526 Reviews — TJie Australian Tertiaries. 



it might prove very useful". It may be that this is the intention, 

 but we would deprecate any illusory appearance of promptitude such 

 as is conveyed by the dates June 5, 17, 19, 22, July 3, 6, and 11, 

 placed at the heati of the respective articles, as though they had been 

 published on those dates. We have no reason to suppose that such 

 was the case, and indeed the fact tliat no copies were received over 

 here before the second week in October leads us to regard even the 

 alleged date of the whole number with some suspicion. 



Mr. S. J. Schofield discusses the origin of the micro-pegmatite in 

 the sills that traverse the Precambrian Purcell Series of British 

 Columbia, and concludes that the rock was derived from the upper 

 more acid stratum of a magma in an intercrustal reservoir, while the 

 lower more basic strata gave rise to gabbro sills. Mr. Schofield also 

 writes on the Precambrian (Beltian) rocks of South-Eastern British 

 Columbia, and gives a new correlation table. 



Dr. E. M. Kindle describes columnar structure in a bed of Silurian 

 limestone in Eastern Quebec, and regards it as due to sun-cracks 

 during deposition. 



Mr. J. W. Goldthwait discusses and rejects various supposed 

 evidences of subsidence of the coast of New Brunswick within 

 modern time. 



Mr. L. D. Burling contributes a paper on "Early Cambrian Strati- 

 graphy in the North American Cordillera, with -discussion of 

 Albertella and related faunas", which he believes to occupy strata 

 transitional between the Lower Cambrian sandstone and the 

 Middle Cambrian limestone, and to be more related to Middle than 

 to Lower Cambrian. 



Miss Alice E. Wilson has studied the plications of the brachiopod 

 shell Parastrophia hemiplicata, which show great variation. It appears 

 that the plications came in gradually, following the natural process 

 of individual growth, with gradual acceleration of development as 

 geological time progressed. Palaeontologists always seein to find 

 that the transmutation of species has taken place in this way. 

 Modern geneticists try to force another interpretation on the facts, 

 but the process requires marvellous ingenuity. 



F.A.B. 



IV. — The Atjsxealian Tektiaeies.^ 



ONE of the most interesting problems discussed at the British 

 Association's meeting in Australia was the age of the Australian 

 Tertiaries. Mr. Frederick Chapman, who brought to bear upon the 

 question his wide palseontological knowledge, prepared and issued in 

 July last as No. 5 of the Memoirs of the National Museum of 

 Melbourne a paper "On the Succession and Homotaxial Relationship 

 of the Australian Cainozoic System". After discussing the time 

 equivalents, the relative value of the percentage method, comparison 

 of typical faunas, widely distributed fossil types and their significance, 

 he proceeds to dissect the evidence of the Foraminifera. Having 

 shown that the so-called Nummulines are true Amphistegines, he 



^ See Notices, ante, p. 514. 



