378 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



literature of the type which Haeckel would call " phaulographic," 

 than the interpretation of the series of sands and clays which are 

 generally regarded as due to the action of some form of ice. The 

 chaos has resulted from various reasons, among the chief of which are 

 the facts that the sections are usually open temporarily so that only 

 local workers can follow them, that comparatively few have the 

 opportunity of studying ice in action at the present day, and that the 

 subject has suffered from an extra crop of faddists and theorists. 

 There is probably no branch of stratigraphical geology which requires 

 that its students should have examined the deposits over such wide 

 stretches of country, for they vary so greatly within very narrow limits. 

 It was therefore highly desirable that some well-trained geologist should 

 go over the whole of the ground, in order to collect data for an 

 authoritative expression of opinion ; English students were accordingly 

 glad to welcome Professor H. Carvill Lewis when he entered upon 

 this task. He brought to it very special qualifications ; he was 

 a man of untiring energy and remarkable keenness of observation ; he 

 was a petrographer as well as a physical geologist, so that he was 

 able to recognise the erratics he had to study ; he held, moreover, the 

 great advantage of a training in the glaciation of America, where he 

 had been able to examine enormous extents of glacial deposits in 

 a region where the agency of floating marine ice could not be invoked. 

 It was objected that he was a theorist, but this, after all, only meant 

 that he was a man of ideas, and had the imagination necessary to 

 enable him to interpret the descriptions of others, and allow for the 

 misrepresentations due to inexperience, carelessness, and fads. The 

 readiness which he always showed to abandon his old position as 

 soon as facts rendered it untenable testified to his fairness and showed 

 that he was not a man of blind prejudices. Hence, when the news 

 spread that he had fallen a victim to the fell disease of typhoid fever 

 at Manchester, just after he had landed for a fourth campaign in 

 July, 1888, it was universally admitted that glacial geology had 

 suffered an irreparable loss. And this was felt the more keenly 

 by all who had come within the range of his personal influence, and 

 knew the manly frankness, the contagious enthusiasm and energy, 

 and the manifest sincerity which gave his character a singular 

 fascination. 



How much we have lost by the death of Professor Lewis, this 

 volume helps us to realise ; for it shows us what an amount of 

 material he had collected, which now has to be published in a some- 

 what scrappy form. The work, however, is much better than some 

 had expected, and for this we have to thank the editor. Much 

 anxiety was felt when it v/as first announced that Professor Lewis's 

 manuscripts had been left to Dr. Crosskey for him to edit, as this 

 seemed like asking the Pope to edit Luther's tracts; for Dr. Crosskey 

 had generally been regarded as one of the most conservative of the 

 older school of glacial geologists and one of those most opposed to the 

 views of Professor Lewis. Dr. Crosskey, however, did his task in a 

 manner that deserves the highest admiration. He refused to "criticise," 

 and confined his labours to those of arrangement, elucidation, and 

 editing. This he has done, not only with a wide knowledge of the 

 subject and a sound literary judgment, but with feelings of affec- 

 tionate sympathy with his heretical young friend. He has contributed 

 an admirable introduction of 49 pages, giving a sketch of the general 

 results of Lewis's work, which shows how deep an influence the latter's 

 views had had in England in a quarter where it was least expected. 



