Revieiv of Recent Geological Literature. 123 
Hill and Vaughan describe a large tract of southern Texas, where 
the wide coastal plain between the Gulf and the Rio Grande is bordered 
on the north by the Edwards plateau, the southward continuation of 
the great plains of the interior. The geologic formations include the 
Comanche and Gulf series, respectively of Lower and Upper Cretace- 
ous age; Eocene beds of sands, clays, and marls, with lignite, which 
outcrop on the east and south borders of the tract here described; 
and alluvial deposits of Neocene, Pleistocene, and Recent age. The 
springs and artesian wells of the Rio Grande plain, and the under- 
ground waters of the plateau on its north side, are found to receive their 
supply from rainfall on more northern and higher parts of the great 
plains. .Fourteen plates illustrate fossils characteristic of the Cretace- 
ous beds, the Comanche series being divided into ten formations, and 
the Gulf series into six formations. They are mostly limestones and 
clavs, wholly of marine deposition. The Edwards limestone (formerly 
called the Caprina limestone), from 250 to 640 feet thick, in the central 
part of the Comanche series, is described as the most conspicuous and 
extensive formation in this Texas-Mexican region. From its porous 
and honeycombed beds, and from the lower Travis Peak sands, arte- 
sian flows of excellent water are derived, and many wells have been 
drilled during the past ten years. 
Dall presents a very useful correlation table of our Tertiary forma- 
tions, assigning them to four chief divisions, Pliocene, Miocene, Oligo- 
cene, and Eocene. On the Pacific coast, nineteen Tertiary horizons 
are distinguished; in the lake beds of the Great Basin, eighteen; in the 
Gulf states, thirty-seven; and in the Atlantic states, twenty-three. With 
these is added some discussion of the overlying Pleistocene formations, 
and of the highest members of the Mesozoic system. 
Mount Rainier (or Tacoma), the loftiest and grandest of the four 
great volcanic mountains of Washington, rising to the altitude of 
14,526 feet, bears a radiating shroud of snow and ice, which descends 
in twenty or more glaciers from one mile to five or six miles long, of 
which Prof. Russell has given a detailed map and most apprecia- 
tive description. The mountain consists of andesite and basalt, 
in large part ejected in a fragmental condition as scoriae, pumice, 
lapilli, bombs, etc. These materials were thrown out from a summit 
crater, gradually building up the volcanic cone, and flows of lava were 
not abundant during the late stages of eruption. Before the mountain 
was thus formed, the surrounding country, during late Tertiary time, 
had been nearly baseleveled, and the resulting peneplain had been 
uplifted and inclined gently westward. All the glaciers of Mount 
Rainier show evidences of recent recession at their ends and lowering 
of their surface. After the formation of the cone, its slopes seem not 
to have been furrowed by rains but immediately to have become cov- 
ered with snow and icefields, to which, with the outflowing streams 
at their lower limits, the erosion forms of the mountain slopes are due. 
It is hoped that a tract reaching several miles from Mount Rainier on 
all sides will be set apart by Congress as a national park. 
