750 Oi. LIBIICE 
Winchell, H. V.,* gives a brief sketch of the iron ranges of Minne- 
sota. Along the north side of the Mesabi range is a ridge of Archean 
syenite and granite, flanked on both sides by crystalline and semi- 
crystalline schists. This ridge is called the Giant’s Range. On the 
south side of the Giant’s Range, lying at times nearly up to its sum- 
mit, are the outcropping edges of Taconic or Upper Huronian strata, 
which overlie unconformably the syenites and schists. These are in 
turn overlapped to the south by eruptive rocks of Keweenawan age 
and by Cretaceous sediments. ‘The ore is soft hematite, which lies at 
low angles from the horizontal, usually covered merely by drift. 
The geology of the Vermilion Range is not yet understood. The 
iron ores are solid and massive, except at the Chandler mine, where 
they are brecciated, and occur in steeply inclined lenses between walls 
of schist, extending to an indefinite depth. 
Lawson? describes a family of basic plutonic orthoclase rocks rich 
in alkalies and lime, which he names malignite, as occurring in the 
form of a laccolite in the Coutchiching schists of Poohbah Lake. The 
malignites vary from basic nepheline-pyroxene malignite through 
garnet-pyroxene malignite to amphibole malignite. 
Coleman? makes a second report on the gold fields of western 
Ontario, including the area between Finmark, near Thunder Bay, and 
the Manitoba boundary, and between Minnesota and Keewatin on the 
north shore of Lonely Lake. This visit confirms his impressions of 
the geology of the area as given in the preceding report of the bureau.‘ 
At many places the Laurentian rocks show an eruptive contact with 
the overlying rocks, showing that they must have been consolidated 
later than the Huronian. Coleman suggests that it would be more 
logical to confine. the name Laurentian to the oldest complex of 
thoroughly crystalline rocks serving as a foundation for all succeeding 
rocks, and to describe the clearly eruptive rocks which penetrate the 
t The iron ranges of Minnesota, by H. V. WINCHELL, Proc. Lake Superior Min- 
ing Inst., Vol. III, 1895, pp. 11-32. 
?Malignite, a family of basic plutonic orthoclase rocks rich in alkalies and 
lime, by ANDREW C. Lawson, Bull. Dept. of Geol., Univ. of Cal., Vol. I, 1896, pp. 
337-362, Pl. 18. 
3A second report on the gold fields of western Ontario, by A. P. COLEMAN, Fifth 
Rept. Bureau of Mines, Ontaria, for 1895, Sec. II, pp. 47-106, 1896. 
4 Reviewed in this JOURNAL, Vol. IV, pp. 744-745. 
