354 



NA TURE 



[September 8, 1923 



the electrons, atoms and molecules, when going about 

 their lawful occasions are, after all, only successive 

 space-time coincidences. But so, also, are the biological 

 sequences ! 



Nevertheless, Prof. Johnstone's book is the work 

 of an honest, mature and determined thinker, who 

 possesses a good knowledge of physics, chemistry, and 

 biology. As such it is worthy of very serious considera- 

 tion and thought, and constitutes a most interesting 

 contribution to scientific literature. 



F. G. DONNAN. 



The Geological Description of Britain. 



(i) Memoirs of the Geological Survey: England and 

 Wales. Explanation of Sheet 96 : The Geology of 

 Liverpool, with Wirral and part of the Flintshire Coal- 

 field. By C. B. Wedd, B. Smith, W. C. Simmons, 

 and D. A. Wray. Pp. vi + 183. 45. net. 



(2) Memoirs of the Geological Survey : England and 

 Wales. Explanation of Sheet 169 : The Geology of 

 the Country around Coventry, including an Account of 

 the Carboniferous Rocks of the Warwickshire Coalfield. 

 By T. Eastwood, Dr. W. Gibson, T. C. Cantrill, and 

 T. H. Whitehead. With contributions by Dr. H. H. 

 Thomas and the late C. H. Cunnington. Pp. viii + 

 149 + 8 Plates. 5^. net. Also Sheet 169, i inch to 

 I mile, colour-printed. Drift edition, 2s. 



(3) Memoirs of the Geological Survey : Scotland. The 

 Geology of Corrour and the Moor of Rannoch (Explana- 

 tion of Sheet 54). By L. W. Hinxman, R. G. 

 Carruthers, and M. Macgregor. With contributions 

 by the late Dr. C. T. Clough, and Petrological Notes 

 by Dr. H. H. Thomas and H. H. Read. Pp. iv + 96. 

 4^. net. Also Sheet 54, i inch to i mile, colour- 

 printed. Drift edition, 35. 



(Southampton : Ordnance Survey Office ; London : 

 E. Stanford, Ltd., 1923.) 



UNDER the direction of Dr. J. S. Flett, the 

 Geological Survey of Great Britain, with its 

 happily increased emoluments and staff, remains one 

 of the most progressive scientific institutions in the 

 British Isles. The first two memoirs here noticed are 

 based on the revision of mapping done in earlier days, 

 and they form an effective answer to those who hold 

 that geological observations once recorded are in- 

 capable of improvement in the light of later knowledge, 

 (i) The account of the Liverpool district is appropri- 

 ately published in time for the visit of the British 

 Association. Details derived from mining develop- 

 ments have been utilised, and twenty-four shaft- 

 sections in the Flintshire coalfield are represented in 

 a plate. The account of the recent improvements in 

 water-supplies (pp. 127-147) records the great success 



NO. 2810, VOL. I 12] 



of the Vymwy reservoir, which was completed in 1892, 

 only 7*3 per cent, of the water used by Liverpool being 

 now drawn from wells in the Buntcr beds that underiie 

 the city. The case of Holywell in Flintshire down to 

 the days of the War, when the water was carted • 

 the upper part of the town from the holy well of St. 

 Winifred, and then dispensed in buckets, is quaintly 

 described. This supply was seriously reduced in 191 7. 

 by being tapped by mining operations, and at present 

 a reservoir is being utilised to receive water pumf)ed 

 from neighbouring shafts. 



The glacial deposits of the district now receive 

 concise description, based upon studies by Mellard 

 Reade, G. H. Morton, and others, who have made 

 Liverpool famous as a centre of geological observation. 

 Important modifications have, however, been made in 

 older views as to the mode of deposition of the drifts, 

 and it is well to have the evidence of the striation of 

 the rock-floor by ice from the Irish Sea conclusively 

 put forward (p. 96). The glacial striae occur mainly 

 near the coast ; they are directed to the south-east ; 

 and 58 per cent, of the boulders from a clay-pit in 

 Stanley Road (p. 95), examined by Morton and Good- 

 child, showed striations on their surfaces. The Ust of 

 erratics includes rocks from the county of Antrim, 

 Ayrshire, Ailsa Craig, and the Isle of Man. The 

 evidence for the existence of a great Irish Sea glacier 

 is here complete. 



(2) The memoir on the " Country around Coventry- " 

 is in reality a description of the area of the accompany- 

 ing Sheet 169 of the colour-printed one-inch map, and 

 covers the very interesting district north and north- 

 east of the city. The whole of the Warwickshire coal- 

 field, which extends into Sheet 155, has, however, been 

 included in the memoir. Educationally, the map is 

 a fine one from the contrast in structure of its eastern 

 and western areas, the Cambrian shales and quartzite 

 coming in west of the great fault, and underlying the 

 Middle Coal-measures, while the drift-covered Triassic 

 country to the east includes the remarkable inlier of 

 ancient quartz-diorite, formerly styled granite, that is 

 quarried at Lane's Hill. 



It is suggested on p. 20 that this and the similar 

 rock of Mount Sorrel, which formed part of the land- 

 surface in Triassic times, may be of Devonian age, like 

 the granites of the Lake District and of southern 

 Scotland. We note among the geographical features 

 the growth of Coventry in consequence of the mining 

 activity north of it (p. i), and on the map the grand 

 old line of Watling Street, with the main route of the 

 London, Midland, and Scottish Railway, keeping 

 similarly to the Triassic lands. 



(3) The third memoir dealt with in this notice leads 

 us to a very different country. The Moor of Rarmoch 



