378 Reviews — Warren D. Smith — Coal in Bat an Inland. 



Clmmberlin's views regarding the probable fluctuations of atmo- 

 spheric composition, especially in the proportion of carbon dioxide, 

 during geological time and their effect upon climate. It also 

 touches suggestively upon the material results of the ' mental 

 element ' in modifying the earth's surface, regarding which it is 

 noted that " man may well be regarded not only as a potent 

 geological agent, but as dangerously so to himself" (p. 619). The 

 contributions of the various branches of the vegetable and animal 

 kingdom to the geological I'ecord are set forth ; and the book ends 

 with some philosophical remarks upon the evolution, distribution, 

 and mutual relations of organisms. 



The trilobites seem to be special favourites of the authors : — 

 " These were probably the most highly developed organisms of their 

 times, and give the clearest hints of the stage of psychological and 

 sociological development that had been reached when fii"st the 

 record of life is opened to us" (p. 632). 



The authors have evidently spared no paius in the preparation of 

 the book, which is clearly and carefully written throughout, though 

 the style becomes somewhat ponderous and didactic at times. 

 There is a marked absence of American idioms, and even the 

 American methods of spelling are not obtrusive. We note, 

 liowever, in at least two places, the discredited usage of ' phenomenal,' 

 which should not occur in scientific literature. The illustrations 

 are very numerous, well selected, and beautifully printed ; and 

 although many of them have appeared before in American geological 

 literature, they bring a sense of breadth and freshness to the British 

 reader wearied with the time-worn cliches of his native land. But 

 the book is of the densest paper, and so uncomfortably heavy that 

 even its strong neat binding cannot be expected long to stand the 

 strain. With its two succeeding volumes of equal or still gi'eater 

 weight, we fear that, muscularly, the student will sometimes find 

 the trio to be a weary load. 



Ill, — The Coal Deposits of Batan Island, with Notes on the 

 General and Economic Geology of the adjacent region. By 

 Warren D. Smith, B.S., M.A., Geologist, Mining Bureau, 

 Bulletin No. 5, Department of the Interior : The Mining Bureau, 

 Manila. 8vo ; pp. 56, and 21 plates (maps, sections, photo- 

 micrographs of rocks and fossils). (Manila : Bureau of Printing, 

 1905.) 



THE occurrence of coal deposits in the Island of Batan, as well as 

 in the Philippines generally, has already been referred to by 

 Mr, George F. Becker in his comprehensive " Keport on the Geology 

 of the Philippine Islands," published at Washington in the 

 ?lst Annual Eeport of the United States Geological Survey, during 

 1901. More detailed work has now been accomplished in Batan 

 Island, and Mr, Warren D. Smith is to be congratulated on the very 

 complete manner in which he has surveyed that particular area and 

 the region immediately surrounding it. The account he presents 



