282 
Review. 
The remainder of the volume (pp. 49-182) is devoted to the 
biological results obtained. Professor G. J. Peirce gives a most 
interesting account of the behaviour of the micro-organisms found 
in the Salton Sea and especially in the strong brines from which 
salt is crystallising out. He remarks upon the surprisingly large 
number of plants and animals living under what are commonly 
supposed to be fatal conditions, e.g., the mould-fungi which thrive 
on solutions of strychnine, formalin, carbolic acid, etc., the insects 
in oil-wells and asphaltum, the organisms in extremely cold and 
extremely hot waters. In these cases, however, conditions are 
fairly stable, and it is harder to understand how organisms like the 
brine shrimps ( Artemia ) and the lowly Flagellata and Algse found in 
the Salton Sea and other strong brines can exist under conditions 
ranging from rain-diluted sea-water to concentrated brine from 
which common salt crystallises out, and even survive enclosed in 
the salt crystals. The plants upon which the brine shrimps 
and Protozoa of the Salton Sea feed are mainly two species of 
Dunaliella, with allied forms like Pyramimcnas and Carteria, and 
various bacteria. The putrefactive bacteria found in waters of the 
usual concentrations are killed by concentrated brines, hence the 
decay which goes on in these brines is accomplished by entirely 
different bacteria, one at least of which is chromogenic, giving a red 
colour to the brine itself, the salt obtained from it in the salterns, 
and fish pickled with this salt. A series of tables is given showing 
the behaviour of the organisms under different conditions and 
the extraordinary composition, as to both quality and quantity 
of the medium in which these organisms live. Professor Peirce 
remarks upon the difficulty of understanding how any sort of 
balance, osmotic, adsorptive and chemical, is maintained against 
such odds. Besides being a concentrated solution of sodium 
chloride, the brine is also a concentrated solution of magnesium 
salts and contains a considerable proportion of potassium. “ Between 
the proportion of calcium and magnesium in concentrated brines 
and the mother-liquor there can be no ‘balance*; but since, in other 
respects than lack of ‘balance,’ these solutions are fatal but 
inhabited, they throw no real light on the value of the idea of 
‘balanced solutions’ and only continue, if they do not justify, 
natural scepticism regarding it.” 
Further reports, evidently intended as preliminary to more 
detailed investigations, on the action of micro-organisms in Salton 
Sea are contributed by M. A. Brannon and J. C. Jones, the former 
dealing with the destruction of the tissues of woody plants— 
submerged by flooding of the Sea—by the agency of bacteria of 
the Amylobacter group, and the latter with the part played by 
Ccilotlirix and other Algae in the formation of tufa deposits. 
The next chapter (pp. 85-114) is occupied by what is described 
in the Preface as “ a description of the plants which form the 
vegetative setting of the drama of the appearance and disappearance 
of the lake,” by S. B. Parish. In this chapter on the plant ecology 
and floristics of Salton Sink, Mr. Parish deals with the vegetation 
of the area lying between the margin of the prehistoric Lake 
Cahuilla and that of the present Salton Sea. After discussing the 
position occupied by the flora of the Sink to the general scheme of 
plant-distribution of the Colorado Desert, Mr. Parish notes that with 
