RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 569 



intra-fjord blocks, all those dislocations having determined the 

 present attitude of the coal horizons. Finally, the coast- and 

 fjord-topography of Spitsbergen is compared with that of 

 Scandinavia, and conclusions are drawn concerning the probably 

 analogous physiographical evolution of Northern Europe and 

 the recent land configuration in general." 



An important paper by K. A. Gronwall (Medd. om Gron- 

 land, 191 7, 43, 511-617) shows that North-eastern Greenland 

 possesses a series of marine Upper Carboniferous rocks, which, 

 like those of Spitsbergen, transgress over Lower Carboniferous 

 measures of continental character. The rocks were deposited 

 in very shallow water, or even in the littoral zone, as shown 

 by the presence of fine-grained conglomerates. The brachio- 

 pod fauna has a decided Russo-Arctic character, and points to 

 an Upper Carboniferous north polar sea stretching from Russia, 

 through Spitsbergen, to North Greenland and Arctic North 

 America. 



Basing his notes on the work of Thoroddsen and Suess, Mr. 

 E. B. Bailey discusses the significance of the volcanic arcs and 

 arcuate fractures of Iceland (Geol. Mag., 191 9, 466-77) ; and 

 suggests that that country " may well supply a stepping- 

 stone between arcuate fractures of the type so familiar in 

 Scotland (Glencoe, Skye, Mull), with their accompaniment of 

 ring dykes, and the vastly greater Aleutian arc, with its serial 

 volcanoes." 



North American Pre-Cambrian geology is dealt with in the 

 three papers noted below (" The Harricanaw-Turgeon Basin, 

 Northern Quebec," Geol. Survey of Canada, Mem. 109, 1919, 

 p. 84 ; " Pre-Cambrian Rocks of South-east Newfoundland," 

 Journ. Geol., 191 9, 27, 449-79 ; " Some Problems of the Adiron- 

 dack Pre-Cambrian," Amer. Journ. Sci., 1919, 48, 47-68). 



The regional and stratigraphical geology of three widely- 

 separated Canadian areas is described in new Geological Survey 

 Memoirs (" The Silurian Geology and Faunas of Ontario Penin- 

 sula, and Manitoulin and Adjacent Islands," Mem. Ill, 191 9, 

 p. 195 ; " Geology of the Disturbed Belt of South-western 

 Alberta," Mem. 112, 1919, p. 71 ; "The Mackenzie River Basin," 

 Mem. 108, 1919, p. 154). 



A bulletin of the Geological Society of America (191 8, 29, 

 No. 4) is devoted to a symposium on the geology, palaeontology, 

 and palseogeography of the Antillean region, with Central 

 America and Mexico. The titles of the two most general 

 papers are quoted (Stanton, T. W., " Mesozoic History of Mexico, 

 Central America, and the West Indies," pp. 601-6 ; Vaughan, 

 T. W., " Geologic History of Central America and the West 

 Indies during Cenozoic Time," pp. 61 5-30). With these should 

 be associated T. W. Vaughan's comprehensive work on " Fossil 



