nothing is given which is not appropriate and even necessary. Thus
a combination of completeness and conciseness is reached which is
excellent. Among the most carefully and exhaustively treated subjects
are copper, gold and silver, the platinum group of metals and coal
and iron, though many others might be mentioned, for every subject
undertaken has been thoroughly treated. In the article on copper the
statistics of production and consumption, as well as the condition
of the various domestic and foreign markets, are fully discussed by
the editor, and, in addition, separate articles are also given on
“American Methods of Ore Sampling and Assaying,” by Albert R. Ledoux,
and on “Bessemerizing Copper Matte,” by Charles Wade Stickney. The
article on the statistics of gold and silver is by Mr. R. P. Rothwell,
editor of the volume, and is an excellent piece of statistical work,
giving, as it does, the statistics of production of gold and silver
in the world for a number of years back. To this article are appended
interesting papers on the “Chronology of the Gold and Silver Industry,
1492–1892,” by Walker Renton Ingalls, on “Recent Improvements in Gold
Chlorination,” by John E. Rothwell, and on the “Cyanide Process,” by
Louis Janin, Jr.
The article on the Platinum Group of Metals, by Charles Bullman, gives
complete information regarding the production, consumption, nature of
the deposits, metallurgy and uses of platinum and its related metals,
iridium, rhodium, osmium, palladium and ruthenium. The articles on
Coal and Coke and on Iron and Steel, both by Mr. Wm. B. Phillips, give
full statistics of production and consumption, as well as interesting
historical data, and reports of the condition of various markets. Many
of the other articles in this volume deserve mention, but lack of
space forbids further detail. It may be said, however, that everything
necessary is presented, and nothing unnecessary or unreliable is given;
in other words, the volume contains no trash.
One of the most noticeable features of the volume is the uniform and
systematic manner in which the results are presented. The uniform
arrangement of statistics is a matter requiring the greatest labor
and statistical ability. Compiling a single table of statistics is a
simple matter, but arranging a vast mass of statistics, relating to
many diverse subjects, on a uniform and intelligible basis, is entirely
another matter, and requires the highest skill of the statistician. In
the Mineral Industry this has been accomplished in a most successful
manner; everything is clear and intelligible at the first glance, and
everything is in its proper place. A great detriment to the systematic
presentation of statistics has been, as pointed out by the editor, the
necessity of using our present system of weights and measures, with
“our long and short tons, our barrels of 200, 280, 300 or 400 lbs,
our pounds avoirdupois and our pounds Troy, our bushels of a dozen
different weights, and our gallons of several incomprehensible kinds”;
but the disadvantages of this system have been partly avoided in many
cases by giving the statistics in metric measures as well as in our own.
The question of the cost of production has been given especial
prominence in this volume, with a view to showing the reduction in
the cost of the crude products. To use the words of the editor: “The
itemization of cost is the first essential step in securing economy in
producing any article, and the history of every country and of every
industry has shown that prosperity, whether national, industrial, or
individual, is, in a general way, inversely proportional to the cost
of supplying the rest of the world with what one produces.” These
reductions are in no way dependent on the reduction of wages. On the
contrary, many of the mining industries where the greatest reduction
in cost of production has been accomplished, are carried on with
high priced labor; and in many other cases, where the wages are not
high, the condition of the wage-earners has been greatly improved.
The reduction in cost of production has been entirely brought about
by improvements in mining machinery, by a more thorough understanding
of the nature of the deposits to be worked, and by more intelligent
management and labor. The reduction in cost of production is nowhere
better seen than in the materials most necessary to our welfare. For
instance, coal can in some cases be carried by rail for 400 miles and
delivered on board vessels for from $2 to $2.25 per ton, and yet the
mine owners and railroads make dividends; some of the manufacturing
establishments in Western Pennsylvania obtain coal at from 60 to 75
cents per ton at their works; hard gold-bearing quartz can be crushed,
washed and 95 per cent. of the gold saved on the plates for $1.25
per ton; high grade Bessemer iron ore can be mined, handled, shipped
and delivered a thousand miles from the point of production for less
than $4.00 per ton. All these figures seem almost incredible until
one investigates the various devices which the ingenuity and better
education of those engaged in the industry have invented for reducing
the expenses of production.
The former annual statistical numbers of the Engineering and Mining
Journal were excellent in all they undertook, but the present volume,
the Mineral Industry, makes a great advance in giving the statistics
for foreign countries in addition to those of the United States. By
so doing it gives the American producers an opportunity to know the
present, past and probable future conditions of competition in foreign
countries.
The two most important features in any statistical work are accuracy
and promptness. The necessity of accuracy is self-evident, and without
promptness the statistics lose much of their serviceability to those
most interested in them, for the statistics of an industry published
a year or two years late are rarely of much value to those engaged
in that industry. The business man wants his statistics immediately
after the expiration of the time to which they relate, so that he may
know the existing condition of the industry in which he is engaged;
but if he does not get these statistics until many months or even
several years afterwards, the condition of the industry may have
changed entirely since the time to which the statistics refer. It is
the promptness with which this volume is issued, combined with a high
degree of accuracy, far greater than would be expected in statistics so
hastily compiled, that gives it its especial value.
In conclusion, it may be said, that as a piece of statistical work,
relating to an industry that is world-wide in its scope, combining
accuracy with full detail and systematic arrangement, and issued so
soon after the close of the time to which it relates, the Mineral
Industry has never been equaled in this country or abroad. The former
statistical numbers of the Engineering and Mining Journal, which
referred mostly only to American mining, were considered remarkable
pieces of statistical work, on account of the promptness of their
publication; but in the Mineral Industry we have an epitome of the
mining operations of every quarter of the globe, published almost
immediately after the close of the time to which they refer, a
feat which heretofore would have been declared impossible. This
accomplishment is most creditable to the editor, Mr. Rothwell, to the
systematic organization of the Scientific Publishing Co., and to the
business manager, Mrs. Braeunlich, by whose business ability such an
expensive undertaking is made commercially practicable. The volume will
be found of the greatest value to the economic geologist, the miner,
the engineer and the business man.
R. A. F. PENROSE, JR.
FOOTNOTES
[54] Geological Observations in South America, 1846.
[55] Beiträge zur Geologie und Paleontologie der argentinischen
Republik; I. Geologischer Theil, 1885.
[56] Studien über Cordillerengesteine. Apolda, 1875.
[57] Reisen in den Cordilleren der argentinischen Republik, Verh.
der Gesellsch. für Erdkunde. Berlin, 1891.
[58] Untersuchungen an altkrystallinen Schiefergestenien aus dem
Gebiete der argentinischen Republik, von B. Kühn. Neues
Jahrbuch für Min., etc., Beit. Bd. VII., 1891, p. 295.
[59] Untersuchung argentinischer Pegmatite, etc., von P. Sabersky,
_ib._, p. 359.
[60] Untersuchungen an argentinischen Graniten, etc., von J.
Romberg, _ib._, VIII., pp.
_ANALYTICAL ABSTRACTS OF CURRENT LITERATURE._[61]
_A New Tæniopteroid Fern and its Allies._ By DAVID WHITE. (Bulletin
Geological Society of America, 4 pp., 119–122, pl. I.).
Mr. White has described, under the name of _Tæniopteris missouriensis_,
a new and well characterized fern from the Lower Coal-measures in the
vicinity of Clinton, Henry County, Missouri. Botanically, it is of
particular interest in that it combines the so-called tæniopteroid
and alethopteroid types of structure, while geologically it is of
much value in supplying a readily identified stratigraphic mark in a
part of the Carboniferous not especially rich in fossil plants. After
thoroughly describing it and considering its specific and generic
resemblances, the author discusses at length its suggested genetic
relations and represents in a graphic manner a scheme of its probable
ancestors and line of descent.
F. H. K.
* * * * *
_Rainfall Types of the United States._ Annual Report by
Vice-President GENERAL A. W. GREELY. (The National Geographic
Magazine. Vol. V., April 29, 1893, pp. 45–58 pl. 20).
The paper confines itself to the characteristic distribution of
precipitation throughout the year and gives the rainfall types of the
country.
(a) The best defined type of rainfall within the United States is that
which dominates the Pacific coast region as far east as western Utah.
The characteristic features are a very heavy precipitation during
midwinter, and an almost total absence of rain during the late summer.
(b) The characteristics of the Mexican type, dominating Mexico, New
Mexico and western Texas, are a very heavy precipitation after the
summer solstice and a very dry period after the vernal equinox. August
is the month of greatest rainfall, while February, March and April
are almost free from precipitation. (c) The Missouri type covers the
greatest area, dominating the watersheds of the Arkansas, Missouri and
upper Mississippi rivers, and of lakes Ontario and Michigan. It is
marked by a very light winter precipitation, followed in late spring
and early summer by the major portion of the yearly rain, the period
when it is most beneficial to the growing grain. (d) The Tennessee
type, prevailing in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and
Alabama, has the highest rainfall the last of winter, while the
minimum is in mid-autumn. (e) The Atlantic type, covering all the
coast save New England, is one where the distribution throughout the
year is nearly uniform, with a maximum precipitation after the summer
solstice, and a minimum during mid-autumn. (f) The St. Lawrence type
is characterized by scarcity during the spring months, heavy rainfall
during the late summer and late autumn months, with a maximum during
November.
The regions lying between these several type-regions have composite
rainfall types, resulting from the influence of two or more simple
types.
H. B. K.
* * * * *
_The Geographic Development of the Eastern Part of the Mississippi
Drainage System._ By LEWIS G. WESTGATE, Middletown, Conn.
(American Geologist, Vol. XI, April, 1893, 15 pp.)
The drainage of the Eastern Mississippi basin in post-carboniferous
was in all probability consequent upon the tilting which accompanied
the stronger folds of the Appalachian revolution in the east. The
present drainage is found to accord in the main with this hypothetical
post-carboniferous drainage, but several streams depart quite widely
from it.
(a) The great drainage lines of the St. Lawrence basin are structural
valleys developed along the strike of the softer Paleozoic strata, and
at right angles to the original surface. The streams seem, therefore,
to have adjusted themselves to the differences in hardness and
structure of the beds discovered. (b) The Ohio and Cumberland rivers
cut directly across the Tennessee and Cincinnati anticlines. The most
probable explanation is that the rivers were superimposed upon the
arched and eroded Silurian rocks from a thin cover of carboniferous
beds--now entirely removed. (c) The Upper Mississippi does not follow
the dip of the rocks to the southwest, but follows the strike to the
southeast. This part of the river probably dates from the elevation of
the plains on the west and the Appalachians on the east, which marked
the close of the Cretaceous and which left a broad north and south
valley. (d) The author finds good reason to believe that the Lower
Mississippi, in post-carboniferous times, flowed west through Missouri
and Arkansas. The present course was probably taken at the close of
the Cretaceous in consequence of elevations on the west and east, and
possible depression in the south.
The Cretaceous base-level recognized by Davis on the Atlantic slope can
be traced more or less discontinuously, and remnants of it are believed
to exist in Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Arkansas. But
in general the work of the Tertiary cycle has obliterated almost all
evidence of it on all but the hard sandstones and conglomerates of the
Paleozoic series.
Good examples of the lowlands excavated from the Cretaceous base-level
during the Tertiary cycle, are the Valley of the East Tennessee and the
central lowland of Kentucky and Tennessee. During the post-Tertiary
sub-cycle the larger streams trenched to greater or less extent these
lowlands. No attempt is made to carry the history of the development
of the Mississippi, drainage into the complicated chapter of the
ice-invasion.
H. B. K.
* * * * *
_On a New Order of Gigantic Fossils._ By ERWIN H. BARBOUR. (University
Studies. Published by the University of Nebraska. Vol. I, No. 4,
July, 1892, pp. 23, pl. 5).
A part of Sioux County, Nebraska, lying north of the Niobrara River,
has yielded a new order of gigantic Miocene fossils unlike anything
heretofore known. They are best described as fossil corkscrews, of
great size, coiling in right-handed or left-handed curves about an
actual axis or around an imaginary axis. The screws are often attached
at the bottom to an immense transverse piece, rhizome, underground
stem, or whatever it may be, which is sometimes three feet in diameter.
In other cases the corkscrew ends abruptly downward, as it always
does upwards. In still other cases the transverse piece is variously
modified, and sometimes blends into the sandstone matrix, as if the
underground stem, while growing at one end, was decaying at the other.
The fossil corkscrew is invariably vertical, and the so-called rhizome
invariably curves rapidly upwards, and extends outwards an indefinite
distance.
That they could ever have been formed by burrowing animals, by geysers
or springs, or by any mechanical means whatever, is entirely untenable.
Their organic origin is unquestionable. Microscopic sections show
smooth spindle-shaped rods, which are suggestive of sponge spicules.
From the numbers seen in place it is evident that they flourished in
thickly crowded forests of vast extent.
A finely preserved rodent’s skeleton was found in one great stem.
The probable explanation is not that the rodent burrowed there, but
that its submerged skeleton became an anchorage for a living, growing
Daimonelix, which eventually enveloped it.
The author proposes this provisional classification:
Order. Family. Genus. Species.
{ Daimonelicidæ. { Daimonelix. { circumaxilis
{ { { bispiralis
------ { -------------- { ----------- { anaxilis
{ { { robusta
{ { { carinata.
{ ----------- { ------
{ ----------- { ------
The different species are described in full.
H. B. K.
* * * * *
_The Vertical Relief of the Globe._ By HUGH ROBERT MILL, D.Sc.,
F.R.S.E. Scottish Geographical Magazine, April, 1890.
The purpose of Dr. Mill’s paper is to show a simple yet adequate
basis on which to build the superstructure of physical geography. It
does not attempt a discussion of the distribution and varieties of
vertical relief. The structure of the earth is stated most simply by
describing it as an irregular stony ball, covered with an ocean and an
envelope of air. If the lithosphere were perfectly smooth and at rest,
with the hydrosphere uniformly spread over its surface, the former
would have the form of the terrestrial spheroid, and the latter would
surround it to a depth of 1.7 miles. The surface of this hypothetical
spheroid Dr. Mill calls _mean sphere level_. Of course, in reality the
surface of the lithosphere is not perfectly smooth. Parts of it are
greatly depressed and parts much elevated, the latter forming the land
of the earth. The writer proceeds to calculate the position of mean
sphere level, and in the absence of accurate data he uses the careful
estimates of Dr. John Murray, which are as follows: Average depths
of oceans = 2.36 miles; average height of land = .426 miles; average
thickness of hydrosphere surrounding smoothed lithosphere = 1.7 mile;
area of land = 55,000,000 square miles; area of oceans = 141,700,000
square miles. Suppose a block of 55,000,000 of square miles area and
1.7 miles deep to be cut out of the smoothed lithosphere and set down
on the surface alongside the depression. No change will take place
in the surface of the hydrosphere. If the surface of the 141,700,000
square miles of lithosphere were reduced to uniformity, the whole
depressed area would lie .66 mile beneath mean sphere level, and
the depth of the ocean becomes 2.36 miles. To raise the land to its
actual mean level above the hydrosphere surface, a sufficient quantity
of matter must be removed from the depressed area and placed on the
elevated block. Let _x_ = the thickness of the belt removed and _y_
equal the thickness of the belt when placed on the elevated block. Then
_x_ + _y_ is the height of the land above the actual hydrosphere level.
From the data given the following equations are easily obtained:
_x_ + _y_ - .426 = 0
141.7 _x_ - 55 _y_ = 0
_x_ = .12 and _y_ = .306 in miles.
The average height of the land above mean sphere level is thus 1.7 +
.306 = 2.006 miles, and the average depth of the depressed portion
beneath mean sphere level is .66 + .12 = .78 mile.
Dr. Mill divides the earth into the three following divisions: (1)
_Abysmal area_, occupying all the depressions beneath the mean surface
of the lithosphere, occupying 50 per cent. of the earth’s surface; (2)
_Transitional area_, comprising all the regions above mean sphere level
covered by the hydrosphere, occupying 22 per cent. of the surface;
(3) _Continental area_, all the lithosphere that projects above the
hydrosphere, or 28 per cent. of the earth’s surface.
J. A. B.
FOOTNOTE
[61] Abstracts in this number are prepared by F. H. Knowlton, Henry B.
Kummel, J. A. Bownocker.
_ACKNOWLEDGMENTS._
The following papers have been donated to the library of the Geological
Department of the University of Chicago:
ABBOTT, CHARLES C., M.D.
--Recent Archæological Explorations in the Valley of the Delaware.
30 pp., 1 pl.--Publications of the University of Pennsylvania.
Series in Philology, Literature and Archæology, Vol. II, No. 1.
ADAMS, FRANK D.
--On Some Granites from British Columbia and the Adjacent Parts of
Alaska and the Yukon District. 14 pp., Ill.--Canadian Record of
Science, Sept. 1891.
--Notes to Accompany a Tabulation of the Igneous Rocks based on the
System of Professor H. Rosenbusch. 6 pp., 1 pl.--Canadian Record of
Science, Dec. 1891.
--On the Geology of the St. Clair Tunnel. 8 pp., 1 pl.--Trans. Roy.
Soc. Canada, Section IV, 1891.
--On the Presence of Chlorine in Scapolites. 5 pp.--Am. Jour.
Science, Apr. 1879.
--Notes on the Lithological Character of some of the Rocks
Collected in the Yukon District and Adjacent Northern Portion of
British Columbia. 6 pp.--Annual Report, Geol. Sur. of Canada, 1887.
--On Some Canadian Rocks Containing Scapolite, with a Few Notes on
Some Rocks Associated with the Apatite Deposits. 16 pp.--Canadian
Record of Science, Oct. 1888.
--On the Microscopical Character of the Ore of the Treadwell Mines,
Alaska. 5 pp., Ill.--Read before the Royal Soc. Canada, May, 1889.
--On a Melilite-Bearing Rock (Alnoite) from Ste. Anne de Bellevue,
near Montreal, Canada. 10 pp., Ill.--Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XLIII,
Apr. 1892.
AMI, HENRY M., M.A., F.G.S.
--The Utica Terrane in Canada. 32 pp.--Canadian Record of Science,
Oct. 1892.
--Additional Notes on the Geology and Palæontology of Ottawa and
its Environs. 11 pp.--Ottawa Naturalist, Sept. 1892.
--Catalogue of Silurian Fossils from Arisaig, Nova Scotia. 7
pp.--From the Nova Scotian Inst. of Sci., Ser. 2, Vol. I, 1892.
ANDREAE, A.
--Ueber die Nachahmung verschiedener Geysirtypen und über
Gasgeysire. 6 pp.--Gesammt-Sitzung vom 13 Jan. 1893.
BAYLEY, W. S.
--A Summary of Progress in Mineralogy and Petrography in
1892.--American Naturalist.
BECKER, GEORGE F.
--Finite Homogeneous Strain, Flow and Rupture of Rocks. 77
pp.--Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Jan. 1893.
BEECHER, C. E.
--Notice of a New Lower Oriskany Fauna in Columbia Co., N. Y. 4
pp.--Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XLIV, Nov. 1892.
BRANNER, J. C.
--Annual Reports of the Arkansas Geological Survey, 1888, Vols. 1,
2, 3, 4; 1889, Vol. 2; 1890, Vols. 2 and 3.
BRYCE, GEORGE, LL.D.
--Older Geology of the Red River and Assiniboine Valleys with an
Appendix. 7 pp., Ill. Read before the Historical and Scientific
Society of Manitoba, Nov. 1891.
BROADHEAD, G. C.
--A Bibliography of the Geology of Missouri, by F. A. Samson. 178
pp.
--Report of the Geological Survey of the State of Missouri,
including Field Work of 1873–4, with 91 illustrations and an atlas.
788 pp.
--Preliminary Report on the Coal Deposits of Missouri from Field
Work prosecuted during the years 1890–91, by Arthur Winslow, State
Geologist. 220 pp. 1 pl., 131 Illustrations.
CARTER, OSCAR, C. S.
--Artesian Wells as a Water Supply for Philadelphia. 4 pp.--Proc.
of the Chem. Section of the Franklin Inst., Jan. 1893.
CHAMBERLIN, T. C.
--The Requisite and Qualifying Conditions of Artesian Wells. 42 pp.
1 pl. Extract, Fifth Annual Report of the Director U. S. G. S.
--Boulder Belts Distinguished from Boulder Trains--Their Origin and
Significance. 4 pp.--Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. Vol. I., 1879.
--Some Additional Evidence Bearing on the Interval between the
Glacial Epochs. 11 pp.--Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. I., 1890.
--The Attitude of the Eastern and Central Portions of the United
States during the Glacial Period. 8 pp.--Am. Geol., Nov. 1891.
--A Proposed System of Chronologic Cartography on a Physiographic
Basis. 3 pp.--Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. II., 1891.
--(and R. D. SALISBURY.)
--On the Relationship of the Pleistocene to the Pre-Pleistocene
Formation of the Mississippi Basin, South of the Limit of
Glaciation. 17 pp.--Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XLI., May 1891.
CHANEY, L. W. JR.
--Cryptozoön Minnesotense in the Shakopee Limestone at Northfield,
Minn. 3 pp.--Bull. Minn. Acad. Sci., Vol. III., No. 2.
CLARKE, PROFESSOR F. W.
--A Number of Pamphlets by Different Authors; 5 Volumes of the
Hayden Survey of the Territories.
COOKE, J. H.
--Geological Notes on Gozo. 6 pp.--Geol. Mag., Aug. 1891.
--Notes on Stereodon Melitensis, Owen. 2 pp.--Geol. Mag., Dec. 1891.
--On the Occurrence of a Black Limestone in the Strata of the
Maltese Islands. 3 pp.--Geol. Mag., Aug. 1892.
--The Mediterranean Naturalist. From Aug. 1, 1891, to Sept. 1,
1892, inclusive.
CROSBY, W. O.
--Notes on the Physical Geography and Geology of Trinidad. 11
pp.--Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1888.
--On the Joint Structure of Rocks. 5 pp.
--On a Possible Origin of Petrosilicious Rocks. 9 pp.--Proc. Boston
Soc. Nat. Hist., March 1879.
--On the Classification of the Textures and Structures of Rocks. 9
pp.--Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1881.
--On the Elevated Reefs of Cuba. 6 pp.--Proc. Boston Soc. Nat.
Hist., June 1883.
--On the Chasm called “Purgatory,” in Sutton, Mass. 2 pp.--Proc.
Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1883.
--Origin of Continents. 11 pp.--Geol. Mag., June 1883.
--On the Relationship of the Conglomerate and Slate in the Boston
Basin. 20 pp.--Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1884.
--Quartzites and Siliceous Concretions. 10 pp.--Technology
Quarterly, May, 1888.
--Relations of the Pimite of the Boston Basin to the Felsite and
Conglomerate. 14 pp.--Technology Quarterly, Feb. 1889.
--The Madison Bowlder. 9 pp., 1 pl.--Appalachia, Vol. VI, No. 1.
--On the Contrast in Color of the Soils of High and Low Latitudes.
10 pp.
--Geology of the Outer Islands of Boston Harbor. 8 pp.--Proc.
Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 1888.
--Physical History of the Boston Basin. 22 pp.--Lectures to
Teachers’ School of Science, 1889–90.
--The Kaolin in Blandford, Mass. 9 pp.--Technology Quarterly, Aug.
1890.