Editorial Comment. 109 
3. The Blue/,- Devonian shah'; very generally present, but sometimes 
wanting and varying in thickness from to 30 feet. 
/. The bed below the Black shale. The lower phosphate-bearing bed. 
When freshly broken, a dark bluish gray, or bluish black, more or less 
granular rock. It shows under the magnifier scattered, white specks 
and points of pyrites. It has a light bluish streak. This bed, though 
not so universally present as the bed of concretions above, has a wide 
range in the region indicated, where it varies in thickness from to 3 
and 4 feet. In weathered outcrops it has, as stated, the appearance of a 
gray or yellowish sandstone; but when freshly broken its dark color 
appears. Under a magnifier, some specimens show small kidney-shaped 
grains and now and then minute spiral shells. The presence of fish 
teeth and fragments of bone in some of it has been referred to. 
5. Limestone. In some places Hudson River limestone; at other 
points Niagara limestone. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
The Columbian Exposition. 
Ndtes of Pleistocene Geology. 
Exhibition of the Soils and Subsoils of Illinois. 
Samples of the diverse soils and subsoils of the great state 
of Illinois, in which the World's Fair was held, were collected 
and carefully studied by Mr. Frank Leverett, both in respect 
to their geological origin and agricultural value, this work 
being done for the Illinois Board of World's Fair Commission- 
ers, under the direction of Dr. Josua Lindahl, the state geol- 
ogist. Mr. Leverett's well-known extensive experience in 
exploration of the glacial drift in this and adjoining states 
specially qualified him for this investigation, in which also he 
was aided by Prof. Milton Whitney, of the Maryland Agricul- 
tural College, who made mechanical analyses of many of these 
soils. The collection was on the lirst floor of the Illinois 
shite building, in eases, ;i short distance to the lefl from tin' 
main entrance. It comprised aboul loo samples of soils and 
subsoils, ranging in color from black to \r\-y light gray or 
almost white, exhibited in glass trays. So greal diversitj is 
due to the chemical and physical characters of the various 
drift formations which occupy the glaciated area, and to the 
