November 26, 1914J 



NATURE 



347 



(Phil. Trans., Roy. Soc, Series A, vol. ccxiv., pp. 

 359-71) will be found a useful piece of research. In 

 the present investigation the effect of pressures up to 

 ten atmospheres above the normal atmospheric pres- 

 sure has been studied, the work having been carried 

 out at the Imperial College of Science and Technology 

 at South Kensington. Details regarding the method 

 employed, the spectroscope, measuring apparatus, etc., 

 are stated briefly, followed by descriptions of the char- 

 acter of the lines studied, results of measures, classifi- 

 cation of shifts, and the behaviour of some special 

 lines. 



Summarising the results, it may be stated that the 

 lines exhibit a variety of behaviour, and have been 

 divided into five classes depending on the types of 

 reversal and broadening. The enhanced lines were 

 observed to decrease in intensity and broaden sym- 

 metrically with increase of pressure. The general 

 effect of pressure on the relative intensities of the lines 

 - similar to that of including self-induction in the 

 jjark circuit; pressure also causes gas lines to dis- 

 appear. The displacement of all lines is towards the 

 red. The average shifts are the same for symmetrical 

 as for unsymmetrical reversals, but the shifts are 

 larger for unreversed than for reversed lines, and are 

 greatest for lines broadening unsymmetricallv towards 



[ the red. Mr. Bilham finally directs attention to two 

 lines (3CI4-I4 and 360898 approx.) the abnormal be- 

 haviour of which under pressure suggest that they are 

 enhanced lines. Two excellent plates accompany the 

 paper, reproducing three portions of the spectrum of 

 nickel under the pressure of one, six, and eleven 



i atmospheres, and the abnormal behaviour of the last 



^ two lines mentioned above. 



The Berkeley Astronomical Department. — The 

 results of the researches carried out in the Berkeley 

 Astronomical Department, under the auspices of the 

 University of California, are printed in the established 

 Lick Observatory publications. Vol. vii. of the 

 Publications of the Lick Observatory, recently issued, 



^ is devoted completely to a number of researches 



[ carried out under the director, Prof. A. O. Leuschner, 

 at the above-mentioned institution. The volume con- 

 sists of ten sections, some of which have already been 

 issued in separate parts, but others have been delayed 

 in printing owing to lack of funds. The papers are 

 chiefly devoted to methods of determining orbits, the 

 short methods of computation by Prof. A. O. 

 Leuschner being the more extensive. Among the 

 other contributions are the elements of Asteroid 

 1900 GA by A. O. Leuschner and Adelaide M. Hobe, 

 preliminary elements of comet 1900 III. by R. H. 

 Curtiss and C. G. Dall, tables for the reduction of 

 photographic measures and investigation of the 

 Repsold measuring apparatus by Burt L. Newkirk, 

 and a research on astronomical refraction by Russell 

 T. Crawford. 



GEOLOGICAL WORK IN INDIA AND ITS 

 BORDERLANDS. 



T^HE series of publications maintained by the 

 ^ Geological Survey of India allow scope for 

 memoirs on all branches of geology. We may select 

 for mention the following typical papers from recent 

 issues of the Records. 



In vol. xli. (1912), p. 266, T. D. La Touche describes 

 the Lonar Lake in Berar, in the Central Provinces, 

 and ascribes its steep-sided basin to the sinking back 

 of a mass of lava which once uplifted the surface 

 as a shallow dome. The rocks round the 

 depression are amygdaloidal lavas ; but no sign of 

 crater-formation can be traced. W. Christie (p. 276) 

 reports on the sodium carbonates that give a com- 

 NO. 2352, VOL. 94] 



mercial interest to the lake. He points out that potas- 

 sium, as usually happens, is retained by the insoluble 

 products of the decomposition of the lavas, so that 

 sodium is the main alkali supplied. 



The geological results of the Abor militar\' expedi- 

 tion are stated by J. Coggin Brown (vol. xlii., p. 231), 

 whose notes, although taken during rapid movements 

 in a mountainous countr)', provide a fairly continuous 

 section up the Dihong river. Limestone boulders 

 with crinoids have been found (p. 240), indicating the 

 northern edge of the Gondwana continent. Both in 

 Canada and Burma we have learnt how such traverses 

 along natural highways may help, when correlated, 

 to explain the structure of wide areas. 



The director, H. H. Hayden, discusses (vol. xliii., 

 p. 138) the relationship of the Himalaya to the Indo- 

 Gangetic plain, and emphasises, in the consideration 

 of geodetic results, the low density of the alluvium 

 of the plain and of the Siwalik beds that probably 

 underlie it. He concludes that there is no need to 

 suppose the existence of a huge trough filled with 

 alluvium at the foot of the Himalayan range. While 

 Hayford calculated that the layer of isostatic c6m- 

 pensation, where the rocks are subject to equal 

 pressure from all directions, lies in North America 

 at a depth of 122 km., Hayden (pp. 145 and 154) 

 ' suggests that it may occur in India at a very much 

 i greater depth. Where slow earth-movements are 

 ' still in progress, compensation may not be attained 

 : in the layers near the surface of the earth. He 

 concludes (p. 167) that "the geodetic evidence seems 

 to confirm the generally accepted view that the 

 Indo-Gangetic depression is a broad basin, shallow on 

 the outer side and sloping gently inwards towards 

 the Himalaya" at a little more than 2°. The range 

 is separated from it "by a steep wall resulting from 

 the series of reversed faults which separate the older 

 geological systems from the younger." This matter 

 has been discussed by Sir T. H. Holland in his 

 address to the geological section of the British 

 Association in 19 14. 



J. Coggin Brown publishes a series of contribu- 

 tions to the geology of the province of Yunnan, in 

 Western China, and R. C. Burton describes the 

 volcanic rocks (vols, xliii., pp. 173, 206, and 327, 

 and xliv., 1914, p. 85). In these papers recent 

 changes in the course of the Irrawaddy are mentioned, 

 and the river is said to have been shifted by earth- 

 movements in very recent times into higher country 

 to the west of its former line of flow. The volcanoes 

 of the Tlng-yiieh area were active in recent or late 

 Cainozoic times ; their cones and craters are pre- 

 served, and hot springs still occur. Their disposition 

 and the nature of their products indicate (p. 226) that 

 they are a prolongation of the chain which runs 

 through Java and Sumatra. F. R. Reed adds greatly 

 to the third paper by determinations of the Ordovician 

 and Silurian fossils (these results being termed "pro- 

 visional" in the text and "provincial" on the cover 

 of the records). .An interesting Baltic relationship 

 is pointed out (p. 334). A marked change of con- 

 ditions occurred in Upper Permian times, when the 

 marine limestones with Fusulina and Schwagerina, 

 which mark the Permo-Carboniferous system, are 

 replaced by terrestrial conglomerates and sandstones, 

 with finally a small marine incursion, giving rise 

 to lagoons and salt-beds (vol. xliv., p. 112). 



G. E. Pilgrim contributes a paper of the widest 

 interest on the correlation of the Siwaliks with 

 mammal horizons of Europe (vol. xliii., p. 264). The 

 table forming plate 26 shows the Tertiary river 

 deposits of India, opening with the Gaj Beds as 

 Lower Burdigalian or Upper Aquitanian. The Murree 

 Beds are Burdigalian to Tortonian ; the Lower 

 Siwaliks extend from the Tortonian to the top of 



