Reviews and Book Notices. 



Bibliography of Anthropology and Fo!k=Lore, 1906, compiled 

 by N. W. Thomas. Royal Anthropological Institue, 3, Hanover 

 Square, 1907. 72 pp., price 2/- 



This is the first annual issue of what will eventually become an exceed- 

 ingly valuable bibliography, provided it appears regularly and promptly. 

 It includes papers, etc., dealing with pre-historic archaeology and folklore, 

 and is divided into sections relating to different countries. Part of the 

 ground in this index appears to have been covered by Mr. Bernard Gomme's 

 ' Index of Archaeological papers,' issued by Messrs. Constable and Co. At 

 2s. the price is cheap, and Mr Thomas's bibhography will serve a useful 

 purpose. 



The Miner's Geology and Prospector's Guide, by Geo. A. 



Corder. London: E. and F. N. Spon. 237 pp., price 5/- net. 



As a frontispiece to this book is a photograph of a burly Englishman, 

 with his trousers turned up to his knees, and staring fixedly at the horizon. 

 Around him are a number of niggers — all, by way of contrast, with eyes 

 watching the little bird coming out of the camera. The picture is called 

 Author Prospecting in West Africa." The author tells us he has had a 

 varied engineering and mining experience abroad, and apparently to wile 

 away his spare time, he has jotted down in a note-book, various items 

 from well-known geological treatises, or from engineering books, or perhaps, 

 in a few instancse, from original observation. In this way he has gathered 

 together quite a lot of more or less serviceable material, which he has 

 picked over, roughly classified, and issued under the above title. It is a 

 long string of definitions of terms, sometimes appropriate enough in a book 

 of this sort, sometimes accurate. But the astonishing feature of the work 

 is the enormous number of inaccuracies, and these not in any one section, 

 but throughout the volume. There are also some plates 'from drawings by 

 the author.' These are, for the most part, copies from well-known text- 

 book diagrams, badly done, and in some cases made to perform all sorts 

 of wonderful feats. The well-known section at Draughton, near Skipton, 

 is evolved into an extraordinary design. In the definitions we learn that 

 ' Pliocene or Glacial Period — shingle-plains, lignites, vast deposits of 

 bones and excrement of fishes ! ' The ' Secondary or Mesozoic — -Iron ore 

 in Sussex, copper in Algeria and Chili, Bituminous coal in New Zealand,' 

 "* Cretaceous — ■ Iron deposits.' ' Oolitic — copper.' ' Jurassic — coal.' 

 ^ Triassic — Rhcetic and Penarth beds, copper, coal.' Again, ' Mollusca 

 Remains — This order of fish [!] constitutes all univalves and bivalve shell- 

 fish, cuttle-fish, octopi, slugs, etc., and forms the chief means of deter- 

 mining the relative ages and order of super-position of strata. All true 

 mollusca have a complete alimentary canal . . . and also respiratory 

 and circulating [!] organs.' There are many similar gems. In the illus- 

 trations to fossils, an object resembling a door handle is described as 

 ' Arinculopecten.' ' Secondary bivalves ' include Alaria, Acteonina and 

 Nerinaea. Under ' Crinoids 'we find Lepidaster and Nummulite. Under 

 ^ Ammonites ' are Turrelites, Goniatites, etc. The ' Group of strata' is 

 worth framing : ' Cretaceous ' — 1400 feet, is used for ' agriculture, flints 

 for roads,' and occurs in Kent, Isle of Wight, and Dorsetshire.' The Lias 

 is 800 feet thick, building, alum, jet, and occurs ' York to Dorset.' The 

 Permian is 600 feet, used for the Houses of Parliament ! and occurs in 

 Durham. There are also some useful hints for the prospector. For 

 instance, to calculate the strength of ropes : ' C — circumference in in., 

 L = working load in tons, S = breaking strain in tons. 



Then C=(^ 'y/^^ L = C2xk; S = C^xx.^, 



We can just imagine the average prospector looking at that ! No, the 

 book may be a Miner's geology,and it may be a Prospector' s guide, but 

 whether it will be of any service to ' the mining student, practical miner, 

 the prospector, and explorer,' is another question. 



1908 March i. 



