418 SUMMARY OF WORK. 



interest and value from the successful borings for coal 

 in Kent. 



The main portions of Prestwich's numerous contribu- 

 tions to the literature of geology are to be found in 

 the journals and transactions of the various scientific 

 societies with which he was associated. But he was 

 likewise the author of a number of independent works, 

 the preparation of which gave him an opportunity of 

 ranging over a broader field, and appealing to a wider 

 circle of readers, than that which he reached by his 

 more technical writings. The most important of these 

 separate publications was undoubtedly his treatise or 

 text-book on ' Geology, Chemical, Physical, and Strati- 

 graphical,' in two volumes, of which the first, dealing 

 with the chemical and physical aspects of the science, 

 appeared in 1886 [115], and the second, taking up 

 chiefly the stratigraphical side, two years later [117]. 

 In these volumes, issued towards the close of his 

 scientific career, Prestwich sums up his views 011 

 every branch of the science to which he had dedicated 

 his life. Apart, therefore, from their value as con- 

 tributions to geological literature, they have a special 

 biographical interest in relation to the position of their 

 author with regard to disputed questions in geology, 

 and to the general philosophy of the science. Through- 

 out his life he remained opposed to the extreme doc- 

 trines of the Uniformitarian school. He contended that 

 it was impossible to admit that the limited period 

 2000 years at the most during which man had 

 been recording his observations of nature, could fur- 

 nish a standard by which the operations of the vast 

 succession of bygone ages could be measured. On the 

 other hand, he never adopted to the full the opinions 

 of the opposite or catastrophic school. He believed 



