THE " GREAT ICE AGE." 113 



with a general knowledge of the great body of science, and 

 a special and a full acquaintance with only one or two of its 

 minor subdivisions. Thus geology, though but a branch 

 of natural history, and the youngest of its branches, has 

 now become* so extensive that its ablest votaries are com- 

 pelled to devote their best efforts to the study of sections 

 which but a few years ago were scarcely definable. 



Glaciation is one of these, which now demands its own 

 elementary text-books over and above the monographs of 

 original investigators. This demand has been well sup- 

 plied by Mr. James Geikie in the " The Great Ice Age," * 

 of which a second edition has just been issued. Every 

 student of glacial phenomena owes to Mr. Geikie a heavy 

 debt of gratitude for the invaluable collection of facts and 

 philosophy which this work presents. It may now be 

 fairly described as a standard treatise on the subject which 

 it treats. 



One leading feature of the work offers a very aggressive 

 invitation to criticism. Scotchmen are commonly accused 

 of looking upon the whole universe through Scotch spec- 

 tacles, and here we have a Scotchman treating a subject 

 which affects nearly the whole of the globe, and devoting 

 abont half of his book to the details of Scottish glacial de- 

 posits; while England has but one-third of the space al- 

 lowed to Scotland, Ireland but a thirtieth, Scandinavia 

 less than a tenth, North America a sixth, and so on with 

 the rest of the world. Disproportionate as this may ap- 

 pear at first glance, further acquaintance with the work 

 justifies the pre-eminence which Mr. Geikie gives to the- 

 Scotch glacial deposits. Excepting Norway, there is no 

 country in Europe which affords so fine a field for the 

 study of the vestiges of extinct glaciers as Scotland, am} 

 Scotland has an advantage even over Norway in being 

 much better known in geological detail. , Besides this, we 

 must always permit the expounder of any subject to select 

 his own typical illustrations, and welcome his ability to 



* " The Great Ice Age, and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man." 

 By James Geikie, P.R.S., etc. Second edition, revised, 1877. 

 Daldy and Isbister. 



