1885.] Analyses of Books. 165 
Dr. W. King gives a favourable preliminary report on the 
Raijari h-Hingir coal-field, and points out localities for borings. 
T. D. La Touche and T. W. H. Hughes report on the Langrin 
and Almaria coal-fields. In the former of these districts the 
prospers for remunerative coal-mining are very fair. The coal 
contains but a small proportion of ash, and would hence be 
suitable for burning the lime which is quarried at the foot of the 
hills. 
At Almaria the position is still better, there being an abundant 
store of coal fit for railway purposes, and occurring in a working 
thickness of at least 7 feet. It lies near the surface, the dip is 
slight, and the coal-measures are not very watery. 
Dr. King describes the auriferous sands of the Subansiri 
River, in Assam. He finds that the yield of 26 ozs. per ton was 
obtained from a minute portion of sand, and not at all repre- 
senting the adtual output on the large scale. In practical opera- 
tions in the Lakhimpur district the entire quantity obtained from 
tons of stuff was only 30 grains ! 
The phosphatic beds of Musun afford deposits of phosphate 
of alumina, containing in the nodules 45‘i7 per cent phos- 
phoric acid, and in the rock 41-8 per cent. 
Mr. R. Bruce Foote resumes his examination of the Billa 
Surgam Caves. I11 the so-called Charnel-House Cave traces of 
prehistoric man were found, at the depths of 15 and 16 feet 
below the surface, in the shape of a well-made bone gouge and 
two pieces of stag-horn which had been cut with some sharp 
instrument. A rude bone-knife was also found in the Cathedral 
Cave. Bones and teeth of many animal species were found, but 
their determination was in many cases impracticable on account 
of the deficiency of the osteological collections at Madras. The 
caves do not appear to have been the prolonged residence of any 
Carnivora. The most interesting fadts are the discovery of two 
species of the genus Equus, hitherto unknown in Peninsular 
India, and of a second species of rhinoceros, quite distindt from 
R. indicus, but approaching R. javanicus. 
Report on the Cotton Production of the State of Alabama, with 
a Discussion of the General Agricultural Features of the 
State. By E. A. Smith, Ph.D., State Geologist and Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry and Geology in the University of 
Alabama. 
The climate of Alabama is by no means what might be expedted 
from its latitude, its proximity to warm seas, and from the 
absence of high mountain ridges. Though the mean annual 
