Review of Recent Geological Liter'attire. 53 
Devonian, and a coarsely fragmental sandstone or conglomerate the 
base of each of larger sub-divisions, after the plan of Br. J. S. New- 
berry. 5. He does not classify the Comanche series as the base of the 
Cretaceous nor mention it at all. 6. He scouts the idea of a glacial 
epoch, saying "Indeed there is no evidence a glacial sheet ever 
existed on any part of the continent ; none that gives any warrant to 
the hypothesis of a glacial period. * * * * The scratches and 
furrows are readily accounted for without the hypothesis of a glacial 
period. * * * The glacial epoch is a theoretical blunder, not sup- 
ported by scientific facts or intelligent reasoning, and contrary to all 
geographical, geological and paleontological information. There is 
no such geological period, and no gap into which it can possibly be 
injected." 
A dictionanj of the fosdls of Pennsylvania. Compiled by J. P. Lesley, 
state geologist. Harrisburg, 1889. Eeport P*. A to M. 
Prof. Lesley has been able, after an almost unlimited amount of 
work, to present to the public a really good dictionary of fossils, which 
will be highly appreciated, not only by the "quarrymen; prospectors, 
etc., "'but by the scientific reader. 
The fossils are arranged alphabetically, which, although useful to 
the more scientific reader, is not readily available for the general 
public; while Prof. Lesley's method is undoubtedly the best one, 
still for the benefit of the general public it seems to me that it would 
have been better to have added a list of counties, then the localities in 
each county, giving only the name of the fossils there found with the 
proper page reference to the more descriptive alphabetical list, there- 
by making the book more readable to this latter class. The book is 
profysely, though not at all times ivell illustrated, some of the cuts 
being rather coarse. 
Not only has Prof. Lesley given the Penns^dvania fossils, but those 
also from the same horizons in the neighboring states, thereby making 
the book all the more valuable. 
In his letter of transmittal to the governor, Prof. Lesley attacks 
(mildly to be sure) the theory of the evolution of forms by saying — 
"that they (the readers) can not find a single proof, however slight, 
for the actual hereditary descent of living creatures of our age from 
those of preceding ages" — this, however, applied to this portion of the 
work in fairly satisfactory from the fact that the book deals mainly 
with the invertebrates and the evolutionists strongest proofs are as yet 
in the vertebrata. Nor do the evolutionists claim an unbroken suc- 
cession of life. 
With the exception of the few bad wood-cuts, the work is up to the 
standard of the former publications of the Geological Survey and it is 
to be hoped that Prof. Lesley will be able to complete the second 
part without being delayed (as he was with the first part) by the print- 
ng of valueless legislative documents. 
Report on the landed property of the Buena Vista company. By W. H. 
EuFFNER. 8vo, one map, pp. 104. 
