62 NATURAL SCIENCE [January 



The Geology of Cheltenham 



Cheltenham as a Holiday Resort. Part L The Neighbouring Hill Country. 

 By S. S. Buckman, F.G.S. 8vo, pp. vii. 100. Cheltenham, 1897. 



This little work comprises a series of gossiping articles which were 

 originally published in the Chdtenham Ea:aininer, and which are 

 descriptive of that charming region, the Cotteswold Hills. With this 

 country Mr Buckman, and his father before him, have been associated 

 for a long period, though not without interruption, for the parental 

 home was transferred from Cheltenham to Cirencester, and finally 

 into Dorset. Leaving this southern county, our present author has 

 found successive homes at Andoversford, Stonehouse, and Charlton 

 Kings, near Cheltenham, and he has not only made himself familiar 

 with the scenery and geology of the breezy uplands and the picturesque 

 combes, but has written some amusing sketches of the manners and 

 customs of the rural inhabitants. 



His present object is mainly to serve as a guide to those in search 

 of the picturesque, although not overlooking the needs of those in 

 search of scientific information. The work is therefore hardly open 

 to scientific criticism, it is for the casual visitor rather than for the 

 geological student — for the latter would find most of the detailed 

 information he wants in Witchell's " Geology of Stroud " (1882), while 

 Lycett's " Handbook to the Cotteswold Hills" (1857), though forty years 

 old, will ever remain of great value and interest to the geologist. 



The author's geological notes refer mainly to the Inferior Oolite, 

 and he enumerates in his first section the several local subdivisions of 

 the freestones and ragstones. He speaks of a " new school of geolo- 

 gists " who give names to the time during which the rocks were 

 deposited — but surely Quenstedt and Oppel forty years and more ago 

 recognised the need of chronological terms and used them, and no 

 geologist has, so far as we are aware, disputed their value apart from 

 and in addition to the local stratigraphical terms. The author would 

 liave done well to be a little more explicit in the use of such terms 

 as " Valdani beds " and " Striatus beds," mentioned on the very first 

 page, although he observes in his preface that " technical information 

 has been purposely avoided." The term " Valdani beds " has rarely 

 been used in this country. We may trust, however, that this little 

 work will stimulate enquiry, as a great deal of useful information has 

 been gathered together by the author on archaeology and topography 

 as well as on his special subject of geology ; and he notes here and 

 there favoured spots suitable for " picnics," information which may 

 be alike useful to the casual visitor as well as to the severer student 

 of natural science. 



A description of the Great Auk {Alca inipcnnis) in the Natural 

 History Museum at Amiens, France, has been published by H. 

 Duchaussoy (Piteux, Amiens, 1897). 



Serials 



Barth, Leipzig, is now publisher of the Zeitschrift fur Psycliologie 

 ■und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane. 



