Rocks and Minerals, Sep/Oct 2003
Mineral Species Discovered in Canada and Species Named After Canadian is a meticulously constructed, annotated, and illustrated three-part compendium on the more than two hundred mineral species discovered in Canada or redefined from Canadian localities (part 1), the thirty minerals named after Canadians but discovered in other countries (part 2), and those now-obsolete minerals first described from Canadian localities but later discredited (part 3). The book also presents a short historical review of the literature documenting Canadian mineralogy from its beginnings in 1752 to the present. It includes seven appendices covering the chronology of mineral discoveries, individual type localities, type mineral specimens and their repositories, chemical classification of type minerals, an author index, and general references.
Part 1, constituting the bulk of the book, features descriptions of 206 minerals arranged alphabetically. A page is devoted to each mineral and contains the species name, formula, and crystallography, followed by short sections on the type locality, the details of the occurrence there, the disposition of the type specimens, the derivation of its name, and comments with the most important references. Black and-white illustrations accompany virtually all descriptions of species and include a photograph of the person or place after which the mineral is named and/or its type location and, in some cases, a photo of the mineral itself or drawings of its crystals.
Part 2 continues this format and illustrative style. Part 3 does not devote an entire page to each discredited mineral but simply gives the original name and the currently accepted name (if applicable), the locality where the now-invalid species was originally found, a short comment section, and relevant references.
The photographic insert "A Photo Gallery of Canadian Type-Minerals" contains thirty-nine color photographs arranged into three groups: Minerals of the Monteregian Intrusions, Yukon Phosphate Minerals, and Others. The photographs appropriately enhance the text and illustrate specimens primarily in the authors collection augmented by several from the Brunet, Haineault, Spertini, Tarassoff, and Canadian Museum of Nature collections.
Mineral Species is an informative, useful book that has been carefully prepared. It clearly represents a major effort to accumulate widely dispersed data and photographic documentation. Well-edited and produced, it is certainly worth the price.
This book is yet another in the fine series produced by the Mineralogical Association of Canada through its major journal, Canadian Mineralogist.
-Robert B. Cook
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