Geology and Mineralogy. 469 



an aid in the study of geography," and to stimulate inquiry into 

 the origin of the topographic lorms so graphically illustrated. 

 Mr. Vermeule's appendix consists of valuable statistical tables on 

 topography and magnetism, etc. h. s. w. 



2. TJie Cretaceous of Athabasca River ; by J. B. Tyrrell. 

 (Ottawa Naturalist, vol. xii, No. 2, pp. 37-41.)— Mr. Tyrrell 

 gives an abstract of the results of his explorations of the geology 

 of the Athabasca region west of Hudson Bay. The study of the 

 fossils collected has led him to modify the classification of the 

 Cretaceous reported by Mr. McConnell as follows, viz : 



" The paleontological evidence thus appears to show that it is 

 necessary to modify Mr. McConnell's correlation of the Cretace- 

 ous of the Athabasca River to the extent of taking all the beds 

 below the base of the Pelican Shales out of the Colorado Group, 

 and of grouping together the Grand Rapid Sandstone, the Clear- 

 water Shales, and the " Tar Sands " as one formation. This is a 

 marine formation, stratigraphically equivalent to the Dakota, the 

 fossils of which are practically the same throughout, and although 

 no corresponding marine fossils are known elsewhere in the west, 

 it appears to represent the marine conditions of the Dakota 

 Period. 



3. The Mineral Resources of the United States for 1896; by 

 David T. Day.— Part V of the Eighteenth Annual Report ot the 

 United States Geological Survey, 1896-97 (Charles D. Walcott, 

 Director) has recently been distributed. This promptness of 

 publication, which we have noticed in regard to the earlier issues 

 of the same work, deserves high commendation and enhances 

 much the value of the material here brought together. This 

 report is in two volumes, the first of which includes metallic 

 products and coal; the second non-metallic products (except coal). 

 The work has been carried on in the same lines as hitherto and 

 includes contributions from a considerable number of workers. 

 It is impossible to do more here than call general attention to it 

 and indeed those interested are too well aware of its value to 

 require more than this. 



4. Artificial Production of Diamond in Silicates correspond- 

 ing to the Actual Mode of Occurrence in South Africa. — The 

 following abstract of an important paper by Dr. I. Friedlandek 

 is quoted from the last number of the Geological Magazine. 

 "In the recent diamond-making experiments of M. Moissan, fused 

 iron rich in carbon was allowed to cool in such a way that the 

 separation of the excess of carbon took place under pressure, and 

 it was thought that a high pressure was necessary to the success 

 which had been attained. It is now known that the necessary 

 pressure is not very high, for microscopic diamonds have been 

 found as normal constituents of ordinary cast iron. In South 

 Africa no iron is present in the metallic state in the diamond- 

 bearing rock, although it is largely present as a chemical constit- 

 uent of the stony matter. Hence, in regarding Moissan's method 

 as being possibly identical with the one by which the South 



