14 JANUARY 1922, Page 25

Oil Shales. By H. B. Cronshaw. (Murray. 5s. net.)— This

new volume in the Imperial Institute's monographs on mineral resources, with special reference to the British Empire, gives a concise account of the oil shale deposits throughout the world which will supplement the oilfields if and when they become exhausted. The map appended to the text shows that oil shale occurs in many countries, though it has seldom been worked so systematically as in the Lothians. The chapter on the English deposits refers to the promising Norfolk developments round King's Lynn and to the trial borings made elsewhere for the Ministry of Munitions during the war: The Kimmeridge beds in Dorset are well known and have tempted several companies since 1848, but the problem of removing the sulphur from the oil produced has so far proved insoluble, except at a prohibitive cost.