Editorial Notes. 99 



in 50 years it would correspond to an average yearly production 

 of 35,000,000 tons of pig iron from home ores alone, without 

 counting imports, an apparently impossible figure, and more than 

 double the pre- War production. The figures given for France are 

 still more startling. In 1916 a German engineer estimated the 

 resources of Normandy at 500,000,000 tons of ore, but the authors 

 of this memoir adopt the figure of 5,000,000,000 tons for this area, 

 or ten times as much. As a subsidiary argument the urgent need 

 for phosphatic manures, i.e. basic slag, for German agriculture is 

 insisted on, and this can best be obtained from the Lorraine ores. 



This memorandum in point of fact proves in the clearest possible 

 manner that without the Lorraine iron-fields the German Empire can 

 never again conduct a great European war, and the general impression 

 left on tbe mind of the non-political reader is that the one thing 

 that really matters at the present Peace Conference is the restoration 

 of Lorraine to France ; without this iron-field Germany, on her own 

 showing, is helpless for good or evil for evermore. This is of course 

 an exaggerated view of the case, nevertheless it is clear that the 

 matter is of paramount importance, and it is much to be hoped that 

 the geological aspect of it has been duly placed before the responsible 

 authorities. 



3? A 4 •%■ 3.' •& 



The issue of Nature for January 16, 1919, contains a valuable 

 article by Mr. Y. C. Illing on Borings for Oil in the United Kingdom. 

 The whole subject is reviewed from an eminently practical and 

 common-sense point of view ; while due weight is given to the 

 admitted occurrence of petroleum in small quantities in many British 

 localities, especially in the Carboniferous, these are reduced to their 

 true proportions, which are shown to be insignificant, and the author 

 evidently entertains no hope of a commercially successful result froni 

 the investigations now proceeding. The article should be read in 

 conjunction with the memoir on this and cognate stibjects recently 

 issued by the Geological Survey, which likewise pours floods of cold 

 geological common-sense on the rosy optimism which has lately been 

 prevalent in the columns of the daily press. Such a treatment of the 

 subject was much needed, since the indulgence of such hopes can, in 

 the opinion of competent geologists, only lead to disappointment. 

 Although the scheme now in operation in Derbyshire is on a some- 

 what higher plane than the famous leaky tank at Ramsey, neverthe- 

 less it is to be gravely doubted whether the results will be of much 

 more practical value. It is of course possible, however, that these 

 extensive borings may yield other results of unlooked-for scientific 

 or economic importance, apart from the problematical supply of 

 liquid fuel. 



