136 The Americav Geologist. August, 1897 
Decatur counties; T. C. Hopkins and C. E. Liebenthal, Tiie Bedford 
oolitic limestone of Indiana; J. C. Leach, Report of the state natural 
gas inspector; Robert Fisher, Report of the state inspector of mines: 
C. F. Hall, Report of the state inspector of oils; J. T. Scovell, Geology 
of Vigo county. 
This volume is well printed and well illustrated and contains valutijale 
scientific and economic reports, and is a credit to the State of Indiana. 
N. H. w. 
The Building Materials of Pennsylvania. I. Browustones, T. C. 
Hopkins, Assist, professor of economic geology in the Pennsylvania 
State college. (Appendix to the Annual Report of the State college, 
1896.) There is no better way than this, in which the state universities, 
especially those which have agricultural and mechanical departments 
or experimental staticms, can serve the State and demonstrate their use- 
ftilness. At the same time such investigations, directed by scientists, 
are sure to make important contributions to geology. Further a pure- 
ly economic report, in the hands of the ordinary statistician, lacks au- 
thority and influence as it lacks a scientific basis. It may be a ques- 
tion whether it is not too much the custom to confine these institutions 
to practical agriculture and such chemical researches as grow out of it. 
A few of them have instituted quasi-geological surveys as a basis on 
which to exploit all other economic, and especially agricultural research- 
ed!. It is to be hoped, as it seems probable, that the authorities of the 
Pennsylvania State college will continue this series of economical 
reports. n. h. w. 
Development and mode of grozvth of Diplogruptus, MeCojj, R. Rued- 
EMANN. (Report of the State Geologist [New York] for 1894.) This pa- 
per gives the results of a careful study of graptolites found in eastern 
New York in the Lower Silurian. The delicate, often linear, stipes 
which are the commonest form in which these fossils appear, were 
found by Hall to radiate from a centre, or central disc, branching some- 
times into spreading fronds with many radii. The special object of la- 
ter observers has been to elucidate the structure and functions of this 
disc. Within this horny disc are globular vesicles which are sometimes 
eight in number. Each vesicle contains a capsule varying from oval to 
club-shaped, with a firm test whose interior offered no obstruction to 
the entrance of sediment. These vesicles also contain the so-called 
"siculge." It was obvious that the vesicles are reproductive organs, and 
comparable to those of the living Sertularians. The author gives in de- 
tail, with references to figures drawn from specimens, the process of de- 
velopment of DiplograxAus pristis. n. h. w. 
Artefiian icells in southern and northern Neiv Jersey and in the Cre- 
taceous strata of Long Island. Lewis Woolman. (From the report of 
the state geologist of New Jersey for 1896.) This report consists prin- 
cipally of the records of deposits in the areas mentioned. Deep wells 
in New Jei-sey draw water from six principal water horizons, partly in 
the Cretaceous and partly in the Miocene. n. h. w. 
