4 34? Notices respecting New Books. 



away into slopes, which often become covered with grass, and afford 

 a dangerous pasture for cattle and sheep. But on the west side of 

 the remarkable bay before alluded to, the diluvium is subject to such 

 continual waste, that it appears in the form of bare pinnacles resting 

 upon the caverned chalk." 



The chalk of Yorkshire has a red layer in its lower part *, and 

 rests on blue clay containing Hamites and other characteristic fossils 

 of the gault. Neither the upper nor the lower green sand has yet 

 been found in Yorkshire. 



It is impossible to abridge the detailed descriptions which apply to 

 the Coralline oolite, Bath oolite and Lias formations; and we there- 

 fore hasten to the next chapter, perhaps the most valuable of all, 

 which treats of the Organic Remains. 



This is a subject for the illustration of which Mr. Phillips's situa- 

 tion and habitual studies have especially qualified him. Having the 

 direction of a rich county museum, with unrestrained access to se- 

 veral other public collections, and more than twenty private cabinets, 

 he has been enabled to apply his knowledge of natural history with 

 uncommon effect. More than 500 species of organic remains, 220 

 of them new, are described and faithfully referred to the strata in 

 which they occur, with notices of every ascertained case of repetition 

 in different strata, whether in Yorkshire or in other parts of England. 



Of these, 400 species, drawn by himself, are represented in fourteen 

 Lithographic Plates, in the order of the strata to which they re- 

 spectively belong; and thus in the best possible manner the student 

 is presented with an epitome of the whole subject. 



Such an arrangement could not have been accomplished without 

 the facilities above alluded to j and the frequent repetition of the 

 names of Bean and Williamson, while it establishes the claim of those 

 gentlemen to the reputation of diligent collectors, secures for them 

 the still higher praise due to the zealous promoters of science. 



The detailed catalogues of the fossils, in the strata from the 

 chalk to the lias, are preceded by an essay on Organic Remains in 

 general, what tribes of animals and plants are buried in the earth, 

 in what state of conservation and degree of perfection they are se- 

 verally found, what mechanical and chemical changes they have 

 experienced. 



The still more important subject of the distribution of fossils in the 

 earth, not long since under examination, in our pages, by Mr. De la 

 Beche f, is fully discussed, and the principles elucidated by which 

 modern geologists are enabled to conduct their researches into the 

 relative antiquity of different rocks, and the circumstances under 

 which they were accumulated. 



The following are extracts : 



"Distribution of Fossils Modern naturalists have discovered in 

 the earth the remains of several hundred different plants, and several 



* Does the occurrence of this red layer point to any rnineralogical con- 

 nection of theYorkshire chalk with the partially red rock called the scaglia, 

 which is the equivalent of the chalk formation in the Alps ? 



f See Phil, Mag. & Annals, N.S. vol. vii. p. 81. ct seq. 



thousand 



