Life on the Earth, its Origin and Succession, 207 



the newer strata, would cause a break coinciding witli the in- 

 clined plane at the junction of the gneiss and Quebec group ; the 

 strata of this group pushed up the slope would raise and fracture 

 the strata of the formations above, aud be ultimately forced into 

 an overlap of that portion resting on the higher terrace, after 

 probably thrusting over to an inverted dip that part of the upper 

 beds with which they came in contact. The strata of the upper 

 terrace, relieved from pressure by the break, would remain com- 

 paratively quiescent, and thus the limit of the more corrugated 

 area would coincide with the slope between the deep and shallow 

 water of the Potsdam period. But the resistance offered by the 

 gneiss would not merely limit the main disturbances, it would 

 probably also guide or modify in some degree the whole series of 

 parallel corrugations, and thus act as one of the causes giving 

 a direction to the Appalachian chain of mountains. 



REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Life on the Earthy its Origin and Succession, hy John Phillips 

 A.M., LL.D., F.R.S., Late President of the Geological Survey 

 and Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. 



This volume contains the substance of the Bede Lecture, delivered 

 at Cambridge, in May 1860. Like everything that Prof. Phillips 

 does, it is clear, accurate and scholarly. It gives in small com- 

 pass and in a manner intelligible to all, a summary of the facts 

 known to Geology respecting the introduction and order of suc- 

 cession of life on the earth, without any of the exaggeration and 

 looseness of statement too common in popular books. It can 

 be safely recommended to every one desirous of knowing the pre- 

 sent state of this subject, and its bearing on the Darwinian doc- 

 trine of the origin of species by natural selection. The work 

 might afford many interesting extracts, but we content ourselves 

 with copying the Author's concluding reflections, which are full 

 of great truths, and with recommending our readers to procure 

 the work for themselves. 



" These various speculations on the subject of Fossil plants and ani- 

 mals, and the origin and progress of life, may perhaps, to the student of 

 exact science, appear little more than the chase of a phantom, a wan- 

 dering after unattainable truth. There is, however, something seduc- 



