i894. SOME NEW BOOKS. 143 



else specially drawn for the work, as we do not recollect having seen 

 them before, and fervently desire never to see them again. For 

 example, the drawing of the quartz crystals on page 13 is preposterous, 

 of hornblende on page 30 useless, while the fancy glacier on page 115 

 has no excuse, when good photographs, which might really teach 

 something, are so easily obtainable. Why should a ridiculous and 

 imaginary creature be made to masquerade as a trilobite on page 194, 

 when a very good figure of Ogvgio, Buchii is wasting away in the 

 uncongenial air of the Cambrian a few pages further on ? Impossible 

 graptolites, undesirable plesiosaurs, and shells and sponges standing 

 on their heads should not have been tolerated amongst the other 

 illustrations, and more satisfactory photographs or drawings of 

 some of the rock-specimens should have been secured. It is 

 tantalising not to be told where a conformable sequence from 

 Carboniferous to Keuper is to be found (p. 273), or where the Lias 

 rests direct in the Permian conformably and unconformably within a 

 short distance, while the Oolite is unconformable to the Lias (p. 284). 



Leaving these and other errors in the illustrations and turning 

 to the text, it is clear that this has suffered by being cast in the 

 rigid mould of a South Kensington Syllabus, so that an attempt 

 has to be made to put into the book far more than can be taught, 

 though it may possibly be crammed, in a work of this size. What is 

 the use of attempting to teach anything about systematic crystallo- 

 graphy without at least a drawing to show the relations between 

 crystal axes and faces, or to simply state, without any explanation, 

 that a crystal has or has not an effect on polarised light, unless these 

 statements are merely intended to be committed to memory ? The 

 petrology is worse than the mineralogy ; after learning that mere 

 disintegration will convert granite into " gravel," that phonolite is 

 " acidic," syenite basic, felsite and pitchstone plutonic, we are not 

 much surprised to hear that the last class of rocks is often amyg- 

 daloidal. Slips and misprints abound : Marlsto, Brokenhurst, 

 labrodorite, Hippuvites ponderosum, Flanborough, Coraline, kim-clay, 

 Uiiio (p. 320), Landeilo, Geographical Survey, equivalvus, while some 

 of the definitions, doubtless accurate, do not help very much in 

 understanding the application of words, like asbestos, unquenchable, 

 and eggstone for roestone. 



The latter part of the book is rather better done, the physical 

 part decidedly so, and among the good features are vertical sections 

 of the systems, showing their characters, fossils, and economic pro- 

 ducts. There are disfigurements, however, here and there. We read 

 of trilobites with only two segments, that there is a Rhaetic fish still 

 living, that the " characteristic ammonites occasionally show a tendency 

 to become a little mixed," and that belemnites are the " internal shells 

 of a kind of cuttlefish." It is a pity the author has not cleared things 

 up for the student by adopting the tripartite division of the older 

 Palaeozoic rocks now everywhere adopted, and that he has omitted all 

 reference to the Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Lake country, 

 while giving a careful description of the foreign equivalents. Scant 

 space is devoted to modern theories and views in the origin of the 

 foliated rocks, and the minute zoning of the Upper Cretaceous rocks 

 has been omitted. 



In conclusion, while the author has introduced some important 

 and novel features into his book, he would do well to prevail on his 

 publishers to make a bonfire of certain venerable illustrations and to 

 let the proof sheets of a new edition pass under the eyes of those who 

 are familiar by actual field work with their several branches of the 



