duction from imported material (iron and zinc), amounted to $152,221,284. Since then the quantity of coal mined has annually greatly increased, more and diverse uses for clay have been found, and the demand for stone, for building, manufacturing cement, and soil fertilization has been very active. The existence of petroleum in Illinois was practically unknown prior to 1904, but since that date the oil-bearing sand stratas, particularly in the southeastern counties of the State, have been revealed by the drill, and the 24,540,938 barrels of coal oil extracted in 1907, rated the State as third in rank also in that production. The discovery of natural gas coincident with that of oil, has continued in unabated volume, and proved a source of very considerable revenue.

To gain a fuller knowledge of the State's economic resources and their development, and to solve the many cognate problems of vast public interest, as the reclamation of undrained lands, regulation of the water supply, improvement of certain soils, etc., and to disseminate that knowledge among the people, the Geological Survey was created by the Legislature, and organized in 1905. The President of the State University is its secretary, and the State University its headquarters. The results of its five years of activity have been of much importance. It has closely co-operated with the United States Geological Survey in surface topography and geology, the study of coal fields, collection of statistics, etc., and in other lines of investigation with the United States Agricultural Department, and the Internal Improvement and Waterways Commissions of the State.

Its work is educational, and the results of its labors (so far) have been published in a series of Bulletins for free distribution. The latest Bulletin issued, No. 15, tho limited in its scope, is of peculiar interest, not only to the scientist and political economist, but to the historian and general reader as well. Its title is "Geography of the Middle Illinois Valley," and it treats of the main physi

ographic features of that portion of the Illinois River Valley between Hennepin and Peoria. The author, Prof. Harlan H. Barrows, also describes the Hennepin canal, and reviews the factors affecting the Deep Waterway movement.

Commencing at the beginning with a study of the underlying rocks, including the water-bearing sand stones, the coal measures, and stratas of shale and lime stones, he gives the history of the glacial period, and the many changes wrought in that area by its erosions and surface deposits, up to the cessation of outflow of the great northern lakes through the Illinois river valley, when finding a new outlet eastward to the St. Lawrence. He then details the physical forces, still in active operation, that carved out the courses of tributary streams, formed terraces and alluvial bottoms, and otherwise modified that region to its present appearance. The final chapter is devoted to the discussion of geographic conditions and events and factors exterior to it, that have influenced the development of the middle Illinois valley. Its location between the lakes and the Mississippi, with communication between the two completed by the Illinois-Michigan canal, was of the first importance. He then shows the causes for the southern portion of the State having been settled by immigrants from the south, and the northern portion by those from the latitude of New England and Ohio, the two elements meeting in the area described. And he traces the reasons actuating the early settlers to select the locations they did, and adopting their wellknown pioneer methods of life. He tabulates, by diagrams, the distribution and density of population in different sections of the State by decades from 1820 to the present, and states that "Today the counties bordering the Illinois river and its continuation, the IllinoisMichigan canal, contain 51 per cent (over one-half) of the population of the State."

Relic from an Indian grave near the bluffs in the American Bottom, east of Cahokia, St. Clair county, Ill. A. A small patch of white metal.

B. Two small perforations through the plate.

He discusses at length such topics as "The Influence of the River and Canal upon Population and Products; The Decline of River and Canal Commerce; Attempts to Improve the Navigation of the Illinois River; The Railroads and the Settlement of the Great Prairies; The Development of Manufactures, Early Industries," etc., and closes with a review of the demand and reasons for a deep waterway through the Illinois valley and on southward. This Bulletin is of special interest to all students of Illinois history; and all the Bulletins of the Survey, are not only highly instructive, but of importance to every citizen engaged in industrial or commercial pursuits. Besides its value to science, the work of the Geological Survey of Illinois is of economic value to every branch of business and productive industry in the State, and should receive the earnest attention and support of the people.

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUZZLE.

Near the foot of the bluffs in the American Bottom, directly east of old Prairie du Pont, along the banks of the Ruisseau Platte, there is one of the many ancient village sites, and burying grounds of the Indians found in that interesting locality. When digging a ditch there several years ago numerous relics of the aboriginal occupants of what is now St. Clair county were unearthed, including human bones, implements and pipes of stone, and beads made of sea shells, bone, and copper. For a long time the ground there has been in cultivation, but yet the plow every season turns out fragments of human skeletons, broken pottery, pieces of flint and the usual secrement of old Indian camps.

Some time ago a school boy, while prowling about that field in idle search for anything curious caught the glimpse of burnished metal among the fragmentary remains of early savage life profusely scattered over the