Geological Survey Department Research Articles

Malayan Union. Report of the Geological Survey Department for the Year 1947. By H. Service, pp. 39, with 2 maps, one coloured. Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1948. Price 3s. 6d.

Malayan Union. Report of the Geological Survey Department for the Year 1947. By H. Service, pp. 39, with 2 maps, one coloured. Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1948. Price 3<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>.

Dr. A. L. Du Toit, F.R.S

THE death of Alexander Logie Du Toit on February 25 has removed a particularly interesting figure from the stage of international geology. Born in South Africa on March 14, 1878, he received his early education at Bishop‘s College, Cape Town, whence he proceeded in turn to the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, and the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington. His connexion with Scotland is recalled by an important paper on Old Red Sandstone and Highland Border rocks, communicated to the Edinburgh Geological Society in 1902. Most of his researches, however, concern his home country, South Africa. At one time or another he held official positions on the Geological Survey and Irrigation Department of the Union ; and later, in private practice, he acted for De Beers Consolidated Mines. In 1925 he led a government expedition to the Kalahari. His text-book, "The Geology of South Africa", published in Edinburgh in 1926, is indispensable to students of the subject, and includes welcome chapters on soil and economics.

Federated Malay States: Report of the Geological Survey Department for 1937. pp. 1–56. with a new edition (1938) of the Geological Map of Malaya. E. S. Willbourn, Director, 1938.

Federated Malay States: Report of the Geological Survey Department for 1937. pp. 1–56. with a new edition (1938) of the Geological Map of Malaya. E. S. Willbourn, Director, 1938.

The Geology of the Scheelite Mine, Kramat Pulai Tin Limited, Kinta, Federated Malay States

I. Introduction This paper has been written to place on record the very considerable differences that exist between this occurrence of scheelite ore at Kramat Pulai and the other important scheelite deposits of the world. Although specimens of scheelite have been found in fairly numerous localities in the mineralized calcareous rocks of Malaya, few deposits of the mineral are known to be of economic value, and those at Kramat Pulai are the most important source of tungsten ore. The occurrences will interest all who are concerned with the genesis of ore-deposits, for they consist almost entirely of fluorite and scheelite, with a very small admixture of quartz and other minerals; in this they differ from the scheelite deposits described by F. L. Hess (1917 and 1921) and by Hess and E. S. Larsen (1921). The authors wish to make acknowledgment to Mr. J. B. Scrivenor for the help afforded by the results of his work, undertaken when the mine was first worked and when soil and alluvium obscured the structure to a greater extent than they do now. Their thanks also are due to Mr. F. H. Symonds, General Manager of the Company, and to Mr. J. Weekley, his Assistant, who have much helped the investigation. They are indebted also to Mr. J. G. Shenton, Chemist, Geological Survey Department, Federated Malay States, for supplying the necessary chemical analyses. The Kramat Pulai Tin Company, Limited, holds mining leases covering an area of 2418 acres clustered round the old village of Pulai,

A Recent Rhyolite-ash with Sponge-spicules and Diatoms in Malaya

In 1928 the owner of the Tanjong Perak Rubber Estate, Dr. H. Trail Skae, noticed a white, porous, and friable rock near the Estate buildings and took specimens that were ultimately sent to the Geological Survey Department for report. The rock proved to be entirely new to British Malaya and of great interest, while in view of its complicated composition I suggested in a local publication that it should be called “Vitrite”. Dr. Skae registered the name “Vitrite” as a trade-mark for this rock, which has possible uses in commerce, but it has since been discovered that the word was used during the war by a Dutch firm for a particular kind of glass used in electrical work, so the name has to be abandoned, and the only attempt I have ever made to inflict a new name on petrologists has been signally defeated.

Water and Ice, To-Day and in the Glacial Epoch

MR. G. K. GILBERT'S survey of the Niagara Falls (see NATURE, vol. lxxv., p. 607) is not to stand alone. In the “Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department of Canada for 1905” (Ottawa, 1906) Dr. J. W. Spencer prormses a full account of the Niagara district, which he is agreeably confident will reveal “discoveries of the greatest importance” (p. 91). Soundings have been made in the gorge below the falls, in areas previously untested and wells have been sunk to prove the depth of an interesting buried channel, filled with glacial drift.

Hydrology in the United States

THE Geological Survey Department of the United States embraces much wider duties than those covered by the similar department in this country, and the following notes upon some of the various matters with which it deals, and of the trouble taken to afford information as to the mineral resources and water supply of America, may be of interest.

LIST OF CANADIAN COLEOPTERA

The following list has been prepared from collections made in the Nortwest Territories of Canada during the seasons of 1879, 1880 and 1881, by Prof. John Macoun, Botanist of the Geological Survey Department of Canada.During the summer of 1879 collecting was done, starting from Fort Ellice, thence to the head of Long Lake; thence to the elbow of the South Saskatchewan; then after crossing the river, in an almost straight line to Battleford; then south to the Hand Hills, and still south to Blackfoot crossing; thence west to Calgary, and up the Bow River to the gap in the Rocky Mountains.

The Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department of Canada.

<i>The Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department of Canada</i>.

Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department [of Canada] for the Year 1900.

<i>Summary Report of the Geological Survey Department [of Canada] for the Year 1900</i>.

Heteropleuron hectori, the New Zealand Lancelet

ABSTRACT By the kindness of Sir James Hector I have been able to examine a couple of specimens of an “Amphioxus” that have been for some years past in the Colonial Museum at Wellington, N.Z. The specimens are referred to by Captain Hutton in his ‘Catalogue of the Fishes of New Zealand,’ published by the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey Department in 1872.

Knoydart formation of Nova Scotia

Introduction While engaged in making a paleontological survey of the rock formations of the Upper Paleozoic in Nova Scotia, and also studying material placed at his disposal from previous collections in the Geological Survey Department, the writer has discovered what appears to be sufficient evidence for the determination of the geological horizon of a series of strata which occur in the western corner of Antigonish county, extend into the adjacent county of Pictou, Nova Scotia, and measure probably not less than 1,000 feet in its greatest development. One of the best natural sections where this series may be examined and studied to advantage occurs in the valley of erosion through which flows McArras brook. A measured section recently made by Mr Hugh Fletcher, of the Geological Survey of Canada, and cited below, gives a total thickness of 684 feet. The strata in question are placed in the Lower or Eo-Devonian, . . .

Proceedings of the Sixth Summer Meeting, held at Brooklyn, New York, August 14 and 15, 1894

Session of Tuesday, August 14 The Society convened in room 11, second floor of the Packer Institute. In the absence of the President, Vice-President N. S. Shaler presided during the several sessions of the meeting. After the call to order, at 10 o’clock a m, the acting President spoke a few words of salutation, and announced the death of two Fellows, Professor George H. Williams, of Baltimore, and Mr Amos Bowman, of Anacortes, Washington. ELECTION OF FELLOWS The Secretary announced the result of the balloting for Fellows, as canvassed by the Council, as follows: Fellows Elected Miss Florence Bascom, A. M., B. S., Ph. D., Columbus, Ohio. Instructor in Geology, Petrography and Mineralogy in the Ohio State University. Richard Charles Hills, Denver, Colorado. Mining Engineer. Elfric Drew Ingall, Geological Survey Department, Ottawa, Canada. Mining Engineer. In charge of Division of Mineral Statistics and Mines. Robert Tracy Jackson, S. B., S. . . .

Nose-Blackening as Preventive of Snow-Blindness

I BEG to send you an extract from a letter just received from my son, of the Indian Geological Survey Department, and who is at present engaged by the Maharajah of Kashmir in exploring and reporting on his sapphire mines. Since it refers to former communications in NATURE (vol. xxxviii. pp. 7 and 101), upon a subject of interest to travellers, it may be of use.

Oktibehite or Awaruite?

IN the notice of the proceedings of the Geological Society of London (NATURE, December 23, 1886, p. 190) the discovery in New Zealand of a nickel alloy allied to oktibehite appears to be claimed by Prof. Ulrich, of Dunedin. This requires explanation, as the mineral was first determined, and named awaruite, after the locality, by Mr. W. Skey, Analyst to the N.Z. Geological Survey Department on September 28, 1885, and described by him in a paper read on October 25, 1885, and published in the local papers at the time, as well as afterwards in the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute, vol. xviii., issued May 1886. A notice of it is also given in my twenty-first annual Museum and Laboratory Report, June 1886, of which I inclose a marked copy. It will be observed that while Ulrich accepts the identity of the New Zealand alloy with oktibehite, Skey's analysis shows that its formula is 2Ni + Fe, while that of the latter mineral is Ni + Fe.

Geographical Notes

DR. R. VON LENDENFELD, in a letter to Prof. Cayley dated Sydney, January 24, 1885, writes as follows:—I have been sent by the Geological Survey Department of this colony to make a scientific investigation of the central part of the Australian Alps and have returiied a few days ago. I found out that the peak, considered as the highest hitherto, which has been measured by several scientists and named Mount Kosciusko, is not the highest, and made the first ascent of the highest peak some distance further south. I calculated the height of the latter at 7256 feet (Mount Kosciusko has been measured at 7176, 7175, and, by myself, at 7171 feet). I name this hill after our celebrated geologist, the Rev. W. B. Clarke, Mount Clarke. Further, I discovered indubitable signs of prehistoric glaciers above 5800 feet, and photographed some beautiful roches moutonnées. A large valley was filled at the glacial period by a glacier extending 500 feet up its sides. I had excellent weather, and photographed the panorama from the summit of Mount Kosciusko. I had one guide and a geological assistant with me. We camped only three nights, and had glorious weather all the time. The upper limit of trees lies at a height of 5900 feet. Patches of snow are found attached to the leeside of the main range above 6500 feet all the year round—in the European Alps such little névés would not lie below 8000 feet—another proof for the lower temperature and greater amount of wet south of the equator, as our Alps lie 46°–48° N., and Mount Kosciusko 37° S. I collected many flowers and geological specimens, and found the whole trip equally enjoyable and interesting. It froze every night, and I cannot tell you how happy and comfortable I felt in the brisk cold air up there, after having been confined to the hothouse climate of Sydney for a year.

Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand

THIS is one of those excellent manuals emanating from the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey Department of New Zealand under the admirable direction of Dr. Hector. The work is a reproduction in a handy form of the folio work ordered by the New Zealand Government in 1876, to be prepared “with nature-printed plates and descriptions of each species, and to be accompanied by an essay on the grasses and forage plants likely to prove useful in New Zealand.” This explanation is extracted from the preface of the book before us, which preface has been written by Dr. Hector himself. We also learn from the same source that “the whole of the illustrations of the large edition were drawn from nature by Mr. John Buchanan. . . . The condition imposed—that the plates should be nature printed–rendered it necessary in the first instance to publish the work in folio, but, as this large size is both inconvenient and costly, only a small edition has been issued, and the present handy volume has been printed for more general distribution. The plates now given—sixty-four in number, and including eighty-seven different species and varieties of grasses—are reductions by the process of photo-lithography from the original folio plates, and depict the grasses as of one half the natural size of the original specimens.” Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand. By John Buchanan (Wellington: Tames Hughes, 1880.)

Notes on the Midland Coal Field

The Derbyshire Coalfield has been well explored, but the Geological Survey Department has not published maps on a larger scale than an inch to the mile, and, as far as the writer is aware, not of later date than 1855 ; and the information contained in the memoirs of the survey of this district is by no means as elaborate as that contained in the extremely interesting and valuable book lately published by Professor A. H. Green and the gentlemen of the Geological Department who aided him in his survey of the Yorkshire Coalfield. It occurred, therefore, to the writer that a few notes on the southern part of the Midland Coalfield might be new to some members of this Society. In the years 1867–8 he surveyed the districts from Nottingham to Eckington, for the Royal Coal Commission. In order to trace the various seams of coal from north to south, some of the best sections obtained from actual sinkings were plotted on a large sheet (which is now shewn). The top hard coal was placed on the datum line in all the sections, and the measurements above and below plotted from that line. The seams which are known, or supposed to correspond, are united by the red lines. The most remarkable feature in the Midland Coalfield appears to the writer to be the great similarity in the nature of the seams of coal in the north and south. There appears to be a thinning out of the rocks …

Sub-Wealden Exploration.—Second Quarterly Report

A FRESH survey of the Lower Wealden beds in eastern Sussex by the officers of the Geological Survey Department has quite recently been made. The whole district has been recently visited by Messrs. Bristow, Topley, and Drew, and it has been decided to sub-divide the strata hitherto known as the Ashburnham beds into two divisions.