338 Anal7/sis of Scientific Books. 



tinct species, in the superficial clay and gravel of valleys, and in 

 certain caverns, has long excited the attention of geologists, but 

 they have never been so perspicuo\isly and popularly described 

 as in the work before us ; nor have the phenomena which attend 

 their deposition, been so plausibly and philosophically accounted 

 for by any antecedent writer. The fact is, that Mr. Buckland has 

 in almost all cases judged for himself ; he has personally visited 

 the spots he describes, perambulated the caverns, exhumated their 

 fossil remains, and inspected their various analogies and associa- 

 tions ; instead of viewing the subject through the spectacles of 

 books, and framing hypotheses by the fire-side, we find him busily 

 journeying over a great part of Europe, for the express purpose 

 of collecting information upon the subjects before us, and his 

 success has been adequate to the labour bestowed upon the in- 

 quiry ; for he has, in our opinion, not merely described, with 

 much accuracy and minuteness of detail, the various districts 

 which he has visited, a task in itself of no small importance and 

 interest ; but he has established several important facts in relation 

 to geological theory, upon sound, firm, and indisputable evidence. 

 Such are the leading features and prominent merits of Mr. Buck- 

 land's book ; but it has other claims, which, in the capacity of re- 

 viewers, we think it right to notice, though they are of secondary 

 and inferior consideration : we allude to the variety of collateral 

 information scattered through its pages, connected with the habits of 

 the animals, and to the relief which is given to the dry details by 

 interspersed anecdotes and appropriate quotations ; all this renders 

 a work which, in the hands of a German professor, for instance, 

 would have proved insufferably dull and monotonous, not merely 

 very readable, but very interesting and entertaining, without in the 

 smallest degree detracting from its scientific value or literary merit. 



It would seem, from the table of contents, that Mr. Dockland's 

 work is intended to be divided into two parts, the first containing 

 an account of the localities and contents of various caves in Eng- 

 land and Germany, with some observations on the osseous breccise 

 of Gibraltar, Nice, Dalmatia, §c. ; and the second embracing 

 " the evidences of an inundation, afforded by phenomena on the 

 oarth's surface." In respect to the manner in which the work is 

 got up, we need only say, that it is published by Mr. Murray. 



The cave of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, forms, as it ought, a lead- 

 ing subject of the volume : the rock which it perforates is that 

 kind of calcareous freestone which constitutes the oolite formation, 

 and which, from the circumstance of the ingulphment of several 

 rivers that traverse the district, is probably abundant in caverns. 

 It was discovered in the summer of 1S21, by the quarrymen 

 of the neighbourhood, v^ho accidentally intersected its mouth, 

 which was overgrown with bushes, and closed with rubbish, 

 probably the debris of the softer portions of the circumjacent 

 strata. But this original opening has been cut away, and its pre- 

 sent entrance is -a hole in the perpendicular face of the quarry, 



