82 Reviews— II. P. Woodward — Mining Handbook of W. Australia. 



any useful supplies. These lakes are usually dry salt wastes, whioh 

 are occasionally covered by a few inches of water after heavy rains, 

 although even then the water is salt. At Coolgardie the water in the 

 wells is almost a saturated solution, containing 40 ounces of salt to 

 the gallon, as compared with o^ ounces in a gallon of sea water; 

 Mr. Woodward considers that the best means of obtaining fresh 

 water in the district will be by constructing large dams to save the 

 rain water thrown off the granite hills. 



The geology and mineralogy of the country are next dealt with, 

 each section being preceded by a short general account of the science 

 in question. These accounts are in the main excellent, but it may 

 well be doubted if the two pages devoted to chemistry will serve 

 any useful purpose. More than half of them consist of a complete 

 list of the elements, including the rarest, and even some whose 

 existence is doubtful, together with the atomic weights, correct to 

 the second or third decimal place. While useful to the chemist, it is 

 probable that the exact meaning of this table would escape the 

 " practical man." Until recently the geological formations were 

 supposed to consist of either granite or sand, but Mr. Woodward has 

 shown that this is not the case, although the absence of natural 

 sections makes a complete study somewhat difficult. "Speaking 

 roughly," he says, " as a whole, the country may be described as one 

 large table-land, rising to an elevation of from 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. 

 above the sea, and covered for the most part with sandy deposits, 

 which have resulted from the denudation of the Desert Sandstone 

 Series," of Mesozoic age. " Underlying this Desert Sandstone 

 formation there is a series of belts of metamorphic and granitic rocks, 

 the former of which are intersected by numerous diorite dykes and 

 quartz veins, which are proving to be very rich in gold." The 

 auriferous metamorphic rocks are partly Silurian, partly Cambrian, 

 but mainly Archasan. There are six of these belts in all, consisting 

 of highly-contorted rocks striking north and south and having 

 a nearly vertical dip. The fourth and sixth belts, counting from 

 west to east, consist of schists intersected by the gold-bearing veins, 

 whilst the third and fifth consist of barren granite, which long acted 

 as a barrier, discouraging prospectors from pursuing their researches 

 farther into the interior. The disposition of these belts is clearly 

 shown on the capital geological sketch map included in the volume. 



In the succeeding pages there is a very useful description of the 

 minerals occurring in the gold-fields, together with directions for 

 identifying them. It may be gathered from the section on metallic 

 gold that Mr. Woodward holds the view that alluvial gold consists 

 of particles derived from the denudation of auriferous lodes, a view 

 which, whether it be correct or not, is not an advantageous one for 

 the prospector to hold, since it often leads to vain searches after 

 lodes where none can exist. Moreover, it would perhaps be better 

 if, instead of the comparatively inefficient iodine test of the presence 

 of traces of gold in rock, the easier and more certain tests by 

 chlorine, bromine or cyanide of mercury were described. But these 

 slight blemishes, if indeed they are blemishes, detract but little from 



