42 The American Geologist. July, isei 
corallum assumes a conical, and then an arborescent shape ; if from the 
side, the lateral individuals would secure most nourishment, and the 
corallum would take on an explanate shape, while if the food supply 
drifts in radially, in a convergent manner to the colony, its shape would 
be hemispherical. The latter condition is scarcely conceivable, yet Mr. 
Sardeson regai'ds the hemispherical form as the original one for the 
coral stocks of tabulate corals. He appears to be treating these coral 
stocks as isolated individuals rather than as communities intimately 
connected by canals into a single organic body. Under the latter con- 
ception it would seem that the condition of vertically derived food suj)- 
ply (the most probable one) would produce explanate colonies instead of 
arborescent ones, since the former would be most favorably situated for 
receiving all the food possible, while in the latter case the whole colony 
would gain sustenance from the efforts of a comparatively small number 
of polyps, and would eventually become extinct throvigh the competitive 
agencies of natural selection. 
If Mr. Sardeson's explanation is the correct one the coral stock should 
respond very sensitively to this element which conditions its growth, 
and as a result we would expect to find all the coralla of one locality, 
that is, of all existing under practically the same conditions, with the 
same general form, and also changing together from one form system to 
another according as the conditions changed, since change they probably 
would. Indeed, this character upon which the author lays much stress 
in the course of his work as a valuable phylogenetic character, would 
sink almost out of any significance whatever. g. h. v,. 
The University Geological Survey of Kansas. Vol. 1. By Erasmus 
Haworth and assistants. (Pp. 320, plates xxxi : Lawrence, 1896.) In 
1895 the Kansas University, in accordance with an act of the legislature, 
organized a Geological Svirvey of the state. The first volume, treating 
of the stratigraphy of the Carboniferous formations, has appeared. 
The floor of the Kansas formations, as revealed by the drill, is a mass 
of Mississippian limestone and flint, outcropping over an area of 30 
square miles in the southeast corner of the state. This floor dips to 
the west while the surface rocks dip to the east. The geologic structure 
on the whole is simple, thojigh complex in detail. The present report 
considers only the Carboniferous formation, which consists of alter- 
nating beds of limestones and shales, the latter in ijlaces grading into 
sandstone. The limestone outcrops, in the process of weathering, are 
left as escarpments so that a person travelling from east to west passes 
from shelf to shelf. This peculiar feature is admirably illustrated in the 
accompanying map drawn in semi-perspective to show the different for- 
mations in their relative positions. 
Eight chapters are devoted to detailed descriptions of several geologic 
sections. The first one is a section from Galena to Wellington by Geo. 
I. Adams, and extends from the Mississippian formation westward l.")0 
miles. The aggregate thickness of the Coal Measures and Permian 
along this line is 2,790 feet and the ratio of limestone to the total thick- 
ness is about 1 to b^i. In the following chapters other sections are 
