i894. SOME NEW BOOKS. 301 



The Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain. By the late Sir 



Andrew C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S. Sixth Edition, edited by Horace B. 



Woodward, F.G.S., of the Geological Survey. London: Edward Stanford, 

 1894. 



A SCIENTIFIC book which goes through five editions in fifteen years- 

 has, we may be sure, either something very attractive about it, or 

 contains a store of information for which there is a steady or growing 

 demand, or has the good kick to combine both claims to popularity. 

 That the last was the case with the late Sir A. Ramsay's " Physical 

 Geology and Geography of Great Britain," all those who know the 

 book, and this includes everyone who is interested in its subject, will 

 be prompt to admit. It is not merely that it gave a summary, 

 condensed but singularly clear, of the bare facts, stratigraphical and 

 palaeontological, connected with the geology of our islands; there 

 are many who possess the knowledge that would enable them 

 to do this perhaps equally well. But these dry bones were 

 made to live ; clothed, as it were, with flesh and muscle and 

 organised tissue, when it was shown how intimate was the connection 

 between them and the scenery, the climate, the industry, and the 

 racial peculiarities of our native land. A further charm lay in the 

 enunciation of sundry theoretical views, due largely or wholly to the 

 brilliant ingenuity of the author, many of which hold their own, or 

 have even been strengthened by the advance of knowledge, while some- 

 are still matters of dispute. And all was done in such a way that 

 the book was a vivid reflection of the individuality of the author. 

 Those who had the good fortune to know him intimately, had brought 

 back to them the genial talk which was the echo of his strong con- 

 victions, and the enthusiastic emphasis, tinged and heightened by a. 

 steady glow of humour, with which he insisted on the doctrines that 

 he held to so tenaciously. Time has weakened but little, for the 

 writer of these words, the remembrance of those " dies noctesque 

 deorum "; and for him, and many another, no lapse of time can 

 weaken the admiration and love for the master that grew out of 

 them. 



But other things are more transitory. Editions become exhausted, 

 to the profit, we may hope, both of publisher and author. The 

 growth of knowledge demands, in the new edition, corrections and 

 additions, maybe omissions, to bring it up to date. With the- 

 majority of books the revision presents no great difficulty, and requires 

 no more than sound judgment and an acquaintance with the latest 

 phase of the science they treat of. In the case of such a book as 

 that now before us, there must be besides the sympathy which enables 

 the reviser to feel wherein lies its individuality, and the tact which 

 will put right what is in obvious need of modification without im- 

 pairing the special flavour of the work. 



It is gratifying to find that these points have been kept in view 

 by the editor of the sixth edition. Without attempting a minute 

 collation of it, and the edition that preceded it, we are convinced that 

 every attempt has been made to place the book on the level of the 

 knowledge of to-day. A sketch is given of the various views held as 

 to the British pre-Cambrian rocks. Olenellus is figured ; the dis- 

 covery of Conocoryphe viola is recorded ; notices of Overthrust faults, 

 of Mr. G. Barrow's paper on Therho-metamorphism, and of the 

 occurrence of Radiolarian Chert in the Glenkin Shales and MuUien 

 Island are inserted. The researches of Mr. H. T. Brown on the 

 Permians of Leicestershire, and of Mr. Clement Reid on the Cromer 



