Revietv of Recent Geological Literature. 195 
ing stones and the photomicrographs which illustrate his paper, ari 
excellent. 
The Maryland survey is fortunate in securing for its report the 
paper by Mr. Gaunett on the aims and methods of cartography with 
especial reference to the topographical maps now under construction 
in Maryland. This paper is a complete presentation of the best modern 
topographic methods and is a source of reliable information to the 
practical surveyer and the mean3 of enabling any citizen to use intelli- 
gently the maps of the state. 
The historical treatise, with which the report closes, on the maps 
and map-makers of Maryland, by Mathews, is illustrated by reproduc- 
tions of some of the early maps, notably the famous Smith majx 
Lord Baltimore's map and Herman's map. The text and the maps are 
remarkably interesting and compel an admiration for the geographical 
insight as well as for the fortitude of the early map-makers. 
For the first time in her history Maryland is able, through her sur- 
vey in co-operation with the U. S. Geological Survey, to furnish 
rapidly a series of wholly satisfactory topographical maps of the state. 
Within a few years the entire state will thus be mapped upon a large 
and uniform scale. F. B. 
Geology of the Lake Placid Region. By J. F. Ke.mp. (Bull. New- 
York State Museum, vol. 5, no. 21, pp. 47-67, i map, i pi., Sept, i8q8.) 
The Lake Placid region lies to the northwest of the great central 
group of peaks which constitutes the back bone of the Adirondacks. 
In tlie description here presented "it has been the writer's aim to give 
an observer, and especially a teacher, who might be sojourning in th-_- 
region, a grasp of its larger geologic features, and to suggest the topic-- 
in regard to which our present knowledge needs amplification." In 
addition to the comparatively recent deposits from ice and water, the 
rocks of the district are crystalline limestone, quartzyte, granite, gneiss, 
anorthosyte and later trap dikes. Each of these is described and the 
geologic history of the region is outlined. All the rocks, except the 
trap dikes, are referred to the Algonkian, and the dikes may be pre 
Potsdam or even as late as the Utica. The paper is accompanied by a 
geological and topographical map and by a relief map. 
U. S. G. 
Fossil Plants, for Students of Botany and Geology. By A. C. Sew- 
ard, Cambridge Natural Science Manuals, Biological Series. Pp. VIII, 
452. New York: The McMillan Co. Price S3. 00, net. 
Both the extension and the refinementof paleophytological investiga- 
tion have been so rapid during the last twenty-five years that manuals 
and text-books, like censuses, have been valuable, according to the per- 
fection of the author's labor, only as indicating the systematic status of 
the science for the brief periods following their publication. It is 
therefore largely a labor of love and self-sacrifice when the paleobotan- 
ist sets himself at the task of preparing an educational systematic 
book which shall at once give the results of the most recent studies 
