Geology and Mineralogy. 317 



the members of all geographical societies and cognate scientific 

 bodies or institutes, to assemble at the German capital, Berlin, for 

 the meeting of the seventh International Geographical Congress, 

 to be held from Sept. 28th to Oct. 4th, 1899. Membership tickets 

 may be obtained by gentlemen or ladies by payment of 20 marks 

 to the Treasurer, H. Biitow, 90 Zimmerstrasse, Berlin S. W. 

 All wishing to read papers before the Congress are requested to 

 give notification thereof before April 1st, 1899, and to send the 

 manuscript ready for print not later than June 1st, 1899. 



h. s. w. 



8. Funafuti. — The January number of Natural Science con- 

 tains an interesting and popular discussion of the life and geolog- 

 ical features of Funafuti as a typical coral atoll, by W. J. Sollas. 

 Special interest attaches to this island in consequence of the 

 work which has been done here in boring into the coral rock. 

 The party sent out from England, which was directed by 

 Professor Sollas, unfortunately did not succeed in carrying the 

 boring to any considerable depth. The work, however, was con- 

 tinued in 189*7 under the direction of Professor David of the 

 University of Sydney, and this time was entirely successful, the 

 reef being penetrated to a depth of 697 feet. Later, a third party 

 was sent from Sydney, which has carried the boring on to a depth 

 of about 1000 feet. The core obtained by the David party was 

 sent to England and is now in the hands of Professor Judd for in- 

 vestigation, the results of which will be awaited with much 

 interest. The general statement is made, however, that the 

 material brought up from the boring, of which the reef is com- 

 posed, presents much the same character throughout, and so far is 

 regarded as supporting Darwin's theory. There are no layers of 

 chalky ooze, such as Murray's hypothesis might have made prob- 

 able, and no trace of volcanic material was found. The later 

 boring beyond 700 feet has passed through a hard limestone, con- 

 taining many well-preserved corals. The last mentioned expedi- 

 tion has also carried on a boring into the bed of the lagoon to a 

 depth of 144 feet. After passing through 101 feet of water, the 

 first 80 feet below were found to consist of the calcareous alga 

 Halimeda, mixed with shells ; the remaining 64 feet, of the same 

 material mixed with coral gravel. 



9. Petrographical and Geological Investigations of certain 

 Transvaal JVorites, Gabbros, and Pyroxenites ; by J. A. Leo 

 Henderson (8° pamph., 56 pp., 5 pi., Dulau & Co., Pub., London, 

 1898). — Although this appears as a separate work, one is led to 

 infer that it is a thesis presented for the doctor's degree at 

 Leipzig. The material upon which the investigations have been 

 carried is from the Stelzner collection at Freiberg and was gath- 

 ered by the explorers Mohr and Goerz. As may be inferred, 

 therefore, it is a minute and painstaking petrographical and chem- 

 ical investigation of a series of hand specimens determined as 

 diallage norite, hypersthene norite, hypersthene diallage gabbro, 

 quartz norite, quartz diallage norite and enstatite pyroxenite. 



