OcToBER 9, 1913] 
encountered several hot-springs, but unfortunately 
took no record of the temperature, nor indicated 
their location exactly, as a guide to future 
travellers desirous of making precise scientific 
observations. 
The oft-discussed question of the geological 
causation of that remarkable wrinkling of the sur- 
face of south-east Tibet into a series of parallel 
valleys, through which the great rivers rush 
southwards, is net advanced nearer to a solution 
by the vague theories indulged in in the last 
chapter. These hypotheses, which are not even 
new, are not based on examination of the actual 
rocks, and are uninformed by the many facts col- 
lected by the experts of the Indian Geological 
Survey and others. The great river of Central 
Wien | 
Fic. 3.—The Salween in the arid region, below La- 
Kor-ah. From ‘*The Land of the Blue Poppy.” 
Tibet is not usually spelt “Bramapootra” nowa- 
days. Notwithstanding its scientific deficiencies 
as “the journal of a naturalist,” the book gives a 
lively popular account of adventurous travel off 
the beaten tracks, and the numerous photographs 
convey a good idea of the country traversed. 
THE OCCURRENCE OF OIL SHALE AMONG 
THE JURASSIC ROCKS OF RAASAY AND 
SKYE.1 
HE Geological Survey of Great Britain in the 
course of their investigations in the Isle of 
Skye have discovered an oil-shale which may 
ultimately prove of economic importance, and as 
1 Communicated by the Director of the Geological Survey of Great 
Britain. 
NO. 2293, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
169 
notices of the discovery have appeared in the 
daily Press, it is desirable that the facts so far as 
they are known to the Geological Survey should 
be placed on record without further delay. The 
discovery was made by Dr. G. W. Lee, who has 
written the following account :— 
The stratigraphical position of the shale is at 
| the very base of the Great Estuarine Series, a 
group which succeeded strata containing a fauna 
of Garantiana age (high in the Inferior Oolite) 
’ 
BASALT LAVA 
Slauconitic Sandstone . 
Calcgreous Serdstons with 
fone “ marine tossils, (? Callovian) 
GREAT ESTUARINE SERIES 
Bituminous Shales, Shelly 
== Limestones and Sandstones. 
THIN SRANOPHYRE SILL 
LOWER 
OOLITE 
SANOSTONES 
Ss UPPER LIAS SHALES 
200. 
==ai IRONSTONE 
MIDDLE LIAS SANDSTONE 
1 SEA LEVEL 
Diagram section illustrating the sequence of the Jurassic 
rocks below Din Caan, Isle of Raasay. 
and is overlain by Kellaways Rock. The shale 
itself yields fossils. They include Entomostraca, 
a flattened lamellibranch, and plant remains. 
Since it rests immediately on the marine Garan- 
tiana clay, it follows that the incoming of estuarine 
conditions must have been a sudden one. 
The shale is brownish in colour, fine in grain, 
gives a wooden sound under the hammer, and has 
a brown streak. It is tough and resists dis- 
integration by weathering, a character which 
