HUGH Mlf.LER. XXL 



acquirements in this department of Geology is known and ap- 

 preciated both in Europe and America. The work itself is 

 divided into fifteen chapters, in which the author treats of 

 the fossil geology of the Orkneys, as exhibited in the vicinity 

 of Stromness ; of the development hypothesis, and its conse- 

 quences ; of the history and structure of that remarkable fish, 

 the Asterolepis ; of the fishes of the Upper and Lower Silu- 

 rian rocks ; of the progress of degradation, and its history ; 

 of the Lamarckian hypothesis of the origin of plants, and its 

 consequences ; of the marine and terrestrial floras ; and of 

 final causes, and their bearing on geological history. In the 

 course of these chapters Mr Miller discusses the development 

 hypothesis, or the hypothesis of natural law, as maintained 

 by Lamarck and by the author of the " Vestiges of Creation," 

 and has subjected it, in its geological aspect, to the most 

 rigorous examination. Driven by the discoveries of Lord 

 Rosse from the domains of astronomy, where it once seemed 

 to hold a plausible position, it might have lingered with the 

 appearance of life among the ambiguities of the Palaeozoic for- 

 mations ; but Mr Miller has, with an ingenuity and patience 

 worthy of a better subject, stripped it even of its semblance 

 of truth, and restored to the Creator, as Governor of the uni- 

 verse, that power and those functions which he was supposed 

 to have resigned at its birth. 



Having imposed upon himself the task of examining in de- 

 tail the various fossiliferous formations of Scotland, our author 

 extended his inquiries into the mainland of Orkney, and re- 

 sided for some time in the vicinity of the busy seaport town 

 of Stromness, as a central point from which the structure o{ 

 the Orkney group of islands could be most advantageously 

 studied. Like that of Caithness, the geology of these islands 

 owes its principal interest to the immense development of the 

 Lower Old Red Sandstone formation, and to the singular 

 abundance of its vertebrate fossils. Though the Orkneys 



