THE Government of Ceylon determined last year to carry out, with the cooperation of the scientific and technical department of the Imperial Institute, a systematic survey of the economic minerals of Ceylon. Mr. A. K. Coomaraswamy and Mr. H. G. Parsons were selected to conduct the survey in Ceylon, and to dispatch specimens of the minerals found to the Imperial Institute for chemical examination and commercial valuation. Among the specimens thus received were those of a mineral existing in small black cubical crystals found in the refuse from gem washings near Balangoda, in the Sabaragamuwa Province, which had been identified by Mr. Holland, a resident in Ceylon, as probably uraninite or pitchblende. The same mineral has been since observed by Mr. Coomaraswamy in a vein of pegmatite at Gampola, in the Central Province of Ceylon.