344- Notices respecting New Booh. 



The organic reliquiae of the Yorkshire coast have been for a long 

 time celebrated j and the most distinguished geologists of England 

 have employed themselves in investigating the relations of the strata, 

 there exposed in the sea cliff's and inland ranges of hills. But though 

 in these researches a certain part of the history of the strata was de- 

 termined, and represented on Mr. Smith's and Mr. Greenough's maps, 

 and described by Messrs. Conybeare and Sedgwick, still the whole 

 district was most imperfectly known, and the oolitic series in parti- 

 cular was not at all understood. In 1822, the Rev. G. Young and 

 Mr. John Bird, residing at Whitby, published a volume of observations 

 on the subject containing some good descriptions, but altogether 

 destitute of zoological accuracy and sound geological generalization, 

 and consequently leaving the stratification of the Yorkshire coast in 

 greater obscurity than ever. To remedy this state of things, by dis- 

 closing the true history and relations of the several rocks and their 

 imbedded organic remains, is the object of Mr. Phillips's work. 



The first chapter is an essay on the Principles of Geology, and 

 contains a condensed view of the discoveries respecting the structure 

 of the earth, which have produced the modern practical system of 

 geology. This is a necessary introduction to the subsequent discus- 

 sions ; for, though no science in modern times has made greater pro- 

 gress than geology, its zealous cultivators are not numerous, and few 

 of the persons likely to possess this book would be supposed familiar 

 with its real principles. The general laws relating to the stratifica- 

 tion of the crust of the earth, the distinctions of primary, secondary 

 and independent rocks, the distribution of organic remains in the 

 earth, and their relations to the existing races of animals and plants, 

 the effects of internal convulsions in the earth during the deposition 

 of the strata, are successively considered. Next follow observations 

 on the changes which the surface of the dry land has undergone by 

 the agency of ancient floods. In this part of his work Mr. Phillips 

 avows himself very decidedly opposed to that part of the Huttonian 

 theory of the earth which ascribes the excavation of valleys to the 

 streams which now run down them, and agrees with Dr. Buckland 

 and Mr. Conybeare in their opinion, that the same great flood of 

 waters which destroyed so many of the land animals of the ancient 

 world was the principal agent in producing the present inequalities of 

 the earth's surface. The modern changes occasioned by the action 

 of water in the sea, rivers and streams, on the ancient framework of 

 the earth, are next sketched, and the whole terminates in a bold and 

 striking summary view of the series of changes which appear to have 

 visited the earth, from the period of its earliest physical condition, of 

 which induction from known facts furnishes any indications. 



" Having thus traced the outlines of a practical system of geology, 

 I shall conclude with a very orief sketch of the series of changes which 

 appear to have visited the earth. From chemical researches it seems 

 highly probable that the whole crust of the earth is to be viewed as 

 originally produced by oxidation of fluid metals and metalloids. From 

 a careful study of the effects of heat, under different circumstances, 

 and of the habitudes of earthy compounds under its influence, it seems 



probable 



