December 3, 1908J 



NA TURE 



I. ^T 



TIIO GIFT-BOOKS ON GEOLOGY.^ 



T T may be presumed that both these antedated works 

 ••■ are ijiteiided for the Christmas season, and their 

 print, illustrations, and binding make them highly 

 attractive as gift-books for the young. Both, how- 

 ever, contain matter based on recent observation, and 

 both will probably bring the results of research before 

 many who have no acquaintance with scientific 

 journals. There was a delightful book, entitled 

 " The Wonders of the World," published somewhere 

 about the time of the battle of Waterloo, which we 

 used to read side by side with Brewster's " Natural 

 Magic." It is more to the point to say that to this 

 book Charles Darwin owed his earliest 

 inspiration. Mr. Grew's far hand- 

 somer volume shows how far we have 

 progressed in style and picturesque- 

 ness ; but it depends equally on its fas- 

 cinating appeal to what the earth is 

 actually doing. Some of the examples 

 of natural processes necessarilv remain 

 the same, but I^isbon and Calabria are 

 now overshadowed by San Francisco 

 and the Montagne Pelee. .\ fine series 

 of photographic plates, mostly from 

 Messrs. Underwood's well-known 

 American series, has been chosen to 

 illustrate the phenomena described. 

 Extinct animals, mainlv from Miss 

 Woodward's skilful drawings, which 

 were first published in Knipe's " From 

 Nebula to Man," are used to empha- 

 sise the romance of paleontology. 



Many of the chapters, such as viii., 

 ix., X., xi., and xvi., are somewhat 

 speculative for a work that seeks to 

 convince the reader of the romance of 

 ordinary things. In chapter xvi., on 

 volcanoes and mountain formation, 

 views are propounded that still require 

 a great deal of thinking over, and in 

 chapter xiv. we are not sure that the 

 author distinguishes between volcanic 

 accumulation and elevation of the 

 ocean floor. Matters are clearer in the 

 pages dealing with the long historv 

 of life upon the globe, though there is 

 still a tendency to dwell on the uncer- 

 tain rather than on the known. This 

 is seen in the attempts to picture the 

 geography of past geological periods ; 

 what evidence have we, for instance, 

 for any of the statements on p. 211? 

 Does the author really mean that Ben 

 Nevis and the Pennine Chain, to men- 

 tion two of the details, stood above 

 the sea in late Silurian times? 



The note of modernity struck in tin- 

 second chapter by the introduction of 

 the pear-shaped earth is maintained 

 in the twenty-second chapter by the account of 

 the rise of the proboscideans. The literary style is so 

 direct and agreeable that few will open the' book with- 

 out wishing to read further, and some may be led on 

 to borrow from a library the old classics of geology, 

 which are less "modern," but on which we all are 

 glad to build. 



Mr. Scott Elliot's book follows aptlv on that which 

 narrates the building of the world. '" The Romance 

 of Early British Life " is cleverly written by means 

 of a series of stories, in which the manners' of suc- 

 cessive peoples are rendered with the insight and 

 humour of a Dutch genre painter, and yet with the 

 sober references to authorities that befit a man of 

 science. Such a book, cheerful and romantic as it 

 is, has involved a wide extent of reading. Incidents 

 and evidences are gathered from archeeological 

 journals, and appear quite naturally in their places 

 as parts of a connected tale. This, like the sad 

 fate of Bardolph, is in the true Shakespearean 

 manner. We do not like the names, such as 



" The Romance of Modern Geology : describing in Simple but Ex 

 giiajre the Making of the Earth, with Some Account of Prehistoric Anil 

 By E. S. Grew. Pp.joS. (London: Seeley and Co., Lid., n 



(.ictually .September, 1908.]) 



"The Romance of Early Briiish Life from the Earliest Times to tlie 

 Coming of the Danes." By G. F. Scott Elliot. Pp. 358. (London : Seeley 

 .-ind Co., Ltd , 1909 (aclually September, 1508.)) Price 51. 



NO. 2040, VOL. 79] 



of Modern Geology.' 



Eolithicus and O'Wookey, selected for primeval 

 savages, but none of their real titles have come down 

 to us. Mr. Jack London, whose modern seamen often 

 realise the savage, has, of course, done far better 

 in his vivid perception of the Stone age ; we may 

 all the more congratulate Mr. Scott Elliot on having 

 given us an independent and convincing picture. 

 On p. 29 he states that Eolithic man, whom he 

 has shown as terribly individualistic, " nearly carried 

 out, as only a society of squirrels and hedgehogs 

 could do, the beautiful ideals of modern Socialism." 

 This is indeed a puzzle, as is the equally unnecessary 

 reference to the editors of radical newspapers on 



