Notices respecting New Boohs. 71 



Principal Dawson. In the western prairie-region the true Car- 

 boniferous system is not the coal-bearing formation ; and although 

 lignites and coals are known at several different stages of the Cre- 

 taceous rocks, it is in the representative of the Port-Union rocks 

 of the U.-S. geologists that the most extensive and numerous beds 

 of liguite of the Souris-Eiver region occur, and constitute the 

 nearest available supply for the province of Manitoba. " The 

 flora of the Great Lignite Tertiary series of the North-west, 

 though undoubtedly similar to the Miocene of Europe, really 

 characterizes the beds which in the West constitute the transition 

 from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary, and which form one great 

 continuous series, probably on the horizon of the Eocene of 

 Europe, though with local differences which are liable to be 

 mistaken for differences of age " (p. 55 A.) 



With regard to the origin of certain granites, Dr. Selwyn (p. 5), 

 in describing the granites along Maine and New-Hampshire 

 boundaries, says that there is absolutely no proof that these later 

 granites are " intrusive," as so designated by Sir W. Logan, but 

 that, like those in Australia and Nova Scotia, all the phenomena 

 connected with them may be more readily explained and under- 

 stood if we regard them as completely metamorphosed portions of 

 the strata which now surround them ; whereas in regions where 

 the granite is older than the adjacent strata similar contact-lines 

 may be seen, but without any change in the mineralogical cha- 

 racter of the latter such as occurs when the ciystalline rock is the 

 youngest (p. 6). 



Although the subjects of these Reports are locally important, 

 they will doubtless be of interest to those who may wish to 

 become acquainted with the physical conditions, geological structure, 

 and economical resources of the Dominion of Canada. 



Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad. By A. Geikie, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., Director- General of the Geological Surveys of the United 

 Kingdom. With Illustrations. London : Macmillan and Co. 

 1882. 

 This work consists of a series of essays previously published in 

 various journals during the last twenty years. Most of them relate 

 to certain districts in this country, Europe, and America, where the 

 striking geological phenomena here recorded were observed by the 

 author. Among the more important subjects noticed in these 

 papers are those having more or less reference to Denudation, 

 Glacial action, Volcanic phenomena, and Eock-weathering. An 

 Erosionist of the advanced school, but by no means inclined to do 

 battle under the extreme " quietest " banners of some of its cham- 

 pions, Dr. Geikie has been led in his wanderings to look at scenery 

 with peculiar interest ; and thus, in the essay on the Old Glaciers 

 of Norway and Scotland, it is shown that the Norwegian and Scot- 

 t'sh Highlands seem to be but parts of one long tableland of ero- 

 sion composed of older and chiefly metamorphic rocks, while the 

 fjords and valleys of the one country and the lochs and glens of the 

 other owe their excavation to the great process of denudation 



