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ESSAI D'UNE MONOGRAPHIE DES DÉPOT MARIN ET CONTINENTAUX DU QUATERNAIRE MOSÉEN, LE PLUS ANCIEN DE LA BELGIQUE, par MICHEL MOURLON (Extrait des annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique), Tome XXV., bis, p. 121, 1900.

Director Mourlon in this essay describes an ancient surface deposit of Belgium, with full details of the localities where it has been recognized.

Northern Belgium is covered with a marine deposit subjacent to the "Campinien," which carries the remains of Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, etc., with flint flakes and other remains of human industry. M. Mourlon traces this marine deposit to central and southern Belgium, where it is represented by terrestrial and fluviatile deposits. In these, down to the very base, he finds flint chips and implements of paleolithic type. This formation he terms the Continental Moséen, and considers it equal in age to the ancient gravels, antedating the present river valleys, which Prestwich has described.

Director Mourlon draws the following conclusion: "I think I may assume from all that precedes, that, in the present state of our knowledge, the presence of fliut flakes in the deposit referred to the Landenian of the vicinity of Mons, as well as the mammiferous bone beds in the Bruxillian sands of Ixelles, appear to authorize us to consider these deposits as constituting a new geological horizon, whose age remains to be determined, but which is anterior to the pebble deposits with Elephas primigenius at the base of our Quaternary Diluvium--the Campinien.

At the end of the memoir is a map of Belgium showing the area over which the Marine Moséen is spread.

G. F. M.

A NEW PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.-Probably in no other scientific branch has there been such a change of method in the matter of presentation as in the study of the topography and physiography of the earth's crust. In the old days it was all included under geography which it was in toto with the exception of a brief prefatory explanation of planetary relations and the phenomena of changing seasons and temperatures. Geography in the old days dealt with the rivers and mountain ranges, the valleys and bodies of water, but chiefly with the arbitrary divisions of the earth's surface made by man, the political centres and commercial marts. All this has been changed in recent years. The natural has been separated from the artificial, and the former has been given its right place in school curricula. An import

ant addition to the text-books on physiographical geography is that by Jacques W. Redway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. This volume, as the author states in his preface, is designed to show that the distribution of life is governed very largely by the conditions of geographic environment, and that human history and industries are always closely connected with geographic laws-in many instances the direct resultants of them." The book is planned for use in high schools and in normal schools. Some of the more important chapters are: The wasting of the land; by rivers; by underground waters; by avalanches and glaciers, and by imperfect drainage. The dispersal of life; distribution of plants and animals and the industrial regions of the United States are also treated. The matter is excellently arranged. The author's style is succinct and clear. The volume is well printed and freely illustrated with a good grade of half-tones. It is a book to be commended.

Cornell University,

JOHN CRAIG.

Ithaca, N. Y.

SPONGES FROM THE COASTS OF NORTH-EASTERN CANADA AND GREENLAND, by LAWRENCE M. LAMBE, F.G.S.

The paper bearing the above title was read before the Royal Society of Canada at the last annual meeting, and was subsequently published in the Transactions of the Society, appearing in second series, 19001901, Volume VI., Section IV. It consists of "identifications or descriptions of species found off the coast of Labrador in Davis Strait and Baffin's Bay," and is an extension of a former paper, entitled, Sponges from the Atlantic Coast of Canada."

The paper is excellently illustrated by six plates, showing different sponge structures. As the descriptions are purely technical, it is only possible here to refer those interested in sponges to the paper itself, where full information may be had. The painstaking methods employed by the author have yielded gratifying results, and the paper marks a distinct advance in our knowledge of a branch of marine fauna, which, though of lowly organism, is of great scientific and general interest.

O. E. L.