114 REVIEW GEOLOGY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, ETC. 



the animal kingdom according to the principles of comparative 

 anatomy, is not given until the work iB tolerably advanced ; 

 but an arrangement has been made so that this important 

 part can be subsequently introduced in its usual place. The facts of the 

 Natural History of Animals and their explanations will thus be placed 

 prominently, and will precede the classification." 



The volume is beautifully printed and copiously and graphically illus- 

 trated, and will be alike acceptable to the young Naturalist and the 

 more advanced student in Biology. We congratulate all concerned in its 

 production, and shall look forward with pleasure to the issue of future 

 divisions of this charming addition to the study of living animals. 



W. R. H. 



The Geology of parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. By W. Talbot 

 Aveline, F.G.S. Twenty-two pages, price 6d. 



Although described as a second edition, the present issue is practically a 

 reprint of the memoir published in 1861, soon after the ground was 

 surveyed, the alterations being merely verbal. The district described 

 comprises an area of about 164 square miles, by far the larger portion of 

 which is in that part of Nottinghamshire that formed the heart of the 

 ancient forest of Sherwood, the north-west corner being in Derbyshire 

 The cbief town included by the map is Mansfield, and it is round this 

 place that the more interesting geological features of the district cluster. 

 The formations represented are the Coal Measures — one or two very small 

 tongues of the Derbyshire coal-field ; the Permian Lower and Upper 

 Magnesian Limestone, with the intervening marls and sandstones 

 forming the Middle Division ; and the Lower Mottled Sandstone, Bunter 

 Pebble Beds, " Waterstones," and Upper Keuper Marl, of the Trias. The 

 Bunter Pebble Beds, which form the ground known as the " forest 

 lands " — the soil being gravelly and poor for agricultural purposes — cover 

 a broad area running up the middle of the district, and rise going west 

 till they attain an elevation at a point on Coxmoor of 634 feet above the 

 sea — the highest ground in the district. The Permian rocks form a broad 

 band along the west ; while on the east, the Keuper sweeps up rapidly into 

 a bold swelling escarpment. The Permian being the most important as 

 well as the most interesting of the formations in the district, the greater 

 part of the memoir is devoted to a detailed description of the lithological 

 features, the fossils, and the remarkable local variations of the 

 Magnesian Limestone as traceable in the large quarries around Mansfield. 

 The bottom beds of the Magnesian Limestone, which are exposed in the 

 quarries on the south side of the town, consist of a white calcareous 

 sandstone, which makes an excellent building stone, and is also much 

 used for paving, for cisterns, &c. Another variety, the red dolomitic 

 sandstone, is described in a passage quoted from Sedgwick as about fifty 

 feet thick, and of a" dull red colour, and might, without close examina- 

 tion, be mistaken for New Red Sandstone." The red sandstone is 

 surmounted by a band of clay, above which come some striped slaty 



