lieviev: of Recent Geological Literature. 49 
If rritories, covering an af,'greg;itf of 1 10.000 squaro mik-s, and rcpro- 
sented h\ a hundred atlas sheets. 
Among the special papers forming Part II, those of Mr. T. Nelson 
Dale, on the Rensselaer grit plateau in New York, and of Prof. I. C. 
Russell, on his .second e.xpedition to Mt. St. Eiias, have been already re- 
viewed in the last volume of the Am. Geologist (pages r)4 and 190, July 
and Sept., 1891); and the four oilier papers are noticed in the following 
pages of this vfilume. 
Part Til, on tlie surveys for plans of irrigation in the arid region com- 
prising the greater part of the western half of the national domain, con- 
sists of the report on AVater Supply, by Mr. F. H. Newell, noting tlie 
rainfall and gauge measurements of streams, with maps of irrigated and 
irrigable lands, and of pasture and timber lands, in the Missouri, Yel- 
lowstone, and Platte river basins; two reports by Herbert M. Wilson, 
one being on American Irrigation Engineering, considering its eco- 
nomic and financial aspects, different kinds of canals, weirs, dams, and 
reservoirs, and the other on Engineering Results of the Irrigation Sur- 
vey, as developed in the basin of the Arkansas river, Colorado, of the 
Sun river, Montana, of the Trucl<ee and Carson rivers, Nevada, in the 
High Sierra reservoirs, California, the El Paso reservoir on (he Rio 
IJrande, Te.xas, and the Pocatello canal in Idaho; and two reports by 
A. H. Thompson upon the construction of topographical maps and the se- 
lection and survey of reservoir sites in the hydrographic basin of the 
Arkansas river, Colorado, and upon tiie location and survey of reservoir 
sites in Utah and Idaho during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892. A 
most important element in the plans of irrigation for many districts is 
found to be tiie fiuctuations in tlie rainfall, with occasional deficiency 
or entire failure of streams duiing seasons of excei)tional drought. 
AV. V. 
Sullu Serpentina d' Oira {Layo iV Ortn) e. .sopni (dcuiie roceii ad eKua asso- 
ciate. Fr.\N(Esco Sansi. (Rendiconti Reale Inst. Lombardo di Sci. e 
Lit., (2), vol. XXV, pp. 681-(588. Milano, 1892.) In liiis i)aper are des- 
cribed the rocks of a small but very interesting iietrographical province 
lying in the north of Italy. The rocks include stratified amphibolites, 
.serpentine, amphibole gneiss, altered granite and (luart/.iti'. More spe- 
cifically they are: 
(1) Altered granite of tiie Val Pellino. This is a dusky white rock 
flecked with greenish spots. Its principal constituent is quartz vari- 
ousl}' orientated. The feldspars present include both orthoclase and 
plagioclase. Biotite, altering to chlorite, and pyrite are present, as are 
also zircon and apatite as inclusions. The ortiioclase occurs as large 
turbid individuals, having crystalline form in part, and being in part 
altered to kaolin. The plagioclase shows a zonal structure, witli altera- 
tion setting in from the peripiiery. Among the alteration products are 
calcite and epidote. 
(2) Bt)dies of quart/.ite compressed in the granite. These are com- 
pact masses of scaly fracture and dusky gray to translucent glassy 
