VI PREFACE. 



because it is told in a familiar manner, it need not be 

 either undignified or unattractive. 



Discarding technicalities as much as possible, and 

 avoiding the formality of a text-book, I have still 

 arranged the subjects so as to present a connected 

 view of the science ; and he who reads them in order, 

 and understands as he reads, will have a fair concep- 

 tion of the scope and bearings of Geology. At the 

 same time, each sketch is complete in itself, and con- 

 tains, as far as it goes, an outline of our present know- 

 ledge of the matter to which it refers. This mode of 

 treatment may lead to an occasional repetition, but a 

 repetition in such cases is rather an advantage, as tend- 

 ing to render the matter more intelligible, and fix it 

 more enduringly on the memory. I may also men- 

 tion that several of the topics have been repeatedly 

 brought before miscellaneous audiences in the form of 

 popular lectures, and naturally indulge the hope that 

 what was appreciated by them will prove equally in- 

 viting and instructive to the miscellaneous reader. 



D.P. 



GILMORE PI^CE, EDINBURGH, 

 February 1866. 



