REVIEWS 159 



The Coast Scenery of North Devon. Being an account of the geological features 

 of the coast-line extending from Porlock in Somerset to Boscastle in North 

 Cornwall. By E. A. Newell Arber, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. Illustrated 

 by 70 photographs, 12 text-figures, and 2 maps. [Pp. xxiv. + 261.] (London : 

 J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., Bedford Street, Strand, W.C. Price 10s. 6d. 

 net.) 



Perhaps the chief value of this book lies in its illustrations ; there are no less 

 than seventy large plates, from photographs taken by the author, portraying the 

 characteristic structure displayed in various sections along the coast of North 

 Devon between Porlock and Boscastle. With few exceptions, they are most 

 beautifully executed and should be of value in bringing home to students the 

 features of a coast-line which is inferior in pictorial interest only to that of the 

 neighbouring county, Dorset. In one or two cases the distance is very poorly 

 rendered and the author has been unfortunate either in his choice of plate or 

 more probably of weather : to take such pictures properly it is necessary to go 

 not once but several times and to study and secure the conditions under which 

 alone justice can be done to each subject. Although an expert, Mr. Arber does 

 not seem to have quite the soul of a real photographer — in no single picture is 

 the sky otherwise than blank ; surely there are conditions under which beautiful 

 cloud effects are to be secured in North Devon. Is the author perhaps unaware 

 of the value of a colour screen and of backed colour-sensitive plates for such 

 work ? 



A striking feature in the book are the many photographs of waterfalls on the 

 coast, which will be of interest to not a few and probably make the book of special 

 value to experts ; the author indeed claims, with justice, original value for his 

 treatment of the evolution of coastal waterfalls, of sea-dissected valleys and the 

 marine denudation of inclined and folded rocks. The volume is intended to deal 

 solely with the nature and origin of coast scenery. Mr. Arber is evidently an 

 enthusiastic shore-scrambler in North Devon and gives valuable hints to would- 

 be explorers of the coast-line. His book is intended neither as a geological 

 text-book nor as a guide-book but to be of use to visitors who are interested in 

 geology in a greater or less degree. Such a book deserves to be welcomed : 

 nothing is more exasperating than the aimless existence led by the average 

 " intelligent " visitor to the sea coast and it is time that something were done to 

 interest him in things. Mr. Arber has done service to this class in particular ; 

 "but we must confess to feeling that his work is far less likely to inspire enthusiasm 

 than a book such as Mr. Clayden's History of Devonshire Scenery — and we also 

 wish that he had put a little more fire and imagination into his pages and made 

 them a little more readable and informing, less full of dull descriptive matter. 

 Hints might well have been gained from Charles Kingsley's Lectures on Town 

 Geology. Still, the book has so much in it that is charming that such faults of 

 omission may be regarded as venial. 



A. G. P. 



The Mechanism of Life. By Dr. Stephane Leduc. Translated by W. Dean e 

 Butcher. [Pp. xv + 172.] (London : Rebman, Ltd., 129, Shaftesbury 

 Avenue. Price 6s. net.) 



This book is of interest not only on account of the subject-matter but also from 

 a psychological point of view, as proof how easy it is to carry the argument from 



