Reviews — Geology, Philippine Islands — Life of G. W. Stow. 279 



VIII. — Geology of the Philippine Islands. 



The Geology of the Compostela-Danao Coalfield. By "Wakeen D. 

 Smith. Philippine Journal of Science, vol. ii, No. 6, sect. A, 

 Dec. 1907, pp. 377-405, pis. i-xiv, maps and sections. 



rpmS is a comprehensive paper dealing with climate, vegetation, 

 Jl population, hydrology, topography, physiography, and geology, 

 hoth stratigraphical and economic. It concludes with a classification 

 of Cebu coal hj A. J. Cox. One of the chief points of interest in the 

 paper is the account of the ' upper limestone,' which contains fossils 

 identical with those figured by Martin in his monograph on the 

 Tertiary of Java. A volume on the palaeontology is promised later on. 

 Besides a series of moUuscan genera quoted Mr. Smith points out that 

 the foraminiferal genus Lepidocyclina ( Orlitoides) predominates, while 

 another characteristic fossil is found in the alga Litliothamnium 

 ramosissimum, Beuss. Plates are given of this last form. Following 

 Martin in his work on Java, and Newton & Holland in their paper 

 on Formosa, the author says, " I have been inclined to assign this 

 formation, at least this horizon of it, to the Miocene, although fossils 

 from a very similar limestone which I have also examined in the field 

 in Batan Island have been classified by a European palaeontologist^ 

 as Oligocene." And he thinks that future research may reveal this 

 horizon in Cebu. 



IX. — The Life and Work of George William Stow, South African 

 Geologist and Ethnologist. By Robert B. Young, M.A., B.Sc, 

 Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the Transvaal University 

 College, Johannesburg. 8vo; pp. vi, 123, with portrait. London: 

 Longmans, Green, & Co., 1908. Qs. Qd. 



IT is well that a record of the remarkable career of G. W. Stow has 

 been written. He was one of the pioneers in South African 

 Geology, associated with Bubidge and Athertone, who followed "the 

 Father of South African Geology," Andrew Geddes Bain. Stow was 

 born at JSTuneaton in Warwickshire on February 2nd, 1822. Devoted 

 in youth to engineering subjects, he was nevertheless articled by his 

 father to a medical man in London, " but failed to acquire any love 

 for his profession." History, natural science, and poetry were his 

 favourite studies. In 1843 he emigrated to South Africa and there 

 for nearly forty years he laboured to live, and lived to prosecute 

 researches on the geology and ethnology of his adopted country. As 

 remarked by J. W. Hulke in an obituary notice, " Mr. Stow's work 

 was carried on under circumstances of such continued pecuniary diffi- 

 culty and personal hai'dship as nothing but the sacred fire of a pure 

 love of investigation for its own sake, rather than for any monetary 

 emoluments which might ultimately accrue from it, would have 

 enabled him to endure." He began life in South Africa as a Church 

 teacher and catechist, but soon had to take up arms in one of the 

 Kaffir wars. Farming for a while engaged his attention, then he 

 successively became bookkeeper in a merchant's office, broker and 



^ 0. H. Reiuholt, Eni^ineeviiig Journ., 1906, xxx, 510. 



