24 Reviews — The Coal Resources of the World. 



and Tiin-nan-sheng, the basement complex of the region consists of 

 phyllite, sandstone, and limestone, considered to represent the Devonian 

 and Silurian. The lower part of the thick limestone which overlies 

 the formation is of Devonian age, while tlie upper intercalates shale, 

 sandstone, and quartzite with coal-seams, and represents the 

 Carboniferous and Permo-Carboniferous. Another heavy limestone 

 formation, with red shale in the middle and diabase sheet in the 

 lower part, rests on it, and also contains coal-seams. It is the 

 Permo-Trias. Most of the coal-seams in Kuei-chow-sheng and Yiin- 

 nan-sheng are interbedded in these two formations." Truly a 

 Chinese puzzle. 



Japan's contribution is a memoir in itself, well illustrated by maps 

 and diagrams in the text, and by several artistically coloured and 

 delicately outlined maps in the atlas. The statement (vol. i, p. 296), 

 coming from one in a position to judge, that Japan will satisfy the 

 demand for coal in the circum-Pacific country for many hundreds of 

 years, particularly arrests attention. 



The chief African coal-fields, as is well known, occur in the south, 

 and the information supplied about the other still imperfectly known 

 coal-bearing districts in Central Africa shows that the continent is 

 not over abundantly supplied with coal. IS^orthern Africa, except 

 parts of the Mgerian Protectorate, appears to be almost destitute 

 of coal other than patches of lignite. 



The account of the great coal-fields of Canada, illustrated by eight 

 maps in the atlas and by eight figures in the text, affords a useful 

 summary of an important and rapidly growing industry. In the far 

 north, as well as in other northern regions, deposits of coal are widely 

 distributed. 



A map in the atlas, showing the distribution of the coals according 

 to class, in conjunction with six pages of tabular matter in the text, 

 brings prominently into view the vast resources of the United States. 

 Of the coal supplies of South America the available information is 

 evidently still meagre and uncertain. 



The reports by the leading authorities on the European coal-fields 

 occupy 552 pages of printed matter, abundantly illustrated by maps 

 and diagrams and accompanied by no less than twenty maps in 

 the atlas. 



In Holland a great thickness of unproductive cover shows how 

 much of its coal lies hopelessly beyond reach. 



In Great Britain, while an area of 206 square miles in the concealed 

 coal-field of Kent is included for the first time among the estimates 

 for this country, 760 square miles is substituted for one of 2,550 

 square miles for the unproved area in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. 

 This reduction has been made in conformity with explorations in the 

 valley of the Trent between JSTottingham and the Humber, completed 

 since the Report of the Commission in 1905, and of which the results 

 have been published recently (1913) in an official memoir. 



This great change in the estimated resources of one of the most 

 highly developed coal-fields in the world shows that it is necessary 

 to exercise great caution in accepting too literally the figures given 

 for imperfectly explored regions. 



