RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 217 



Ball, J., The Geography and Geology of West-Central Sinai, Survey Dept. 



Egypt, 19 1 6, pp. 219. 



Foye, W. G., Geology of the Fiji Islands, Proc. Nat. Acad. Set. (Wash.), 191 7, 3, 



305-10. 



Geology of the Lau Islands (Fiji), Amer. Journ. Set. 1917, 43, 343--50. 



Henderson, J., Geology and Mineral Resources of the Reefton Subdivision, New 



Zealand Gcol. Surv. Bull. No. 18, 1917, pp. 232. 

 Stephenson, L. W., and Crider, A. F., Geology and Underground Waters of 



North-Eastern Arkansas, Water-supply Paper 399, U.S. Geol. Surv. 1916, 



PP- 315- 



Capps, S. R., The Chisana-White River District, Alaska, Bull. 630, U.S. Geol. 



Surv. 1916, pp. 130. 



There has come to hand this quarter an unusually large 

 number of important memoirs on stratigraphical and regional 

 geology, which illustrate phases of geological work in many 

 parts of the earth. Holmquist has supplied English-speaking 

 geologists with a very useful summary of recent work on the 

 Swedish Archaean. He shows that the Archaean granites and 

 gneisses are intrusive into the porphyry-leptite bedded forma- 

 tion, and do not form a basement on which the oldest sedi- 

 mentary rocks were deposited — a development in line with 

 American and Finnish work on similar rocks. The porphyry- 

 leptite formation of lavas and sediments is the oldest known 

 Archaean group, and is correlated with the Keewatin of North 

 America. 



Freeh's exhaustive memoir on the geology of Asia Minor 

 contains a full account of the stratigraphy and structure of the 

 Anatolian Mountains, and of the palaeontology of the Taurus. 

 A large part of the memoir, however, is devoted to a compre- 

 hensive general account of the geography, geology, and vulcano- 

 logy of Asia Minor treated as a single geological unit. 



The area of West Central Sinai described by Ball is of 

 extreme tectonic complexity. The foundation rocks are 

 Archaean gneisses, granites, diorites, and porphyries, on which 

 are laid down rocks belonging to the Carboniferous, Cretaceous, 

 Eocene, and Miocene periods. The only mineral resources of 

 commercial value are manganese iron ores, occurring within 

 the Carboniferous limestone. 



Foye's work on the Fiji Islands has disclosed an " old- 

 land " of slates and red sandstones in Viti Levu, intruded by a 

 batholith of gabbro, diorite, and granite, which, after erosion, 

 was covered by volcanic rocks. After further erosion coral 

 conglomerates, marls, claystones, and coral limestones were 



