84 



NATURE 



[March 23, 1916 



been placed on imports. To meet, the situation it 

 was, therefore, determined to issue, as rapidly as 

 possible, a series of memoirs on special subjects, 

 l^or this purpose the Geological Survey was well 

 equipped. In the course of their normal work, 

 that of surveying the country first on the 

 one-inch and then on the six-inch scale, they had 

 acquired and recorded in the maps and memoirs 

 relating to special districts a large amount of 

 information as to the mineral resources of the 

 country. But this information, except in the 

 case of a few substances, such as oil-shales 

 and china-clays, was not readily available to 

 those interested in particular minerals. The pre- 

 paration of these memoirs, therefore, consisted in 

 collecting the information which is scattered 

 through the various local publications extending 

 over a period of sixty or seventy years, and in 

 supplementing this, so far as time would permit, 

 by special investigations in districts where the 

 minerals in question occur. 



Three memoirs have now been published. The 

 first deals with ores of tungsten and manganese, 

 the second with barytes and witherite, and the 

 third with gypsum and anhydrite, celestine and 

 strontianite. The same general plan is followed 

 in. each case. The introductory chapters deal 

 briefly with the composition, properties, and uses 

 of the substance, with the rise and progress of the 

 industry in this country, and wath statistics of 

 production. Then follows the most valuable part 

 from the practical point of view, namely, that 

 which deals with the mines or quarries from which 

 the minerals are or have been produced, and also 

 with occurrences which have not yet been com- 

 mercially exploited. Take as an illustration of 

 the method of treatment the case of tungsten. Its 

 principal ore, wolfram, usually occurs in associa- 

 tion with cassiterite, from which it is not easily 

 separated. Previous to the discovery, in compara- 

 tively recent times, of the use of the metal in the 

 manufacture of high-speed steel and filaments for 

 electric lamps, wolfram was regarded as a nuis- 

 ance by tin-miners. It was thrown away on the 

 dumps, and caused the abandonment of several 

 Cornish mines, some of which have been reopened 

 in recent years in consequence of improved 

 methods of dressing the mixed ore and of the 

 value of what was formerly a w^aste product. 



In the special part of this memoir the mines, 

 whether abandoned or working, in which ores of 

 tungsten occur are individually described. In the 

 case of each mine the locality is indicated, not 

 only by name, but also by reference to the one- 

 inch and six-inch maps and to latitude and longi- 

 tude. When the name only of an old mine is 

 given it is often extremely difficult to fix its 

 precise locality, but by this method all difficulty is 

 removed. In the case of abandoned mines the 

 old records have been examined, and all available 

 information is given as to the course of the lodes, 

 their content in wolfram and other minerals, and 

 their relation to the surrounding rocks. In the 

 case of mines now being worked the information 

 on these points has been brought up to date, and 

 is, of course, much more complete. The position 

 NO. 2421, VOL. 97] 



of each mine in relation to roads and railways is 

 given, and, when information is available, its con- 

 dition as regards water. From the above state- 

 ment it will be seen that the requirements of the 

 practical man have been supplied so far as pos- 

 sible. 



The three memoirs already published have been 

 produced by the existing staff of the Geological 

 Survey, notwithstanding the fact that several of 

 its members are serving with the Army in various 

 capacities. In view of the urgency and import- 

 ance of this kind of work, some of which has 

 direct reference to the war, we venture to ask 

 whether it would not be advisable to increase the 

 output by utilising the services of unofficial geolo- 

 gists ? 



We congratulate the Director and his staff 

 on the excellence of these memoirs, and on the 

 rapidity with which they have been brought out; 

 and we hope that it will not be long before they 

 are followed by others of a similar character. 



COLONEL SIR CHARLES ]VATSON, 

 C.B., K.C.M.G., R.E. 



^1 fE regret to record the death of Colonel Sir 

 * * Charles Watson, in London on March 15, 

 at the age of seventy-one. 



Sir Charles Watson was the son of William 

 Watson, a well-known civil engineer of Dublin, 

 and he distinguished himself in mathematics and 

 modern languages at Trinity College. In 1863. 

 he entered the Royal Military Academy, Wool- 

 wich, at the head of the list, and two years later 

 was commissioned in the Royal Engineers. 

 Interested in the scientific side of his profession, 

 Watson took up submarine mining, which was 

 then a new branch of military engineering, and 

 was posted to the first submarine mining company 

 in 1871. About this time, also, he interested 

 himself in ballooning, though not until later was 

 this branch of military science actively developed. 



While at Chatham he came under the notice of 

 General Gordon, who invited him and Lieut. 

 Chippendale, R.E., to accompany him to the 

 Sudan. They travelled with General Gordon to 

 Khartoum and thence up the Nile to Gondokoro. 

 Watson carried out such a survey of the White 

 Nile and the Bahr el Tebel as was possible from 

 the steamer, and his work was a great advance 

 on the earlier maps of the river. From 1874 up 

 to igoo his work was the basis of all maps of 

 this part of the Nile's course, and when the 

 opportunity arose for a new survey of the Bahr 

 el Tebel, Watson's observations, made tw-enty- 

 seven years before, were of great value in deter- 

 mining the permanence of the river channel and 

 the alterations which had taken place in its 

 branches. He also made careful meteorological 

 observations in the marsh region, and measured 

 a discharge of the Sobat River at its junction 

 with the White Nile. Invalided to England in. 

 1875 he was again in Egypt in 1882, but both 

 then, and again later when in the Egyptian Army, 

 military duties prevented him from devoting much 

 of his time to scientific work. 



