April 28, 1910] 



NATURE 



261 



(2) some causes affecting the Egyptian cotton crop ; G. C. 

 Dudgeon, the cottons in indigenous cultivation in British 

 West Africa ; A. E. Humphries, wheat production in rela- 

 tion to the requirements of the United Kingdom ; F. B. 

 Guthrie, (i) work done in New South Wales in connection 

 with the improvement and testing of wheats, (2) the work 

 of the late W. J. Farrer on the improvement of wheat in 

 New South Wales ; I. B. Pole-Evans, problems connected 

 with maize-growing in South Africa ; J. B. Carruthers, 

 (i) new methods of tapping Castilloa, (2) cover plants, as 

 a substitute for weeding in rubber, cacao, and other 

 cultivations; Dr. T. A. Henry and Dr. S. J. M. Auld, 

 the burning quality of tobacco ; G. M. Odium, tobacco 

 culture in .South Africa ; Mr. Easterby, cultivation and varie- 

 ties of sugar-cane at the Sugar-cane Experiment Station, 

 Mackay, Queensland ; Prof. P. Carmody, (i) preparation 

 of rubber, (2) preparation of papier from megass, (3) 

 methods of manuring, suitable for natives, (4) influence 

 of malarial diseases on labour supply, (5) breeding of 

 stock suitable for the tropics ; Mr. Benson, manuring of 

 tropical fruits ; Dr. S. S. Pickles, the aromatic grass oils ; 

 R. N. Lyne, causes contributing to the success of the 

 Zanzibar clove industry ; W. Macdonald, dry-farming and 

 land settlement in South Africa ; J. H. Barnes, the alkali 

 lands of northern India ; E. M. Jarvis, economic zoology 

 in African colonies ; W. Gill, the introduction of the 

 remarkable pine (Finns insignis) into South Australia, and 

 its successful utilisation ; F. W. Barwick, African wild 

 silks ; G. C. Dudgeon, some important insect pests in 

 British West Africa ; C. C. Gowdey, insects of economic 

 importance in Uganda. The International Association of 

 Colonial Agriculture has also arranged for the collection, 

 in tropical countries, of information on a number of sub- 

 jects of special interest, and general reports on these will 

 be presented to the congress, as well as reports by experts 

 in each country concerned. The inquiries already arranged 

 for are on cotton cultivation, labour conditions in the 

 colonies and tropical countries, acclimatisation of European 

 cattle in tropical countries, and alcoholism in the tropics. 

 All communications regarding the congress should be sent 

 to the secretary of the British committee, Imperial Insti- 

 tute, London, S.W. Applications and subscriptions for 

 membership should be sent to M. Vandervaeren, treasurer 

 of the Belgian committee, at the Ministry of the Interior 

 and of Agriculture, Brussels, Belgium. 



ECONOMIC GEOLOGY IN CANADA.' 

 'T'HE pamphlets mentioned below have been issued 

 recently by the Department of Mines of Canada, 

 mainly with the object of directing attention to the import- 

 ance of the economic mineral products of the Dominion, 

 and of assisting with trustworthy information those per- 

 sons who are actually engaged, or may contemplate 

 engaging, in the exploitation of its mineral wealth. 



The first work on the list gives a concise but clear 

 description of the general geological features of Canada 

 and of the known valuable minerals that characterise the 

 different areas. For the sake of convenience, the whole 

 of the Dominion is divided into a number of regions, each 

 of which has a more or less definite individual geological 

 structure, and which accordingly produces a distinct series 

 of economic minerals. The scope of the work is perhaps 

 most readily explained by giving a list of the different 

 regions into which the Dominion is here divided, these 

 being as follows : — 



(i) The -Appalachian region, comprising the Maritime 

 Provinces and that portion of the Province of Quebec 

 which lies immediately to the north of them, consisting 

 mainly of crystalline and Palaeozoic rocks, the chief 

 mineral products being coal, gold, and iron ores. 



(2) The Lowlands of the St. Lawrence Valley, which 

 consist mainly of Palaeozoic strata, and have not, so far, 



1 Canada IVpartment <-.f Mines. (i) "A Descriptive Sketch of the 

 Geology and Economic Minerals of Canada." By G. A. Young, with an 

 introdurtion hy R. W. Brock Pp. 151. 



(2) "The Coal Fields of ^fanitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Eastern 

 Bntish Co'umhta." By D. B. Dowling. Pp. m. 



(3) "The Whitehorse Copper Belt, Yukon Territory." By R. G. 

 McConnell. Pp. 6^. 



U) " Report on the Iron Ore Deposits along the Ottawa (Quebec Side) 

 and Gatineau River<;." By Fritz Cirkel. Pp. 147. 



NO. 2 113, VOL. 83] 



shown any great mineralogical wealth, with the e.Kception 

 of petroleum ; the principal Canadian oilfields, lying in the 

 tongue of south-western Ontario that projects between 

 Lakes Huron and Erie, occur in strata of Devonian age, 

 which form a portion of this region. 



(3) The Laurentian plateau, which comprises the greater 

 portion of the Province of Ontario and of the North- 

 western Territory ; it consists mostly of pre-Cambrian — 

 largely Laurentian — rocks, and though little more than the 

 southern border of this vast track has been prospected, it 

 is known to contain many valuable mineral products, such 

 as the Sudbur}' copper-nickel deposits, the Cobalt silver 

 deposits, gold, iron ores, corundum, apatite, mica, &c. 



(4) The Arctic archipelago, which forms an imperfectly 

 known area to the north of Hudson's Bay; it appears to 

 consist mainly of pre-Cambrian and some Palaeozoic strata, 

 and so far is not known to contain minerals of any great 

 economic importance. 



(5) The Interior Continental plain, which comprises the 

 western portion of Manitoba and the southern portion of 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta, extending westwards to the 

 Cordilleran mountain sjstem, the strata being largely of 

 Cretaceous age. The rocks contain very important beds 

 of coal and lignite, also bitumen, indications of petroleum, 

 and natural gas. 



(6) The Cordilleran belt, which comprises the western 

 portion of the Dominion. This is essentially a mountain 

 region, showing a great variety of geological formations ; 

 it is noted for occurrences of the precious metals, gold 

 and silver, whilst lead, copper, and zinc also occur ; it is 

 also very rich in coalfields, notably in British Columbia, 

 where all varieties of coal from lignite to anthracite 

 appear to occur. 



This brief summarj' of a summary will serve to indicate 

 the arrangement, the scope, and the objects of this little 

 treatise ; it should also be added that it is accompanied 

 by two maps, one showing the broad geological features, 

 and the other the distribution of the chief mineral pro- 

 ducts ; the former is ven.- satisfactory, but the latter is 

 by no means so clear as might be desirfed. The maps 

 serve, however, {)erfectly well their purpose of elucidating 

 the text and of making the whole subject clear and readily 

 comprehensible. Minute accurac}' of detail is not to be 

 expected in such a work as this, and is perhaps not even 

 desirable, so that anything of the nature of criticism 

 would be entirely out of place. It can only be said that 

 the treatise admirably fulfils its objects, and should be 

 of the gi-eatest value to all who are in any way interested 

 in the mineral wealth of the Dominion. The Geological 

 Survey of Canada can only be congratulated upon the 

 felicitous idea of publishing such a pamphlet and upon 

 the excellent way in which that idea has been carried into 

 execution. 



Ifl the second pamphlet of the above list Mr. D. B. 

 Dowling has given an account of the coalfields of the 

 Interior Continental Plateau, and is thus able to discuss 

 more in detail than was possible in the general work the 

 nature and mode of occurrence of these important deposits. 

 The author commences with a historical and general review 

 of the coalfields, and then describes them in some little 

 detail. He points out that the coal of this region occurs 

 at three main geological horizons, namely, at the base, 

 about the middle, and close to the top of the Cretaceous 

 formation ; it should be noted that he ventures, on what 

 can only be described as imperfect data, to attempt an 

 estimate of the quantity of coal that exists in the region 

 under discussion, which he gives as 143,400 millions of 

 tons, the area of the coalfields being taken as 22.506 square 

 miles. That the amount of development work yet done 

 in these fields is of the scantiest possible description is 

 evident from the fact that the output for the year 1^07 

 was only 876,731 tons. After a detailed description of the 

 coalfields, a large number of analyses of the various coals 

 is tabulated. This list is an exceedingly useful one, and 

 the author has done excellent service in collecting the 

 records into a convenientlv accessible form. Following 

 this list is another of analyses of coals from other dis- 

 tricts, apparently for the purposes of comparison : it is, 

 however, not at all clear on what principle he has brought 

 together this miscellaneous collection of anahses of coals 

 from British Columbia, Yukon, Nova Scotia, Wales, 



