466 Reviews — Dr. J. F. Whiteaves — 



discusses on the new basis the following points : — Origin of 

 the atmosphere and ocean ; earliest sedimentaiy rocks ; volcanic 

 phenomena ; source of the hydrocarbons ; genesis of metalliferous 

 deposits ; origin of gypsum and salt ; climates ; glaciation ; 

 diastrophic movements ; irregularities of the earth's figure ; and 

 life on the earth. 



5. The Frank Landslip. — The Department of the Interior of the 

 Dominion of Canada, in their Annual Report for 1903, has issued 

 a report on the disastrous landslide at Frank, by Messrs. R. G. 

 McConnell and E. W. Brock. Turtle Mountain, the eastern face 

 of which gave way on 2yth April, 1903, consists of Devonian 

 Limestones resting on Cretaceous shales and sandstones. The- 

 Devonian beds dip to the west at an average angle of 50°. The 

 fall occurred about 4.10 a.m., and consisted of a mass of rock half 

 a mile square, and 400 to 500 feet thick. The mass broke across 

 the bedding planes almost at right angles, and therefore the slide 

 falls under Balzer's heading of ' Bergstiirtz,' of which it is a typical 

 example. The mass appears to have been shattered into fragments 

 during its descent, and the material seems to have travelled by 

 a succession of great leaps, or ricochets, rather than by a true slide. 

 The bulk of the fallen mass is calculated at nearly 36,000,000 cubic 

 yards, equal in weight to some 80,000,000 tons. The primary 

 cause of the breaking away of the mass from Turtle Mountain is- 

 to be found in the structure and condition of the mountain itself. 

 It was ripe for a slide. The steep slopes, the shattered and 

 fractured nature of the rocks, particularly of the basal beds of the 

 limestone series, overlying a thrust-fault, coupled with unusually 

 heavy precipitation, are causes which in themselves are quite 

 sufficient to have produced the slide, and, unaided, the loosened 

 masses would sooner or later have fallen. The report points out 

 the probability of further slides in the same area, and advises the- 

 inhabitants of Frank to move up the valley. 



le, E "V I E ^W S. 



L — On some Additional Fossils from the Vancouver 

 Cretaceous, with a Revised List of the Species therefrom. 

 By J. F. Whiteaves, LL.D., F.G.S., etc. Geological Survey 

 of Canada, part v, pp. 309-416, pis. 40-51. (Ottawa, August, 

 1903.) 



THIS is the concluding part of the first volume of illustrated 

 reports upon the Cretaceous fossils from the Queen Charlotte 

 and Vancouver Islands, the first part of which appeared in 1876. 

 It deals more particularly with the fossils which have been obtained 

 from Vancouver and the adjacent islands since 1879. The rocks 

 containing these fossils were named the Nanaimo group by the late 

 Dr. Dawson, and, as now understood, this group appears to be the 

 equivalent, not only of the Chico group of California, but also 



