June 29, 1916] 



NATURE 



367 



Egyptians to the Ethiopians. His notes are not 

 published in a form which admits of full examina- 

 tion, but he supposes that "the prehistoric series 

 were, at least to a great extent, made up of 

 Ethiopians, and that afterwards a great infiltration 

 in the opposite direction took place ; this infiltration 

 must have been fed from the near east, that is, from 

 Syria,, the peninsula of Sinai, and the North African 

 coast, territories already occupied by the Mediter- 

 ranean race." Into the wider speculations advanced 

 by the writer we cannot enter, but it is noteworthy 

 that he assumes that the brachycephalic form of 

 skull "does not imply any correlation to other physical 

 characters. This skeletal character owes its ex- 

 aggerated importance to the fact that it is very visible 

 in the living man and in the series of skulls collected 

 in museums, but in my opinion it is only valuable in 

 determining varieties; therefore it has no value in 

 joining together across the terrestrial space all those 

 who are alike in that character." 



A VALUABLE "Review of the American Moles," by 

 Mr. Hartley Jackson, has just been published by the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture — No. 38 of the series 

 on the North American Fauna. In his introduction 

 the author discusses the habits and economic status 

 of moles, the characteristics of the young, pelages, 

 and moults, and variations; while further details of 

 this kind are given under the heading of the various 

 species. Among the many interesting details the 

 author has brought to light. in the course of his inves- 

 tigations is the fact that the star-nosed mole {Condy- 

 lura cristata) accumulates fat around the tail at the 

 approach of winter. In the matter of classification, 

 the author objects to the system proposed by Mr. 

 Oldfield Thomas, who recognises no fewer than five 

 subfamilies. To be consistent, he maintains, every 

 genus would have to be raised to the rank of a sub- 

 family. Numerous text figures, maps, and several 

 plates add materially to the value of this most excel- 

 lent piece of work. 



During the past year the State of California 

 experienced niore earthquakes than all the remain- 

 ing States. According to Mr. A. H. Palmer (Bull. 

 Seis. Soc. America, vol. vi., 1916, pp. 8-28), the 

 number of sensible shocks observed was eighty-three, 

 of which, however, only two (those in the Imperial 

 Valley on June 22) were of destructive intensity. 

 Except in this valley, they were most numerous in 

 the district bordering the Pacific coast. They were 

 entirely absent from northern California, which 

 includes the active volcano of Lassen Peak, and only 

 one occurred at Lone Pine (Inyo County), the seat of 

 the great earthquake of 1872. 



Lassen Peak is not the only active volcano in the 

 United States (excluding Alaska), but it is described 

 by Mr. J. S. Diller as the most active (Bull. Seis. 

 Soc. America, vol. vi., 1916, pp. 1-7). The peak 

 rises to a height of 10,460 ft., the oldest crater is 

 more than a mile in diameter, and, until the end of 

 May, 19 14, it had not been in action for about two 

 centuries. The first phase of activity lasted for about 

 a year, and consisted of more than 150 gas eruptions 

 from a new crater formed within the old one. In 

 May, 1915, the second phase began; a stream of lava 

 filled both the new and old craters, and flowed some 

 way down the western side of the mountain. This 

 phase culminated on May 19 and 22, when hot blasts, 

 resembling those of Mont Pelee, descended the north- 

 eastern slope. 



Though it may be long before the stratigraphy of 

 the Philippine Isles can be correlated with that of othe- 

 lands, the exploration of the country for useful prc- 



NO. 2435, VOL. 97] 



ducts is bringing details of interest to light. Mr. 

 W. D. Smith, in his "Geologic Reconnaissance of 

 Mountain Province, Luzon *' {Philippine Journ. of 

 Set., vol. X., 1915, p. 177), quotes von Drasche on 

 the definite stratification of certain uplifted coral-reefs. 

 Von Drasche held this structure to be due to a periodic 

 cessation in coral growth. The large part played in 

 reef-formation by sediments intercalated between the 

 oorals is now more fully recognised. The hilly and 

 difficult nature of the surface of the province is well 

 illustrated. The same author deals with Panay 

 (p. 211), where petroleum may possibly exist. Mr. W. E. 

 Pratt, who ingenuously refers to "old" Spanish re- 

 cords of 1892, has an interesting paper (p. 241) on 

 " Petroleum and Residual Bitumens in Leyte." The 

 bitumens promise material for asphalt paving; but 

 no large mass of porous strata is yet known in the 

 petroleum region. The same author, in a paper on 

 "The Persistence of the Philippine Coal-beds " (p. 289), 

 p>oints out encouragingly that their discontinuity is 

 due to faulting, so that mining of the seams may 

 some day be resumed. It should be noted that the 

 Bureau of Science, Division of Mines, is now issuing 

 geological maps in connection with the Philippine 

 Journal of Science. 



The annual report for 19 14 of the Department of 

 Mines and Geology of Mysore gives an interesting 

 summary of progress in the mining and geological 

 work of that State. The Mysore gold mines well 

 maintain their output, though the Ribblesdale section 

 has now entered a poor zone like that once passed 

 through in the higher levels. The air-blasts or explo- 

 I sions of rock owing to the relief of tension during 

 j mining, which are so unusually troublesome on the 

 j Mysore goldfield, occasioned somewhat fewer fatali- 

 I ties, only seventeen instead of thirty-one in the year 

 j before. - No method of recognising when the 

 ; rock is in this explosive condition has yet been 

 ; discovered. A geological map of the State on the 

 scale of eight miles to the inch has been commenced. 

 Dr. Smeeth, the director, again insists that the great 

 Kaldurga conglomerates are crush conglomerates and 

 not of sedimentary origin, a view for which the 

 evidence has been regarded by some geologists as 

 ; inadequate. He shows that many of the Mysore 

 j quartzites are intrusive into the schists, and are 

 i silicified felsites or acid quartz-porphyries. In the 

 hope of developing the iron industry in the State the 

 , iron ores have been further studied', and Dr. Smeeth 

 j publishes a valuable report upon them. He classifies 

 • them into five groups; they include banded iron- 

 stones ; ores of magmatic origin in the ultra-basic 

 rocks and in the charnockite series, of which the latter 

 are low-grade quartz-magnetite ores ; and also various 

 replacement ores in schists. This last group includes 

 those which appear most Hkelv to be of commercial 

 value. 



I The recent presidential address delivered by Dr. 



I A. W. Rogers before the Geological Societv of 'South 

 Africa gives an interesting description of the geology 

 of the copper deposits of Namaqualand. He show's 

 that the deposits of economic importance are those 

 associated with igneous intrusions in gneiss, and 

 thus fall into line with many of the important copper 

 deposits in other parts of the world. The most widelv 

 distributed of these igneous rocks is mica-diorite, 

 which is well developed at Ookiep, where, as is well 

 known, the most important of the Namaqualand 

 copper mines is situated. Next in importance comes 

 norite, which appears to be of a verv variable com- 

 position, ranging from rocks that differ onlv from 

 me mica-diorite by the presence of a' little 

 hjrpersthene to rocks so rich in the latter mineral as 

 to be almost capable of being classed as hypersthen- 



