382 The American Geologist. June, i904.. 
South Dakota, about midway between the Big Sioux and Missouri 
rivers. The region is of low relief; is enveloped by the glacial drift, 
with underlying Cretaceous beds; and is of chief economic value for 
its fertile soil, and of geologic interest for its varied drift formations 
and its artesian wells deriving their water from the Dakota sandstone. 
It is to be hoped that many additional folios will be published from 
surveys by Prof. Todd ; and it is deeply regretted that the early death 
of Prof. Hall prevented the fulfilment of his plans for a general agri- 
cultural and liydrographic survey of North Dakota. w. u. 
Geology. By Thomas C. Chamberlin and Rollin D. . Salisbury, ■ 
Heads of the Departments of Geology and Geography, University of 
Chicago. In Two Volumes. Vol. I. Geologic Processes and their 
Results. Pages xix, 654; with 24 plates, 3 folded tables, and 471 
text figures. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1904. 
As several months have passed since this volume was issued, and 
yet several months more are to intervene before the other volume, on 
geologic history, will appear, it is desirable to notice here briefly this 
half of a great work, philosophic and practical, for advanced students. 
The plates are (excepting only the first) from the sheets of the Topo- 
graphic Map of the United States, in progress of survey and publica- 
tion; and nearly all the text illustrations are from the United States, 
Canada, and Greenland. The preface states the purpose of the authors 
as follow\s : 
"Throughout the work the central purpose has been not merely to 
set forth the present status of knowledge, but to present it in such a 
way that the student will be introduced to the methods and spirit of 
the science, led to a sympathetic interest in its progress, and prepared 
to receive intelligently, and to welcome cordially, its future advances. 
Where practicable, the text has been so shaped that .the student may 
follow the steps, which have led to present conclusions. To this end the 
working methods of the practical geologist have been implied as fre- 
quently as practicable. To this end also there has been franknes.s of 
statement relative to the limitations of knowledge and the uncertainty 
of many tentative conclusions. In these and in other respects, the pur- 
pose has been to take the student into the fraternity of geologists, and 
to reveal to him the true state of the development of the science, giving 
an accurate and proportionate view of the positive knowledge attained, 
of the problems yet unsolved, or but partiallj' solved, and of solutions 
still to be attained." w. u. 
A monograph of Marcus island, an account of its physical features 
and geology 7vith descriptions of the fauna and iiora. William 
Alanson Bryan. (Occasional Papers of the Bishop Museum. 
Honolulu, vol. 2, No. i. pp. 77-139. Map and halftone figures. 1903.) 
This island, which was claimed by both Japan and the United 
States, and was occupied by a colony and military party by Japan 
for about a year, is said by Mr. Bryan to have now been abandoned 
by the Japanese, who concede it to the United States. This result 
