374 ^'^^ American Geologist. J""^- ^^^^ 
oral s])riiigs witli analyses by known and unknown ])ersons — 
principally ])liysicians or (lrug"gists of the imniediate neigh- 
borhood, could be obtained. 
The catalogue of the XIIJ sections is adniirabl\- full and 
contains besides the American and principal foreign localities, 
of each particular product, a very useful bibliography. 
p. F. 
COXTRIBUTIONS TO THE LtTERATUKE OF VOLCANOES. All 
interesting review of the great work of Stiibel on the volcanoes 
of Ecuador has ai)peared in the r»ulletin of the Societe Beige de 
Geologic de Paleontologie et d'Hydrologie, by Prof. W. Prinz, 
of the free University of Brussels. The title is "Les volcan- 
oes de I'Ecuador par Alph Stiibel. Resume des theories 
d'interet general contenues dans cet ouvrage. par W. Prinz, 
Professeur a TUniversite libre de Bruxclles." 
He states that Stiibel was of those who seek the remotest 
regions for new facts with which to enrich science, and that he 
had remained for nearly ten years in the high region of Colum- 
bia and Ecuador to study the volcanoes. His results w^ere six 
thousand specimens of rocks and the aquarelles, sketches, and 
even oil paintings of M. Troya, an artist wdio accompanied 
him, all of which are in the etJinographic museum at Leipzig. 
The volume which is reviewed is intended as a descriptive cat- 
alogue of these objects. There are 14 cuts in the text and a 
map on a large scale i 1250,000 by M. Th. Wolf. The meas- 
urements on which the map is based are discussed by ]\I. B. 
Peter of the Observatory of Leipzig. 
M. Stiibel after much hesitation in grouping the separate 
cones finally concludes that there are but 41 volcanoes in Ecua- 
dor, grouped in two chains which enclose the high plateau to 
the east and to the west. The object of the study is to seek 
the connection which still exists between the eruptive manifes- 
tations and the part of the globe yet in a state of fusion, or in 
other words do the modern volcanic phenomena depend on the 
development of the earth ? 
The tendency of his reasoning is to the negative, and in 
support he cites the enormous thickness of the crust (even 
where supposed to be least so.) \Miat disproportion between 
the flow of lava and the supposed source ! Earthquakes too 
are from causes not situated very deep. 
