PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



crater of Katmai volcano in Alaska, where an eruption 

 occurred in June, 1912, is described by a recent explorer as 

 being one of the largest in the world, having a diameter of 

 some miles and extending down thousands of feet to a blue- 

 green lake. The Address of the President of the Geological 

 Section of the British Association dealt with the desirability 

 of submitting all mining plans, especially those which are 

 required to be furnished to the Home Office, to a Geological 

 expert, so that accuracy might be ensured, and the importance 

 of keeping a record of all boreholes of more than a certain 

 depth. The subjects of coal and petroleum were also 

 included. Though there would probably be an increased 

 production of the latter for some time to come, it is deemed 

 probable that the supply would be exhausted, according to 

 one authority, within 100 years. A fuel oil is now being made 

 from peat which is likely to cause a serious depletion of our 

 peat deposits. The manufacture of fuel oil from Kimmeridge 

 shale does not yet seem to have reached a satisfactory stage. 

 Coal still holds its own as regards most purposes and new coal- 

 fields are still being discovered. One recently found on Bear 

 Island, near Spitzbergen, is being worked, and another, of 

 Cretaceous age, exists in the very different climate of Southern 

 Nigeria, and will doubtless prove of great value to our South 

 African Colonies. As regards minerals, it is to our discredit 

 that before the war we exported much of our lead and zinc 

 ores to be smelted in Germany and Belgium, and imported 

 the metals from thence for our use. This caused us a shortage 

 of zinc for brass in the early days of the war. Of tin we 

 produce about half the total world production, and are able 

 to export the greater portion. The mining of wolfram, 

 from which is produced the valuable metal tungsten, which 

 forms 18 to 20 p.c. of the modern high speed cutting too.1, 

 has been lately much developed in Cornwall. 



Turning to fossils, a large number of fossil insects have 

 been obtained from several strata in Australia of Triassic, 

 Jurassic, and Tertiary age. These include insects belonging 

 to new genera of the orders of Blattoidea, Protorthoptera, 



