December 15, 1904] 



NA TURE 



161 



suffered, in general appreciation, from the fact tfiat — in 

 their essential features — they never attempted to gratify 

 popular taste ; that they did not, with rare exceptions, illus- 

 trate ' the works of fashionable writers, whether classical 

 philosophers or mediaeval prelates ; that they had no con- 

 nection with the legends and dreams of chivalry and 

 romance ; that they were not the work of schools or courts ; 

 and that they owed nothing to Ptolemy or Strabo. But we 

 know their worth better now. 



They first record for us the new discoveries among the 

 Atlantic islands and along the African mainland ; they guide 

 and accompany the faltering steps of our race in the out- 

 ward, oceanic, movement of European life ; in them true 

 cartography, the map-making of the civilised world, begins. 

 C. Raymond Beazley. 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES. 



STATISTICS of mineral production in India in the ten 

 *~-^ years 1S94 to 1903 have been issued by the Government 

 of India (Department of Revenue and Agriculture, 1904). In 

 the report for 1903 satisfactory progress in the mining 

 industry is recorded. There has been a remarkable develop- 

 ment in the production of petroleum and manganese ore, 

 and a continuation of the progress previously recorded for 

 coal and gold. 



From the Geological Survey of India we have received 

 part ii. of the newly re-issued Records. Mr. T. H. Holland, 

 director, contributes a short appreciative memoir of the late 

 General C. A. McMahon, and among other articles there is 

 a well illustrated report by Mr. J. Malcolm Maclaren on 

 the auriferous occurrences of Chota Nagpur, in Bengal. 

 The conclusion is that there is little scope for the legitimate 

 investment of capital in the recovery of gold, whether from 

 the quartz veins or from the superficial deposits, but that 

 the, greater portion of the gold must be left to the native 

 washer, " forming for him a reserve that, though it will 

 never raise him to affluence, will always lift him beyond 

 the grasp of famine." Two minerals, thenardite and 

 cancrinite, are recorded for the first time from India. We 

 have also received a report on the geology of Spiti, by Mr. 

 H. H. Hayden {Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xxxvi., part i.). 

 Hitherto no systematic survey had been made of the region, 

 and the results of this work, which was carried out by 

 Mr. Hayden with the assistance of the late Dr. von Krafft, 

 are depicted on a map to the scale of one inch to four miles, 

 and further illustrated by some striking pictorial views and 

 sections. The formations represented are Cambrian, 

 Silurian, Carboniferous and Permian, Trias, Jurassic, and 

 Cretaceous, with also intrusive rocks. The oldest sedi- 

 mentary rocks belong to the Middle Haimanta division of 

 Mr. Griesbach ; they are unfossiliferous, and are overlain 

 presumably by the Upper Haimantas, in which Lingulella 

 and Olenus have been found. Lower and Upper Silurian 

 rocks are recognised, and from these and the later form- 

 ations many fossils are recorded. 



The ammonite fauna of the Spiti shales forms the sub- 

 ject of a monograph by Dr. Victor Uhlig [Mem. Geol. 

 Survey, India, ser. xv., vol. iv.). Only the first portion of 

 this work has at present been issued, and in it the author 

 deals with the genera and species of Ammonoidea. With 

 regard to the classification, the author remarks that as no 

 universally satisfactory agreement has yet been reached, he 

 gives the descriptions of the various forms in unclassified 

 sequence, while indicating their approximate position. In 

 the course of his work he has studied as far as possible all 

 the old as well as new material, and he has found it 

 necessary to re-figure and describe many of the species 

 previously published. 



In mineralogical notes contributed by Mr. A. K. 

 Coomaraswamy {Spolia Zeylanica, August), reference is 

 made to the occurrence in Ceylon of thorium-bearing 

 minerals, of corundum-sillimanite rocks, kyanite, serendi- 

 bite, &c. The same author, in dealing with the geology 



1 Some of the atlases founded on portolani, such as the Carte Catalane of 

 1375. really illustrate the travels of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 

 e.g. Marco Polo's. But this is strictly in the way of e.vplanation of a great 

 eographic te.\t. 



NO. 1833. VOL 71] 



of Ceylon {Geol. Mag., August), proposes the name 

 Balangoda group for a series of granitic and pegmatitic 

 rocks intrusive in the Charnockite series. The group in- 

 cludes granites with zircon, allanite, magnetite, &c. 



The summary of progress of the Geological Survey for 

 the year 1903 contains the usual particulars of the field work 

 which has been carried on in Cornwall, Derbyshire and 

 Nottinghamshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, in 

 various parts of Ross-shire and the western highlands, in 

 the Edinburgh coal-field, and in the neighbourhood of Cork 

 in Ireland. Special attention is directed to the discovery 

 in Ross-shire of a rock essentially composed of magnetite 

 and cassiterite — the occurrence of tin-ore being new ; but 

 it is stated that at present there is no reason to believe that 

 the tin-bearing rock occurs in any large masses. In an 

 appendix Dr. J. S. Flett contributes first notes on the petro- 

 graphy of western Cornwall, dealing with some of the 

 garnetiferous greenstones, the granites and greisen veins, 

 and the phenomena of contact alteration ; Mr. H. B. Wood- 

 ward writes on the Geological Survey in reference to Agri- 

 culture, with report on the soils and subsoils of the Roth- 

 amsted estate; and Mr. H. A. Allen continues the important 

 catalogue of types and figured specimens of fossils in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, with a record of Oolitic 

 Gasteropoda and .Scaphopoda. 



The general report and statistics on mines and quarries 

 for 1903, part iii. (output), has been issued by the Home 

 Otlice. The total value of the minerals raised during the 

 year showed a decrease of 55 million pounds as compared 

 with 1902 — a decrease arising from the fall in price of coal. 

 The total output of coal was the highest hitherto recorded. 

 The outputs of ores of iron, copper, and lead show increase, 

 while those of manganese, tin, and uranium ores show 

 decrease. 



In the Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society 

 (n.s., vol. X., part iii.) Prof. Lloyd Morgan and Prof. S. H. 

 Reynolds give particulars of the field relations of the Carbon- 

 iferous volcanic rocks of Somerset. There is also an 

 interesting article by Mr. W. H. Wickes on the Rhjetic 

 bone-beds, the author pointing out that there is no regular 

 and persistent bed, but thin layers of varying extent occur 

 on different horizons, due to the former presence and de- 

 struction of shoals of carnivorous fishes and saurians, while 

 the occurrence of small pebbles in the bone-beds is attributed 

 to the fact that large sea fish often have stones in their 

 stomachs. Mr. H. B. Woodward contributes a memoir on 

 the late Robert Etheridge, dealing more especially with his 

 work in the Bristol area. 



In the Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field 

 Club (vol. XV., part i.) Messrs. J. W. Gray and G. W. S. 

 Brewer direct attention to the evidence of a Celtic settle- 

 ment on Cleeve Hill, prior to the Roman occupation of 

 that part of the country ; among the domestic animals 

 were the horse, ox, sheep, pig, dog, and fowl. Mr. L. 

 Richardson contributes an article on the Rha;tic beds of 

 Worcestershire. 



A study of sands and sediments has been commenced by 

 Mr. T. Mellard Reade and Mr. Philip Holland {Proc. Liver- 

 pool Geol. Soc, 1904). So far as their investigations have 

 proceeded, they are led to believe that purely mechanical 

 micro-sediments may constitute a much larger proportion of 

 the rocks than has been hitherto suspected. Moreover, their 

 experiments show the persistent retention of detrital car- 

 bonate of lime in extremely fine subsidence-matter, and 

 suggest that deep-sea limestones may sometimes be formed 

 as detrital accumulations. 



The twenty-eighth annual report of the Department of 

 Geology and Natural Resources, Indiana, under the direc- 

 tion of Mr. W. S. Blatchley, State geologist, is accompanied 

 by an excellent geological map of the State on the scale of 

 an inch to four miles, with explanatory descriptions by Dr. 

 T. C. Hopkins and Dr. A. F. Foerste. The formations re- 

 presented are Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian. Lower 

 Carboniferous, and Coal-measures. The petroleum pro- 

 ducing areas are specially marked, that industry having 

 become one of the greatest in the State. Special reports are 

 contributed on this and on the lime industry, and there is 

 also an article on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the 

 Niagara formation by Mr. E. M. Kindle, with twenty-five 

 plates of fossils. 



