220 Analyses of Books, [March, 



clearly written, and is the more valuable, as it evidently results 

 from the author's own knowledge, and includes, therefore, some 

 of those, minuter remarks for which we are always thankful to 

 practical men. 



We are amused to observe a note added, p. 16, relative to 

 Mr. W. Smith, which is an old acquaintance, having appeared in 

 almost the same words in various forms, and at divers periods, 

 in the pages of the Phil. Mag. appended to Mr. Parry's contri- 

 butions. 



The explanations refer to the section, which is neatly executed, 

 and whicn, under the head of coal measures, includes 90 beds, 

 occupying a total thickness of 361 yards. In these are found 13 

 beds of coal, not reckoning such as are less than one foot thick, 

 and making an aggregate depth of some what more than 13 yards 

 of this substance. 



The explanation itself is almost entirely composed of extracts 

 from Mr. Winch's valuable papers in the Transactions of the 

 Geological Society. This mode of filling out a book we strongly 

 reprobate ; in a new work the public have a right to new matter, 

 and a reference to what has been published is suflScient. 



Neither do we see the use of the numberof tables of measure- 

 ments of strata at different collieries, many of which are to be 

 found in other pubhcations, and are after all but of little general 

 interest ; nor do we like quoting from Williams's Mineral King- 

 dom a few tables of strata which are found to accompany coal 

 in other parts of the kingdom, which relate merely to White- 

 haven, Derbyshire, and one place in Scotland. 



Thus in what should appear to be a comparative view of coal 

 stratification, no notice is taken of the immense depositories in 

 Staffordshire, Shropshire, or South Wales, nor is their most 

 valuable accompaniment, ironstone, at all noticed, or its relation 

 as to position and so on, or where it exists. 



The second part of the treatise on the section, and which 

 relates to the lead measures, begins with the following passage, 

 which we extract as a favourable specimen of the author's com- 

 position : 



" The strata which I shall now endeavour to describe is that 

 part of the series which occurs in the lead district, comprising 

 Derwent, East Allendale, and West Allendale, in the county of 

 Northumberland ; Weardale, and Teasdale, in the county of 

 Durham ; and Alston Moor, in the county of Cumberland. 

 There are in this district two places where three counties meet 

 in one point ; viz. Rampgill Head, one mile south-west of Coal 

 Cleugh and Caldron Snout, a waterfall on the river Tees. At 

 the former of these places, the counties of Northumberland, 

 Cumberland, and Durham, form a union ; and at the latter, the 

 counties of Durham, Yorkshire, and Westmoreland. 



" This tract of country difl'ers considerably in external appear- 

 ance from that in which coal occurs so plentifully. The easy 



