594 



NA TURE 



[October 13, 1904 



both Nova Scotia and \'ancouver Island, it is mentioned 

 that the only coal known to occur in North America on the 

 immediate seaboard of either the Atlantic or Pacific belongs 

 to Canada. 



Some new genera of Carboniferous Mollusca from the 

 United States have been described by Mr. G. H. Girty 

 (Ptof. U.S. National Mus., vol. xxvii., No. 1372). They 

 include Limipecten, a form considered to be near to Aviculi- 

 pecten (sic), and with that genus to have affinities with the 

 Pectinida; rather than with Aviculidaa. Other new genera 

 are Pleurophorella, allied to AUerisma, and Clavulites, 

 having some resemblances to Dentalium. 



The Miocene diabase of the Santa Cruz Mountains in 

 San Mateo County, California, is described in some detail 

 by Messrs. H. L. 'Haehl and R. Arnold (Proc. Amer. Phil. 

 Soc, vol. xliii., No. 175). The diabase, in the form of 

 tuffs, dykes, and intrusive sheets, occupies about 35 square 

 miles in an area of 300 square miles. It is remarked that 

 the tuffs are interbedded with Miocene limestones, sand- 

 stones, and shales, and that intrusions of limestone derived 

 from the interbedded limy layers have been forced into 

 fissures in the tuff. In the intrusive diabase the percentages 

 of soda and titanium are large, and it presents the 

 characters of augite-teschenite. 



An essay on the palseontology of the Lancashire Coal- 

 measures, part i., contributed by Mr. H. Bolton to the 

 Transactions of the Manchester Geological and Mining 

 Society (vol. xxviii., part xiv.), has been reprinted as one 

 of the " Museum Handbooks " of the Manchester Museum, 

 Owens College (price is.). In this work the author deals 

 with the lower Coal-measures, and his object has been to 

 record the horizon and geographical occurrence of each 

 species so far as possible by reference to known specimens. 



.'rof. G. A. J. Cole and Mr. T. Crook have reported on 

 rock specimens dredged from the floor of the Atlantic off 

 the west coast of Ireland in 1901 (Dept. of Agric. and Techn. 

 Instruction for Ireland, App. to part ii. of Rep. on Sea and 

 Inland Fisheries). The rocks which were obtained off the 

 west coast of Mayo and Galway appear to have been derived 

 from submerged masses of rocks familiar in western Ireland. 

 They include also an olivine-gabbro which is regarded as 

 probably of Carboniferous age. 



In an article published in the J.and Agents' Record 

 (August 20) Mr. F. J. Bennett directs attention to the 

 important uses to which the Ordnance Survey maps, on the 

 scale of 25 inches to a mile, might be put for estate and 

 agricultural purposes. As he points out, much valuable 

 information is lost, both to the landowner and farmer, to 

 say nothing of the geologist, for want of recording it at 

 the time. He instances the nature of the soil and subsoil 

 as proved in draining the land and in various temporarv 

 excavations, as well as information with regard to wells, 

 springs, stone quarries, or clay pits. The courses of the 

 drains have rarely been laid down on estate maps. In 

 addition to records of these matters, he suggests that the 

 maps be used also for statistics with reference to cultivation. 

 Ihus the amount of seed sown, the kind and quantity of 

 manure used, the weather, and, finally, the result of each 

 field crop might be notified. If these particulars were tabu- 

 lated, say for seven years, the reasons for success or failure 

 might be judged. In the transfer of property or of leases 

 such information would be of the utmost value to the in- 

 coming owner or tenant, and the records, which would be 

 the private property of the occupier, should be of sale value. 



We have received a number of important geological publi- 

 cations from South Africa. In the Transactions of the 

 South .\frican Philosophical Society (vol. xv., part ii.) Mr. 

 E. II. L. Schwarz describes the high-level gravels which 

 cap the flat-topped hills all over the southern coast regions 

 of Cape Colony. The evidence shows that the gravels were 

 river-borne, and in the Karroo district they yield gold. 

 No gold-bearing reef has, however, been detected in that, 

 area, and the author is strongly of opinion that the gold 

 I ame from the Zwartebergen, where it occurs in the Table 

 Mountain Sandstone. Messrs. A. W. Rogers and A. L. 

 du Toit describe the Sutherland volcanic pipes and their 

 rel.ntionship to other vents, notably those of Kimberley. 

 In Ihf Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa 

 (vol. vii., part i.) there are various papers of local interest 

 on the geology of the Transvaal, and on the Witwatersrand 

 series in particular. In the annual report of the Geological 



NO 1824, VOL. 70] 



Commission of rhe Cape of Good Hope for 1903 we have a 

 record of the careful detailed work carried on by the director, 

 Mr. A. W. Rogers, and his stafl'. The survey of the south- 

 western portion of the Karroo has been completed, and 

 much information has been gathered with reference to the 

 sedimentary and volcanic formations. The recognition, in 

 the Verloren Valley, of a group of rocks (the Ibiquas series) 

 between the Table Mountain Sandstone and the Malmesbury 

 series is of considerable interest. 



" The Geology of the Country around Merthyr Tydfil " 

 (being the fifth part of the " Geology of the South Wales 

 Coal-field ") has just been issued by the Geological Survey, 

 price IS. 6d. It is the work of Messrs. A. Strahan, Walcot 

 Gibson, and T. C. Cantrill, and is an explanation of the 

 geological map sheet 231. The area includes the North 

 Crop of the Coal-field from Dowlais to the Tawe Valley, 

 with a considerable tract of Old Red Sandstone in the 

 mountainous land of Fforest Fawr, and also of Lower 

 Carboniferous rocks. The great scarp of the Pennant Sand- 

 stone stretches across the country on the south. The strati- 

 graphical features, the lithology, the faults and disturb- 

 ances of this important coal-region are dealt with very 

 fully ; the Glacial drifts and other superficial deposits are 

 duly described, and a short chapter is given on the economic 

 products. 



We have received an official report by Signor A. F. 

 Umlauff on the Cinnabar of Huancavelica, issued as a 

 Boletin of the Corps of Mining Engineers of Peru. The ore 

 occurs in irregular deposits in sandstones and limestones, 

 which have yielded Cretaceous fossils, and sections are 

 added showing its mode of occurrence. A description is 

 also given of the aludel furnaces, which are used in extract- 

 ing the mercury, and have remained practically unchanged 

 for more than two centuries. 



From the United States Geological Survey we have re- 

 ceived Bulletin No. 228, dealing with analyses of rocks 

 from the laboratory, 1880 to 1903, by Mr. F. W. Clarke; 

 also Professional Paper No. 28, giving the superior analyses 

 of igneous rocks from Roth's Tabellen, 1869 to 1884, 

 arranged according to the quantitative system of classifi- 

 cation. 



The occurrence of a " calcareous coal " in the Lanark- 

 shire Coal-field is described by Mr. R. W. Dron {Trans. 

 Inst. Mining Engineers, vol. xvii.), and shown by analysis 

 to contain carbonates of lime and magnesia. The author 

 seems to have been unaware that Mr. A. Strahan, in 1901, 

 brought before the Geological Society an account of the 

 passage of a seam of coal into dolomite, as observed at the 

 Wirral Colliery in the small Parkgate Coal-field. 



The glaciation of Mount Ktaadn, in northern Maine, 

 forms the subject of an essay by Mr. R. S. Tarr {Bull. 

 Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. xi.). The mountain, which is com- 

 posed of granite, rises to a height of 5150 feet, and has 

 hitherto been regarded as bearing no proof of ice-covering 

 during the Glacial period. The author brings forward 

 evidence to show that the ice did overtop the mountain, 

 and that glaciers subsequently occupied the valleys on its 

 eastern side, leaving well defined moraines some of which 

 enclose lakes. 



In the Brazilian Mining Reviev (for April and May) Mr. 

 H. Kilburn Scott gives some account of the mineral re- 

 sources of Rio Grande do Sul, which is the southernmost 

 of the States of Brazil. The village of Lavras is at present 

 the centre of the gold-mining industry, the gold occurring 

 in quartz-veins or as impregnations in decomposed syenite- 

 rock. The principal copper deposit is that of Camaquam, 

 and the ores comprise copper glance, copper pyrites, and 

 bornite (erubescite). Lodes occur in hard conglomerates 

 and sandstones which have been invaded by melaphyre, and 

 there seems to be a close connection between these metal- 

 liferous deposits and the eruptive rock. 



A useful index to the mineral resources of .Alabama, 

 compiled by Messrs. E. A. Smith (State geologist) and 

 H. McCalley, has been issued by the Geological Survey of 

 .\labama. It includes an account of iron and manganese 

 ores, bauxite, coal, clays, building stones, mineral paints, 

 mineral waters, &c., and is illustrated by a small geological 

 map and pictorial views. 



The tin deposits of the York Region, Alaska, are briefly 

 described by Mr. A. J. Collier (Bulletin No. 229, U.S. Geol. 

 Survey). .Stream tin was discovered in iqoo, and since then 



