Bibliographical Notices. 363 



The history of the Tertiary strata must always he invested with 

 some interest, as it was the examuiation of these deposits around 

 Paris (at the commencement of the jiresent century) that deve- 

 loped some of the germs of true geology, and also called forth the 

 genius of " Cuvier, the great founder of that department of the 

 science of organic remains which relates to the interpretation of 

 the fossil hones and teeth of the vertebrated animals," — whose 

 researches and descri])tions were so marvellous, as he successively 

 restored and determined the analogies of that vertebrate fauna which 

 flourished around the margins of the earlier Eocene estuary. Con- 

 jointly with his colleague, Brongniart, Cuvier produced a scheme of 

 classification of these French Tertiary strata — strata which, from the 

 researches of Deshayes and others, have yielded an invertebrate 

 fauna richer than that belonging to the British seas, and even 

 exceeding that living at present in the Mediterranean. Parkinson, 

 Webster, and Buckland, in this country, early attempted to syn- 

 chronize the British de])osits with the French classification, which, 

 although generally correct, required some modification ; and the true 

 correlation of the two scries was subsequently elaborated and defined 

 by Mr. Prestwich. Nor must we overlook the fact, that, wlien the 

 Molluscan fauna of the British Eocene area is fully worked out, as is 

 now being effected most carefully and thoroughly by Mr. F. Edwards, 

 it will also yield as rich and remarkable a series of Testacea as the 

 foreign equivalent strata. 



The metropolis stands upon gravel, which is underlaid by an im- 

 portant member of the Tertiary series, to which it gives its name, — 

 is surrounded by other strata of equal interest, — and yet no popular 

 guide-book has appeared to direct the inquirer or the geological stu- 

 dent in his investigations around London. The only special paper 

 (with the exception, of course, of the subsequent general memoirs by 

 Mr. Prestwich) was that published by Parkinson in 1811, 'Observa- 

 tions of some of the Strata in the Neighbourhood of London*.' We 

 may here notice, however, an Appendix to a ' Hand-book for London,' 

 published some years since t> in which the chief geological features 

 of the district are correctly noticed. A guide-book has been a want, 

 as many people have long felt ; and this, Mr. Prestwich has to some 

 extent, but not fully, supplied. It is, however, using a term of the 

 author, a " basement-bed" upon which he may hereafter raise another 

 superstructure, and render it more serviceable by appending a list of 

 localities, fossils, &c., after the manner of a special paper on the 

 London Clay, published by him in a late Journal of the Geological 

 Society! . Still, small as it is, it contains much that is useful and 

 suggestive, and is a valuable and acceptable addition to geological 

 Uterature. 



This little book contains the substance of three Lectures ' On the 

 Ground beneath us,' delivered to the members of the Cla]jham 

 Athenaeum. It was our good fortune to be present at the delivery 



* Geo!. Traus. I ser. vol. i. p. 324. 



t Wcale, Uolborn. 



X Geol. Jouru. vol. x. p. 401. 



