192 The American Geologist. March, i899 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL 
LITERATURE. 
South Dakota Geoto^^ical Survey, Bulletin No. 2: The First and 
Second Biennial Reports on the Geology of South Dakota, with Accom- 
panying Papers. By James E. Todd, State Geologist. (Pages viii, 
139; with 15 plates, and two figures in the text. 1898.) 
This publication gives a history of the survey from its beginning in 
1893. The state appropriation has been only $250 yearly, but, with aid 
from the State School of Mines, much good work in exploration and publi- 
cation has been accomplished. Biennial administrative reports bearing 
dates in 1894 and 1896 are here first published, with six papers by the 
state geologist, on special areas and subjects in\estig.ited. 
The first paper, in 14 pages, describes the "Section along Ka])id 
creek from Rapid City westward." This section, within a distance of 
ten miles, passes from the Cretaceous series to the folded pre-Cambrian 
slates and quartzites which form this part of the nucleus of the Black 
Hills. 
In pages 42-68, with plates v x, on "A Reconnaissance into North- 
western South Dakota," the geology of the part of the state north of the 
Black Hills is summarized with notes of numerous sections. The detailed 
geology of this district was hitherto almost entirely unknown. It con- 
sists of Cretaceous and Tertiary formations, from the Dakota to the 
Loup Fork beds. Deposits of lignite, up to 10 feet in thickness, were 
found, which may be of economic value when the country shall be more 
fully settled. 
The other papers are as follows: "'The Geology along the Burlington 
and Missouri railway" (pp. 69-82), which passes northward through the 
Black Hills to Deadwood; "Elevations in and about the Black Hills" 
(pp. 83-87); "Additional Notes on the Limits of the Main Artesian 
Basin" (pp. 88-116), having reference to the region, including the James 
river valley, that can obtain artesian water from the Dakota sandstone, 
and giving the section record or log of many wells, with a map of the 
contour of the "bed rock" in the best known part of this Artesian basin, 
based on the earlier map by Darton; and "The Exploration of the White 
River Bad Lands in 1896" (pp. 117-135, with plates xii-xv), including 
observations of formations ranging from the Dakota to the Pleistocene 
and Recent. w. u. 
Is the Loess of Aqueous Origin? By B. Shimek. (Pages 14; re- 
printed from the Report of the Iowa Academy of Sciences, 1897.) 
This question is considered according to the evidence of the fossil 
moUusca of the the loess of Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. Professor 
Shimek compares his very large collection of these fossils with the mod- 
ern representatives of the same species, all of which are still found li\- 
iig in that region, and indeed, with only three or four exceptions, these 
species are found within the territory co\ered by the loess. 
