1588 The American GeoJogist. Ufcomber, ih95 
It is hoped that the detailed work here pubUshed will serve as a 
bridge leading toward the determination of the stratigraphy and age of 
the similarly metamorphosed and crystalline rocks which form nearly 
the whole area of the New England states; since the western border of 
the Green and Taconic mountains is the boundary between those rocks 
and the unaltered Paleozoic series which occupies the greater part of 
New York and of the Appalachian mountain belt thence southward. 
w. u. 
Handbook and Catalogue of the Meteorite Collection. By O. C. Fab- 
RiNGTON, Ph. D. (Publications of the Field Columbian Museum, Geol. 
Series, vol. i, no. 1. Chicago, Aug., 1895.) This meteorite collection, 
now carefully catalogued for future use, ranks amongst the largest in 
the world. It is made up of original purchases from the Ward Science 
Establishment, of Rochester, N. Y., at the time of the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition, where these specimens were on exhil)ition by Prof. 
Ward, and of later purchases from Mr. Geo. F. Kunz. They comprise 
many of the largest and most valuable meteorites fallen in American 
localities, as well as large representatives of meteorites from nearly all 
parts of the world. With the casts, which number about fifty of the 
other important meteorites, made by Ward, the collection presents an 
attractive exhibition. The total number of falls or finds represented by 
genuine specimens is 180, and their total weight is 1,720.6 pounds. 
The handbook consists of a concise statement of the facts known con- 
cerning meteorites, historical, chemical, physical and cosmical, illustra- 
ted by references to the collection itself, with some references to chief 
authorities and a list of some of the leading works on meteorites. 
in reading the sketch, which is interesting and accurate and credit- 
able to its author, two queries rise in the mind of the reader, viz.: 
1. Why not mention among the theories that have been proposed for 
the origin of the chondritic structure of the stony meteorites the view 
adopted by Proctor and others that the chondri are due to aggregations 
of cosmic matter? It may not be correct, but as it has played quite a 
role in the literature of the subject it deserves mention when one is 
listing the various theories proposed for the origin of this structure. 
2. Is not the idea that meteorites "explode," producing the detona- 
tions which accompany their fall, traditional and imaginary rather than 
actual? Is not the noise due to the atmospheric agitation produced by 
the impact? Is there anything naturally or possibly "explosive" in the 
interior of a meteorite? Is not the fact that the interior of the mass is 
usually cold sufficient demonstration that the exterior only has been 
heated and hence, also, that it has suffered the greater amount of ex- 
pansion? In the firing of a cannon is it the "explosion" proper that is 
heard, or is it the atmospheric undulation which is produced by the 
rush of the column of liberated gas into the still air? Would it be pos- 
sible for a loosely cemented stone, like most ineteorites, to fall upon the 
atmosphere, at the speed with which meteorites travel, without disin- 
tegration? Would it not necessarily crumble into many pieces, in the 
same mann(M- and for the same reason that a jjailful of water, suddenly 
