Reviews — 2Vie Coals of Bosnia and Herzegovina.. 141 



careful and original observations. The illustrations, which consist 

 of local sketches and photographs and figures of fossils, are of no 

 especial value. 



F. H. A. M. 



Die Fossilen Kohlen Bosniens und der Hercegovina. Bv 

 Dr. F. Katzer. Vols. I and II. pp. 403 and 271, with 145 text- 

 figures and two folding geological majjs. Sarajevo : 1921. 

 ^HE provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, formerly included 

 -*- within the Austrian Empire, and now constituting part of the 

 new Serb-Croat-Slovene State (or Yugoslavia), have extensive coal 

 deposits, which appear likely to prove of great jDotential importance 

 to the new State. Under the segis of the former Austrian Govern- 

 ment, these provinces were originally sun^eyed and described by 

 Bittner, Tietze, and ilojsisovics ; and for the past thirty years 

 their work has been continued by Dr. F. Katzer, at one time 

 Professor of Geology at the University of Prague. 



In the present work the author gives a detailed account of the 

 geology of the several coalfields, many of which were opened up by 

 the Central Powers under the stress of urgent war demands. 



All the coals likely to be of any economic importance in these 

 provinces belong to the Tertiary Formation. The occurrence of coal 

 at several localities in the Carboniferous, Permian, Lower Trias, 

 and Cretaceous Formations is recorded, but none appear to be of 

 any extent. The workable coals occur at two principal horizons ; 

 one of Lower Miocene or L^jjper Oligocene age, and the other of 

 Lower Pliocene age. 



The most important Bosnian coalfield lies to the north and west 

 of Sarajevo, and has an area of about 350 square miles. Zenitsa, 

 Kakanj, and Breza are the principal collieries. The coals occur in 

 a varying series of freshwater limestones, marls, and shales ; the 

 fauna and flora of which show the closest resemblances to those of 

 the Sotzka Series, described from the tapper Drave valley in Carniola 

 by the Austrian Survey ; and which have close affinities with both 

 the Upper Oligocene and Lower Miocene Formations of Western 

 Europe. In describing these beds Dr. Katzer employs the non- 

 committal term Oligo-Miocene. The second coal-field of iznportance 

 is in the neighbourhood of Tuzla, the chief industrial centre in 

 Northern Bosnia, where lower grade Pliocene coals are being mined. 

 These coals are considered to be of Pontian or Lower Pliocene 

 age, and with them are associated " Congeria " marls and clays, 

 a facies generally believed to have a wide development in the 

 Balkans. There are several seams of very pure lignitic coal, some of 

 which attain a thickness of over 60 feet. 



Among the remaining Bosnian coalfields, the principal in order 

 of importance are : Banjaluka and Koto Varos, in North- Western 

 Bosnia ; L^glyevik and Priboj, in North-Eastern Bosnia ; and 

 Livno, close to the Dalmatian provincial boundary. 



