264 The American Geologist. April, i89s. 
All the fragments of wood found in the ancient soils belong to gym- 
nosperms, and this may be regarded as indicating a boreal climate, such 
as would precede the advance of the ice. The position of the deposits 
under the till indicates that they are pre-Kansan in age and possibly pre- 
glacial. The region in which they occur lies to the south of the drift- 
less area, where the abrasive work of the ice seems to have been small 
in amount. Erosion contours of two or three hundred feet in elevation 
lie buried under the drift in this region, and glacial scorings are un- 
known. Among such surroundings it would be more singular that pre- 
glacial surface deposits should be wholly absent than that they should 
occasionally come into view. J. A. Udden. 
Rock /shvtd, III. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Elston Holmes Lonsdale died March 7th, after a 
brief illness at his home in Columbia, ^slissotiri. Mr. Lonsdale 
was for a number of years connected with the geological sur- 
veys of Missouri, Iowa and the United States. He was born in 
1868, attended the schools of his native town, and afterwards 
entered the State University of Missouri, from which he was 
graduated in 1889. During his college course he was asso- 
ciated with Prof. G. C. Broadhead, and from this pleasant 
association decided to enter into geological work. Upon the 
organization of the Geological Survey of Missouri an appoint- 
ment as aid was received. Mr. Lonsdale continued his con- 
nection with the Missotiri organization three years, when he 
received a call to the Iowa Geological Survey which he ac- 
cepted and at once entered upon his duties, being placed in 
charge of the investigation of the clays of the state. Upon 
the reorganization of the Missouri Geological Survey in 1894 
Mr. Lonsdale was asked to accept the post of assistant state 
geologist. Resigning at the end of one year to take up other 
work, he became connected with the LT. S. Geological Survey, 
in the topographic service, a position which he held at the 
time of his demise. 
Mr. Lonsdale's work was chiefly in topography and eco- 
nomic geology. His topographical maps are models of care- 
ful and painstaking effort, showing a wealth of detail and keen 
perception of topographic form. His knowledge of geologv 
gave him an insight into the real meaning of relief that few 
possess; and his skill in cartographic expression of the physio- 
graphic features of the regions in which he worked can only 
