Notices of Memoira. 423 



XII. — Geology of Austeo-Hungaey. — Part iii of the new 

 geological map of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy has just 

 appeared. It contains two maps, those of the Oberdrauberg- 

 Mautheu and the Kistanje-Dernis districts, with their accompanying 

 descriptive pamphlets by Geyer and v. Kerner. In these pamphlets 

 a full bibliography precedes the descriptive text. 



XIII. — Laccoliths of Montana. — Messrs. Weed and Pirsson deal 

 with the geology of the Shonkin Sag and Palisade Butte Laccoliths 

 in the Highwood Mountains of Montana in the American Journal of 

 Science for July, 1901. These laccoliths occur in Cretaceous beds, 

 and show a central mass of sj'enite, surrounded by transition rock, 

 which is in its turn surrounded by shonkinite, the whole having 

 a rind of leucite basalt porphyry. The authors say that these three 

 laccoliths form a transitional group ; the Shonkin Sag is the flattest, 

 and also the lowest, and therefore the one most protected from erosion. 

 Its top, in fact, is just beginning to emerge, and from its laccolitic 

 character would not be so evident if it were not for the trenching 

 in it by the former river action which has given such good cross 

 sections. Square Butte stands much higher and has been exposed 

 to much greater denudation ; its cover, save in small areas around 

 the base, has been stripped off, and a considerable part of the 

 igneous rock removed. Palisade Butte, standing at the same level 

 as Square Butte, has suffered from the same amount of erosive 

 agencies, but being smaller in size the relative effect has been 

 greater and the cover has entirely disappeared, as well as a large 

 part of the laccolith, so that around it the floor is exposed and only 

 the central portion of the mass remains. From their observations 

 the authors have been enabled to provide us with an excellent 

 account of these interesting structures, which they have illustrated 

 in a clear and exact manner. 



XIV. — Bitumen in Cuba. — S. F. Peckham shows in the same 

 Journal that extensive deposits of solid asphaltum exist near the 

 north coast of Cuba, while springs and wells give indications of the 

 existence of liquid bitumens of varying density beneath the surface, 

 over an area of some -1,000 square miles. He is, however, doubtful 

 if, in view of the enormous production which recent developments 

 in Texas and Indiana promise, that there is at present any 

 encouragement for even experimental drilling in Cuba. 



XV. — Geology of London. — As President of the Geologists' 

 Association of London, Mr. Whitaker in his annual address to that 

 energetic body dealt with a subject which he has made peculiarly 

 his own. The result is a valuable summary of the papers which 

 have been written on Loudon Geology (to the base of the Drift) 

 since 1888. No less than fifty-nine papers are summarized, and 

 thus rendered easily accessible to general readers. Mr. Whitaker 

 regrets that tendency to over-division of the beds of the Drift so 

 bewildering, as he says, to '' simple-minded people like himself." 

 He has also some pertinent remarks on gravels and their ages. 



