done to satisfy any preconceived 
"hypothesis, but solely because the geologic facts of this southwest re- 
"gion admit of no other conclusion. 
The volume is full of new paleontological data upon the geographic 
distribution and association of species, while seven plates of new fos- 
sils are given illustrating the molluscan fauna of the Trinity division. An 
innovation is made whereby over 40 figures are made of a single oyster, 
