Wijk also gives evonové as a Gaboon name, the maho being reported from a few localities in West Africa. Three distinct names are recorded by Schumann and Lauterbach in German New Guinea, daua, marau, and papalan, and another form in the Solomon Islands, dakatako.

A wide-spread Asiatic name is bellipata or bellipatta, which has been reported from Singapore, Ceylon, and Bombay. Several other oriental names, baniá, bariá, baru, beligobel, bola, bourao, chelwa, lo, surihagas, suringas, thengben, and thingban, are listed in Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, or in Van Wijk's Dictionary of Plant Names. Some of these names probably were borrowed from other fiber-producing species of Hibiscus, severa! of which are natives of India. The name pariti adopted by Adanson from Rheede's Flora Malabarica, published in 1686, was also used in the native language to form compound names of several species of Hibiscus and Gossypium. Many other maho names exist, no doubt, in the languages of Borneo, New Guinea, and other parts of the East Indies, as well as in Tropical America, but these are not likely to alter the general contrast between the very wide distribution of the words that connect with maho or mahagua and the very local distribution of the others.

SUMMARY

The maho, mahagua, or linden hibiscus (Pariti tiliaceum) is one of the economic plants to be taken into account in studying the problem of contacts between the inhabitants of tropical America and the Pacific islands, in prehistoric times. Though considered a native of America, the maho appears to have been distributed over the islands and shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans before the arrival of Europeans.

Readiness of propagation and of transportation by cuttings renders this plant well adapted for cultivation and dissemination by primitive peoples. Although human assistance in transportation does not appear to be so definitely required with the maho as with the sweet potato and other plants that are grown from only cuttings, the names of the maho afford almost as

definite indications of human contacts as in the case of kumara, a name for sweet potato already known to have been shared by the Pacific Islanders with the Indians of Peru.

The name maho or mahagua, with numerous local variants, is widely distributed in tropical America and is closely approximated in many of the Pacific islands, in relation either to the plant itself or to its principal uses for fiber, bark cloth, and firemaking. While the genetic relationships of particular words or applications are to be considered as possible rather than as proved, the general coherence of names and uses would seem to justify a thorough philological investigation. One gains an impression of the language being formed in situ, as a reflection of familiar objects and activities in the minds of the islanders.

That the primitive Polynesians were in possession of the maho before they became acquainted with similar Asiatic plants may be inferred, in view of the indications that Polynesian names of other important cultivated plants-the paper-mulberry (Papyrius or Broussonetia), the rose of China (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), and the screw-pine (Pandanus)—were derived from names of the maho. The making of fire by friction of wood and of cloth by beating the bark of trees with grooved mallets are specialized arts which may have been carried with the maho from America across the tropical regions of the Old World. A plant that enabled primitive man to kindle fire and tie things together must be held to have contributed much to the arts of civilization.

ABSTRACTS

Authors of scientific papers are requested to see that abstracts, preferably prepared and signed by themselves, are forwarded promptly to the editors. Each of the scientific bureaus in Washington has a representative authorized to forward such material to this JOURNAL and abstracts of official publications should be transmitted through the representative of the bureau in which they originate. The abstracts should conform in length and general style to those appearing in this issue.

GEOLOGY.-Mining developments and water-power investigations in southeastern Alaska. THEODORE CHAPIN, H. M. EAKIN and G. H. CANFIELD. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662-B. Pp. 92, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917.

Contains short papers on the work of 1916, as follows: Mining developments in the Ketchikan and Wrangell mining districts, by THEODORE CHAPIN; Lode mining in the Juneau gold belt, by H. M. EAKIN; Gold placer mining in the Porcupine district, by H. M. EAKIN; Water-power investigations in Southeastern Alaska, by G. H. CANFIELD.

R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-Mineral springs of Alaska. GERALD A. WARING, with

a chapter on the Quality of some surface waters, by RICHARD B. DOLE and ALFRED A. CHAMBERS. U. S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 418. Pp. 109, with 9 plates and 16 figures.

1917.

The report contains a preliminary chapter on the physiography and geology of Alaska by ALFRED H. BROOKS. The mineral springs are grouped for description into hot, carbonated, sulphur, iron, and salt springs, and individual mention is made of most of the 110 springs whose locations are shown on maps accompanying the report. Analyses of a number of the waters are given, and their characters are described briefly in relation to the rock formations through which they issue.

A number of the stream waters of the Territory were also analysed, and their characters are discussed in a separate chapter, by RICHARD B. DOLE and ALFRED A. CHAMBERS. G. A. W.

GEOLOGY.-The Helderberg limestone of central Pennsylvania. JOHN B. REESIDE, JR. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 108-K. Pp. 41. 1917.

A study of seven localities in Pennsylvania leads to the following conclusions:

1. The Tonoloway limestone and the Keyser, Coeymans, and New Scotland members of the Helderberg limestone may be traced from Maryland through central Pennsylvania with their respective characteristic lithology and faunas, and the essential equivalents of all are to be found in New Jersey and eastern New York.

2. The Keyser member decreases in thickness northward from Maryland.

3. The Devonian elements in the fauna apparently decrease from Maryland to New Jersey and New York.

4. The suggestion of an unconformity at the top of the Keyser in Maryland is borne out in Pennsylvania by the variations in thickness of the member and the presence of arenaceous material at the base of the Coeymans. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-Geologic structure in the Cushing oil and gas field, Oklahoma, and its relation to the oil, gas, and water. CARL H. BEAL. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 658. Pp. 64, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917.

The geologic work done in the field has disclosed the following principal facts:

1. The folding of the formations in the Cushing field usually becomes greater with increase of depth, and there are many marked differences in structure among the Layton, Wheeler, and Bartlesville sands and the surface beds.

2. The interval between the Layton and Bartlesville sands is generally greater around the edges of the anticlines than on their crests. 3. The distribution of the bodies of oil, gas, and water indicates that the source of the oil lay west of the Cushing field.

4. In general the oil area in an elongated dome, where folding is simple, extends farther down on the long axes of the anticline or dome than on the steeper sides.

5. The water surfaces on which the oil and gas rest in the different sands are not level but are inclined away from the centers of the anticlinal folds. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-The Palestine salt dome, Anderson County, Texas; The Brenham salt dome, Washington and Austin counties, Texas. OLIVER B. HOPKINS. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-G. Pp. 28, with maps, sections, and illustration. 1917.

Viewed as a whole the Palestine dome is a quaquaversal fold on whose flanks are highly inclined beds that dip in all directions away from its center but become approximately horizontal within a few miles; the center of the uplift is extensively faulted, mainly in a northeasterly direction, producing an irregular distribution of the Cretaceous beds and a triplication of the outcrop of the Austin chalk.

Such an intensive and highly localized vertical uplift of quaquaversal form could be produced only by vertical thrust from below. The results observed are analogous to those produced by driving a punch into a sheet of cold steel: the effects are entirely local.

The peculiar local nature of salt domes may be due to the effect of dynamic activity at certain points along lines of deformation, aiding in the solution and transportation of salt, gypsum, etc., from deeplying formations, probably Permian, to the position in which they are found.

The highly folded, faulted, and eroded condition of the Palestine dome and the general absence of oil and gas as surface seepages and in shallow wells in this area detract from its oil prospects.

The results of drilling for oil in the Brenham dome have been discouraging, except that they have demonstrated the presence of a salt dome. Suggestions are given regarding further drilling at this dome. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-Oil and gas possibilities of the Hatchetigbee anticline, Alabama. OLIVER B. HOPKINS. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-H. Pp. 33, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917. The geological examination of the area shows that a broad, low anticline, the Hatchetigbee anticline, extends from a point north of Jackson, Ala., northwestward across Tombigbee River to the AlabamaMississippi state line and beyond; that the disturbance of the earth's crust which produced this fold also produced a fault, the Jackson fault; that the Hatchetigbee anticline has in general stronger dips on its southwestern slope than on its northeastern; that two areas along the crest of the fold are particularly favorable, structurally, for the accumulation of oil and gas, and other areas along the crest of the