NOTICES OF BOOKS. xxxvii 



way to this or that set of conditions is still a mystery, and is long likely 

 to remain so in spite of the assurance to the contrary of sundry writers 

 on these matters. 



The new edition of Professor Haberlandt's work is a greatly enlarged 

 and in most respects a greatly improved one. The fact that the author 

 has himself contributed in no small degree to our knowledge of the 

 subject imparts to his book a freshness, and an interest to his method 

 of treatment which only a first-hand acquaintance with the facts can give. 

 Moreover, Dr. Haberlandt knows when he has said enough on any topic, 

 and does not weary his reader with tedious detail, but rather stimulates 

 him to prosecute further researches for himself 



Without doubt the book in its present form will, as it thoroughly 

 deserves, enjoy a wide reputation, safe of welcome recognition at the 

 hands of all who are competent to form an opinion as to its merits. 



The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain. By Sir Archibald Geikie, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., etc., Director-general of the Geological Survey 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 vols., pp. 477 and 492 with 

 7 maps and 3S3 illustrations. Macmillan & Co., 1897. 



It is impossible to rise from the perusal of this work without being 

 impressed alike by the prodigious industry of its author and by the 

 remarkable literary skill with which he has utilised the vast mass of 

 materials that he has collected. The work, which as now presented to 

 us is almost encyclopaedic in character, is an expansion and develop- 

 ment of two valuable addresses delivered by Sir Archibald Geikie in 1891 

 and 1892 as president of the Geological Society, and of a memoir on the 

 Tertiary Volcanoes of Britain contributed by him to the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh in 1888. 



During his long connection with the Geological Survey, and in the 

 course of his labours in mapping portions of our islands, especially in 

 Scotland, the Director-general has enjoyed special opportunities, as he 

 informs us, for studying the numerous rocks of volcanic origin associated 

 with the whole series of British strata. In the present work he has 

 brought together his own observations with those of his fellow-members 

 of the Survey, and of other geologists, bearing on the history of Volcanic 

 action in the British Islands, and he has combined the whole with such 

 striking literary ability as to make the work as readable and intelligible 

 as it is accurate and painstaking. Nor is the book, though avowedl)' 

 based on publications already familiar to geologists, wanting in original 

 matter; many new observations — especially those made during a 

 yachting cruise in the Western Isles of Scotland — with numerous 

 fresh illustrations and not a few valuable contributions from the field- 

 geologists, palaeontologists and petrographers of the Geological Survey 

 repay the readers of this book who are already familiar with the author's 

 earlier publications. An especially valuable feature of the book consists 

 in the number and accuracy of the references to the original sources of 

 information which it contains. 



The first division of the work, running to somewhat over one 



