312 Reviews—Dr, Hatch—Mines of Natal. 
IIJ.—Report on tHE Mines and Miyerat Resources or Natar (OTHER 
THan Coat). By F. H. Harca, Ph.D., M.I.C.E. Published by 
order of the Natal Government. London: Richard Clay and 
Sons, 1910. 
CLEAR statement as to the actual mineral wealth of a country 
and the present stage of its development is seldom afforded us, 
for where so many interests are at stake an unbiassed account is 
generally withheld. When, therefore, we have the opinion of an 
expert of such wide experience as Dr. Hatch we ought to be truly 
erateful. It is not, however, our province to discuss the commercial 
attitude of this report, nor is it for us to say whether it is politic 
to make known the results achieved by individual and pioneer 
undertaking. 
Though not optimistic Dr. Hatch is certainly not wholly pessimistic 
as to the future mining industry of Natal. What the colony has done 
up till 1908 is forcibly shown by the statistical tables on p. 125, in 
which, by the way, the author luxuriates in a ton of 2440 Ib. 
Geologists will be chiefly interested in the author’s succinct outline 
of the general geology of Natal and Zululand, though some will not 
unhesitatingly accept his correlation of the Table Mountain Sandstone 
of Natal with the Waterberg Sandstone of the Transvaal. Useful, 
too, are the notices of the occurrence and distribution of the metalli- 
ferous deposits in the colony. With the exception of iron, nickel, 
and molybdenum the metals appear to be chiefly confined to the 
complex of rocks older than the Table Mountain Sandstone and 
included by Dr. Hatch in the Swaziland System. The Witwaters- 
rand formation is not recognized, and the auriferous conglomerates 
(‘bankets’) are considered to be contemporaneous with the Swaziland 
Beds, and therefore to be older than the Banket formation of the 
Rand. It is disappointing to learn that the iron-ores nowhere appear 
to be of any great thickness, and that limestones suitable for employ- 
ment as a flux are of rather rare occurrence in Natal. 
To further the mining industry of the colony Dr. Hatch considers 
a geological survey, such as was commenced in 1898 and precipitately 
abandoned in 1905, to be an important factor. 
IV.—Gerotoey. By Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S. 8vo; pp. 140, 
with 41 text-figures (including a map). London: J. M. Dent 
and Sons, Ltd. No date. Price 1s. net. 
/Y\HE little work before us is one of a series of Scientific Primers, 
which are intended to give a simple and general account of the 
present state of knowledge in various branches of science. At the 
outset we must find fault with the publishers for not inserting a date 
either on title-page or in preface—a very serious omission in a work 
of which the aim is to be ‘ up to date’. 
In an introductory textbook it is always difficult to know how far 
the knowledge of the reader can be taken for granted in dealing with 
the facts and phenomena. In this respect Professor Gregory has 
succeeded as well as possible, considering that he gives special 
attention to the materials of which the earth is made, and he rightly 
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