474 Reviews — The Bighorn Coal-basin, Alberta, Canada. 



REVIEWS. 



I. — The Bighorn Coal - basin, Alberta, Canada. By G. S. 

 Malloch. Memoir No. 9 b, Geological Survey, Department of 

 Mines, Canada. Ottawa, 1911. 



fTTHE Bighorn Coal-basin is situated in Western Alberta, and was 

 J_ named from the Bighorn range, an outlying portion of tlie 

 Rocky Mountains that extends from the North Saskatchewan to the 

 Brazeau River. The coal-bearing strata, known as the Kootanie 

 Formation, are of Lower Cretaceous age, and occupy a basin with 

 overlying Upper Cretaceous and Quaternary deposits. The older and 

 underlying strata comprise Jurassic, Triassic, Permian (?), Carboniferous, 

 and Devonian. The discovery of conl was made in 1906 by 

 Mr. D. B. Dowling, and analyses proved that it was well adapted 

 for use in locomotives. Moreover, nine workable seams with an 

 aggregate thickness of 66 feet were subsequently proved, and as much 

 as 88 feet is now recorded in a depth of 2,760 feet. The coal-seams 

 are more regular than the intervening strata. The deposits were 

 accumulated chiefly by rivers, but are in parts of lacustrine and 

 marine origin. The coal was probably formed in peat - bogs. 

 Mr. Malloch gives full particulars of the strata, with lists of fossils, 

 pictorial views, and a geological map. , 



II. — History of Geology. By Hokace B. Woodward, E.R.S., 

 E.G.S. 8vo ; pp. 154, 14 portraits. London : Watts & Co. 

 Price Is. 



WHATEVER Mr. H. B. Woodward undertakes to do he does 

 well. And in this little book one can clearly see that its 

 omissions are due solely to the limit of its pages. It is full 

 of information of the best and most instructive sort, and can be 

 thoroughly recommended to the youth who after reading one 

 textbook thinks he is master of his subject, or to the older and wiser 

 student who always knows that he has still much to learn. Highly 

 interesting, the reader glides along scarcely noticing that he is taking 

 in intellectual nutrition all the time, and arriving at the end he 

 promptly begins the book over again. The eight chapters are divided 

 into Early Notions about the History of the Earth, the Founders of 

 Geology, Geology in the early part of the Nineteenth Century, 

 Principles of Geology, Surveys, Elucidation of the Older Geological 

 Systems, Palaeontology, Archaean and Metamorphic Earth-movements, 

 and Petrology. A short Bibliography and an Index conclude the 

 volume. We notice one atrocious word, ' seaquakes,' one omission, 

 'Timothy' instead of 'Timothy Abbott' Conrad, and one mistake, 

 'Richard' instead of 'David' Dale Owen; these we name merely for 

 correction in the subsequent editions. Everybody who pretends to 

 any interest in geology should read this book, and it might well be 

 used in classes wherever geology is taught or referred to. 



