3 oo SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The above-mentioned Memoir No. 56 of the Geological 

 Survey of Canada on the Geology of the Franklin Mining Camp, 

 British Columbia, contains an interesting chapter on the 

 Tertiary alkaline igneous rocks of that area. These include 

 augite- and melanite-syenite, with a melanocratic facies de- 

 scribed as shonkinite-pyroxenite, and various related dykes 

 and volcanic rocks. They belong to a petrographic province 

 which includes the district of Rossland and other isolated areas 

 in British Columbia, and exhibits a series of rocks very similar to 

 those of the Central Montana petrographical province over 

 the United States border. 



Petrology-Sediments . — The box-stones of East Anglia have 

 been studied from a petrological point of view by P. G. H. 

 Boswell (Geol. Mag. 191 5 (6), 2, 250). They are phosphatic 

 sandstones with a rich suite of " heavy minerals," of which 

 garnet, andalusite, staurolite, epidote, muscovite, and kyanite, 

 are the most abundant. These indicate derivation from an 

 area of metamorphic rocks adjacent to a crystalline massif. 

 The angularity, large size, and absence of grading in size of 

 the grains, suggests that they have not travelled far. The 

 nearest area answering the above description is in the Ardennes. 



The microscopic investigation of coal is reaching a high 

 degree of refinement in the hands of certain American investi- 

 gators, and E. C. Jeffrey (Jour. Geol. 23, 218) is able to reach 

 definite conclusions as to its origin from the structures revealed 

 by the aid of the microscope. From the examination of 

 numerous coals from all parts of the earth, and of all geological 

 ages, he has arrived at the conclusion that coal is not due to 

 accumulation by growth in situ, but to " the agelong gradual 

 accumulation of vegetable matter in open water. In other 

 words coal is not a compost heap, but a sedimentary deposit." 

 The work is illustrated by a beautiful series of photo-micro- 

 graphs of coal structures. 



Economic Geology. — R. B. Dowling (Mem. 59, 1915, Geol, 

 Surv. of Canada) describes the coal-fields and coal resources of 

 Canada. The great Dominion contains by far the largest coal 

 reserve in the Empire, but most of it is brown coal and lignite, 

 and some is not easily available for commerce. In another 

 portion of the Empire, J.J. Garrard (Trans. Geol. Soc. South 

 Africa, 17, 75) describes the geology of the Swaziland coal- 

 field, which embraces 700 square miles of outcropping measures, 



