﻿450 . Canadian Record of Science. 



Book Notices. 



The Minrral Wealth of Canada : A Guide fob Students of 

 KcoNOMio Geology. — By Arthur B. Willmott, M. A., B.Sc. Toronto : 

 William Briggs, 1897. 



This little book of some 200 pages represents in a somewhat extended 

 form Professor Willmott's lectures on the Mineral Resources of Canada 

 to the students of McMaster University. " While it is not customary 

 to treat this subject so fully in an elementary class, the author has felt 

 that in a young and undeveloped country like our own it was highly 

 desirable that all university students should know something of our 

 latent mineral wealth. So at the expense of Paleontology, much of 

 which is more suitable for an advanced course, time was found for 

 economic geology in an elementary one. To save labor of dictation 

 and to make them useful to a larger number, these lecture notes are 

 now published." 



It is the only work we have giving a systematic account of the 

 mineral resources of the whole Dominion, but it does not lay claim to 

 originality, except in method of treatment, the work being a compila- 

 tion chiefly from the Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



After a short introduction dealing with the nature, origin and 

 mutual relations of the various rocks composing the earth's crust, the 

 main subject is taken up and dealt with under three heads : (1) Min- 

 erals yielding metals. (2) Minerals yielding non-metallic products. 

 (3) Rocks and tlieir products. Each of these sections comprises several 

 chapters treating of groups of allied metallic or non-metallic products. 



Thus one chapter deals with our Ores of Iron, Manganese and 

 Chromium ; another with those of Nickel and Cobalt, and a third with 

 the Granites and Sandstones of the Dominion, and so on. 



In the case of each mineral, its physical characters and properties 

 are first described, and then brief notes are given of the chief 

 occurrences in the Dominion, with statistics of its production in recent 

 years. 



While, therefore, it is impossible in so small a space to deal 

 exhaustively with so vast a subject, Professor W^illmott's book will be 

 of great value to those who desire to obtain some general knowledge 

 of our Mineral Resources, and the references to the literature of the 

 subject, given at the close of each chapter, will point out to the 

 reader the sources of furtlier information, if this be desired. 



The volume is well printed and of convenient size. 



If the attitude of the critic is to be preserved, however, it must be 

 noted that the book contains many minor inaccuracies of statement. 



A mineral, for instance, is defined as "an inorganic liomogeneous 

 substance of definite chemical composition," a definition which would 



