324 NEW BOOKS. 



was given, followed by details of several particular workings : these were 

 grouped respectively as gold, copper and tin workings. If they were 

 worked by natives at all, it would involve an acquaintance on their part 

 with the metallurgy of tin and bronze, and a capability of dealing with 

 copper by hundreds of tons. They should be referred to a time long 

 anterior to the Bantu, and hence it was to be concluded that the ancient 

 miners of Rhodesia and those of the Transvaal were one and the same 

 people. 



Geological Society of South Afric.\. — Monday, January 29th: Dr. 

 E. T. Mellor, President, in the chair. — " Some aspects of geological work 

 in South Africa" (Presidential address): Dr. E. T. Mellor. Com- 

 mencing with some generalised remarks on the nature of geological work 

 in a new country, the author pointed out how in every country closer 

 scrutiny inevitJibly led to considerable modification of the broad sketches 

 that marked the earlier stages of geological investigation. In the Wit- 

 watersrand economic reasons necessitated a degree of minute attention 

 to trifling geological features altogether disproportionate to their ordinary 

 geological significance. The importance of sampling operations was em- 

 phasised, as well as the desirability of securing careful records of shaft 

 and borehole sections. The striking manner in which the town of Johan- 

 ensburg has been influenced by local geological conditions was dwelt upon ; 

 . tliis influence having been exerted on township boundaries, the positions 

 of the main roads, and even on the locality of the cemeteries. In con- 

 clusion, the author directed attention to the wideness of the field of 

 enquiry still open in relation to South African geology, and pleaded for a 

 more extensive recording of actual observations by individuals. Some of 

 these would be inmiediately useful, wliile others would in due course take 

 their place in the foundation on which some important generalisation may 

 afterwards be based, but, if carefully made, all sucli oliservations would 

 retain their scientific value. 



C.^PE Chemical Society. — Friday, ?\Iarch ist: Prof. B. de St. J. van 

 der Riet. M.A., Ph.D., President, in the chair. — " Temperature treatment 

 of wine " : Prof. P. D. Hahn. A matured wine had been sent from 

 the Cape to Johannesburg, where it had been exposed to constant low 

 temperature during winter. This had caused the wine to become turbid, 

 the cold rendering insoluble the cream of tartar contained in the wine. 

 The author found that wine kept in ice tanks for several weeks deposited 

 a certain amount of cream of tartar, and could then be syphoned off 

 clear, after which it failed to exhibit any indication of turbidity either on 

 heating or cooling to abnormal temperatures ; he concluded, therefore, 

 that matured wine should be fined and bottled in cold chambers in order 

 to avoid the possibility of subsequent cloudiness occurring ow-ing to pre- 

 cipitation of cream of tartar. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Mabson, R. R. — TJic Statist's Mines of Africa. London: "The 

 Statist." [1911I. 7h in. X 5 in., pp. xlii. 892. Maps. 21s. nett. 



Gibson, J. Y. — The Story of the Zulus. London : Longmans, Green 

 and Co., 1911. 8vo. pp. vi, 338. 28 oz. 7s. 6d. 



