54 Bibliographical Notices. 



tion for the Advancement of Science. I have never been able 

 to find a word. I therefore venture now to trouble you, in the 

 hope that it will become more widely known, and be the means 

 of showing that it is going on in different parts of the globe. 



I must request that the slab sent with this may be returned. 

 I would gladly give it to a public museum. It is the only good 

 one I have ; and I see no hope of ever going again to the printing 

 house at Orkney to get more. 



Wick, April 12, 1858. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Wonders of Geology. By Gideon Algernon Mantell, 

 LL.D. &c. Seventh Edition, revised and augmented by T. R. 

 Jones, F.G.S. London: H. G. Bohn. 1857-58. 



This work forms one of the re-issues of Mr. Bohu's scientific series, 

 and from the favourable reception it has met with, as indicated 

 by the number of editions it has passed through, may fairly be con- 

 sidered as a useful introduction to the study of geology. The ground- 

 work of these volumes was derived from a series of lectures given 

 more than twenty years since by Dr. Mantell, at Brighton, in an 

 attempt at the time to establish a county museum and scientific 

 institution in that town. The basis of the museum was to have been 

 the original geological collection, containing upwards of twenty thou- 

 sand specimens, from which the subjects for the illustratioti of the 

 lectures were selected. Tliis collection, the result of the untiring 

 labour of many years, both in the field and in the cabinet, was not 

 destined to remain in the county of Sussex, from whence the larger 

 and more valuable portion was derived, and the physical structure 

 and ancient natural history of which it was intended to illustrate. 

 As is well known, the Mantellian museum, containing many uni(pie 

 specimens, was transferred to the British Museum, wliere they are 

 fully displayed amongst tbe other treasures contained in the Palajonto- 

 logical dei)artment of the national collection. Dr. Mantell may be 

 said to have lived through some of the phases of geological science, 

 anil was no mean contributor to its onward progress, whether we 

 regard the nature of his scientific writings, or tbe character of his 

 j)0])ular teachings. As a lecturer, Dr. Mantell was probably un- 

 e<pialled : abounding in information, clear and lucid in style, gifted 

 with a poetic temperament, he never failed to interest and instruct 

 the aiuiiences he frecpu'utly addressed. To him intellectual exertion 

 was a relaxation rather than a fatigue : during the latter years of his 

 life, and when in an imi)aired state of health, we have occasionally 

 returned with him, after lecturing to some large assembly, and fully 

 felt how his intellectual energies and poetic imagination have sus- 

 tained him amidst much bodily sutt'ering and mental anxiety. 



