PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 



TO THE NATURALIST IN SILURIA. 



THIS new book is a departure from the class of literature by 

 which Captain Reid made his name famous. It was left in MS. 

 at his death in 1883, and not until 1889 did his widow place it in 

 the hands of a publisher. 



Any careful reader of Captain Mayne Reid's Tales of Adventures 

 will have discovered that his strongest point is his vigorous and 

 accurate description of Natural Scenery : Therefore, when he 

 retired from his travels and London Society to Penyard Grange, in 

 the lovely valley of Woolhope, not far from the city of Hereford, 

 it was only a matter of course that the old Indian hunter should 

 take to the woods and fields, and devote his leisure to the study of 

 Natural History examples for which existed so abundantly in his 

 immediate neighborhood. 



A more ardent lover of nature than our author it would be hard 

 to name not even excepting the celebrated Gilbert White, of 

 Selbourne. 



The district in which he made his observations is indicated in the 

 title of his book, Siluria, concerning which we quote from Cam- 

 den's Britannia: "Ptolemy says the Silures inhabited those 

 countries which the Welsh call by one general name, Dehubarth, or 

 the southern part ; branched at this day into new names Here- 

 fordshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire and Glamorganshire." 



Professor Murchison revived the forgotten name of the tribe of 

 ancient Britons by naming the palaeozoic rocks discovered in that 

 locality Silurian, a term which has been adopted by all geologists 

 in describing this particular strata no matter where discovered. 



GEBBIE & CO. 



25262 



