52 The American Geologist. July, 1894 
taining whether artesian water can be obtained for irrigation in the arid 
region through which the Columbia river (lows east of the Cascade 
mountains. The area traversed embraces about 10,000 square miles. It 
is in large pari occupied by the great Columbia lava Hows, which reach 
thence far southward and eastward, having probably an average depth 
of about 1. 000 feet upon fully 200,000 square miles. Associated with this 
formation is the John Daj system of unconsolidated sand, clay, lapilli 
and volcanic dust, which attains a maximum thickness of more than 
1,000 feet. Fossil leaves of ten species from the John Day strata near 
Ellensburg, "Wash., are regarded* by Mr. F. H. Know] ton as of Upper 
Miocene age. Seven of these species have also been obtained from the 
Auriferous gravels of California. After the deposition of the John Day 
system, the rocks of this area and of a vast region southward were di- 
vided by many fractures, sometimes scores of miles in length, and the 
resulting blocks were tilted, with displacements of 2,000 to 3,000 feet 
along many of the faults. In a few instances the enclosed valleys form 
artesian basins, but mainly the conditions of the geologic structure are 
found to be unfavorable for obtaining artesian water. w. v. 
'Iln Work and Scopt of tht Geological Survey. ByC. R. Keyes. (Iowa 
Geol. Survey, Vol. m, Ann. Rept. for 1893, pp. 17-98, pis. 1-0. 1S94.) 
During the short time that the Iowa Geological Survey has been in 
operation, two reports have been issued,*and the present paper is an ex- 
tract from the third, which will lie distributed shortly. The survey is 
organized on a practical and economic basis, but at the same time it 
is intended to be systematic and scientific. — the aim being- to make a 
complete economic and geological survey of the state. The publications 
will be of a Single series, uniform in size and general style, and will con- 
tain about 500 pages each. The unit of mapping will be the countj ; as 
the counties of Iowa are approximately of the same shape and area, the 
adoption of this unit will prove to be verj convenient for a series of uni- 
form maps. Among the results already accomplished, it may be staled 
that coal deposits have "been investigated in fifty counties, clay indus- 
tries in fifty-six. artesian and deep wells in forty-four: the mapping of 
n couties is practically completed, while in eleven others the map- 
ping is partially done. It is to be hoped that the next legislature will 
see tit to make it possible for the work, already so well under way. to 
lie pushed more rapidly than the present appropriation allows. 
U. s. ... 
.1 Summary of Progress in Mineralogy and Petrography in 1898. Bj W. 
s. P.avi.ey. Geological department. Colby University, Waterville, Me., 
1894; price. 50 cents. In this pamphlet of about sixty pages are collect- 
ed the various notes which the author has published in the American 
Naturalist durfng the last year. They consist in brief notices, abstracts 
and reviews of work in mineralogy and petrography. An index of 
authors and one of subjects furnish easy reference to the work of any 
individual or to that on any particular subject . r. s. o. 
* Reviewed iu the American Geologist, vol. xii, p. 337 ; and vol. xiii, p. 353. 
