NATURE 



[July 7, 1904 



the excavating action of ice by the process of " pluck- 

 ing," in which "blocks of bed-rock, being partly 

 surr9unded by the ice,, are forced from their bearings 

 and' rolled or slidden forward" (p. 203)'. Evidences 

 of marine submergence reaching Up to at least 500 

 fett above present sea-level are described (p. 168), and 

 it is surmised that local uplift may have taken place 

 in the neighbourhood of the high mountains at a period 

 later than the chief Pleistocene glaciation (p. 173). 



The observations, admittedly scanty,' on the coasts 

 of Bering Sea, though indicating local glaciers of con- 

 siderable magnitude, "seemed inconsistent with the 

 theory of a continental glacier in the Bering Sea 

 region " (p. 192). 



; 'The chapter (iii.) on " General Considerations as to 

 Glaciers " formulates the elementary comparison be- 

 tween rivers of ice and rivers of water in the manner 

 Which American geologists have made customary. It 

 contains also, among other suggestive matter, a 

 novel discussion as to the effect of water in buoy- 

 ing up the ends of "tidal glaciers " when not deep 

 enough to float them. The conclusion is reached 

 " that there is no important difference, as respects 

 pressure on the rock bed, between a glacier resting 

 on the land and one which is partly bathed by the 

 waters of a fiord " (p. 216), w^ith the further significant 

 deduction that the depth to which glacial troughs have 

 been e.xcavated is not demonstrative of a relatively 

 low base-level at the time of their e.xcavation (p. 217). 



We have scanty space for the notice of the second 

 ot^the volumes before us (vol. iv. of the series), which, 

 however, is for the most part severely specialised. It 

 consists of more or less independent contributions by 

 several authors. - 



Prof. B. K. Emerson gives a general account of the 

 geology of the places visited, witfi petrographical notes 

 by Dr. C. Palache. The rocks described are mostly 

 iTiuch altered by dynamic and thermal metamorphism', 

 so that their age is often doubtful. They include old- 

 looking gneiss, possibly pre-Cambrian ; Carboniferous; 

 Triassic or early Jurassic ("the Vancouver Series ") ; 

 radiolarian chert perhaps Jurassic or early Cre- 

 taceous ; and newer volcanic rocks, 

 r Dr. C. Palache contributes some notes on the geology 

 of the famous Alaska-Treadwell Mine of Douglas 

 Island ; a list of the minerals collected by the expedi- 

 tion ; and a paper on the rocks of the neighbourhood 

 of Chichagof Cove, in the Alaskan peninsula, where 

 beds containing abundant fossils of Lower Eocene age 

 were discovered, a period not previously recognised in 

 Alaska. These fossils, which include our familiar 

 Venericardia planicosta, are described and figured in a 

 separate paper by Dr. W. H. Dall, who also describes 

 some Pleistocene shells from Douglas Island. 



Mr. E. O. Ulrich deals with the fossils of the 

 Yakutat formation, which consist mainly of very 

 curious casts, supposed to be fucoidal. A large num- 

 ber of these markings are named, described and 

 figured, the beds containing them being assigned, on 

 somewhat slender evidence, to early Jurassic, probably 

 Liassic, times. 



A collection of fossil plants of Upper Eocene age 

 from Kukak Bay, on the Alaskan peninsula, forms the 

 NO. 1810. VOL. 70] 



subject of the contribution by Mr. F. H. Knowlton, 

 with which the volume closes. Of the twenty-six 

 forms represented in this collection, nine are described 

 as new., to science^ '. " , ', ,', G. W. L. 



JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 

 Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley. Written by himself 

 (to the Year 1795), w'ith a Continuation to the Time 

 of his Decease by his Son, Joseph Priestley. Re- 

 printed from the Edition of 1809. Centenary 

 Edition. Pp. 132. (London: H. R. Allenson, 1904.) 

 Price 35. net. 

 'T'HE story of the origin and history of this little 

 book may be told in a few words. The greater 

 portion was composed by the subject of it in the year 

 1787, when at Birmingham as minister of the New 

 Meeting. Priestley's tenure of this office w^as rudely 

 interrupted by the shameful and disastrous riots of 

 July, 1791, when his house and laboratory, and much 

 of his apparatus and library, were destroyed by the 

 mob. Although many of his books and papers were 

 burnt or otherwise made away with, the autobiography 

 escaped destruction, and was ultimatelv recovered. 

 Some years afterwards, whilst at Northumberland, irk 

 Pennsylvania, whither he removed in 1794, he resumed 

 the story of his life, bringing it down to March, 1795, 

 when he had completed the sixty-second year of his 

 age. AlthougJi he lived nine years more, for the most 

 part in fairly good health, it would appear that he 

 added nothing to his account Of himself, and it was 

 left to his eldest son to continue his biography to the 

 time of his death, and to see the work through the 

 press. The first edition of the " Memoirs " was pub- 

 lished by Johnson, of St. Paul's Churchyard, a staunch 

 friend of Priestley's, by whom, indeed, the greater 

 nuriiber of his works — educational, theological, and 

 scientific — were issued. It was reprinted in 1833, on 

 the occasion of the centenary of his birth, and it is 

 again reprinted in commemoration of the centenary of 

 his death. 



The present edition differs from its predecessors in 

 several particulars. It is not quite so sumptuously 

 printed as that of i8o5. It resembles the edition of' 

 1833 in containing illustrations. In the book before 

 us, however, these are more numerous and more 

 interesting, from the circumstance that the reader is 

 enabled to see in some measure what manner of man 

 physically Priestley was at various periods of his 

 career. Unfortunately the illustrations hardly do- 

 justice to the originals, and as process reproductions 

 leave much to be desired. The frontispiece is taken 

 from a copy of Opie's well known portrait, now, we 

 believe, in the Manchester College, Oxford. The 

 second portrait is a poor and partial reproduction of 

 Fuseli's picture, painted for Johnson, the publisher, 

 and one of the very few portraits which that painter 

 made directly from a sitter. The original work was 

 a full-length figure, and is interesting as showing- 

 Priestley at the period of his greatest scientific activity. 

 It is interesting, too, as affording material for the 

 statue by Stephens in the Oxford Museum, of which 

 we have a picture in the book. The third portrait is 



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