130 
SERMONS IN STONES 
Les Pierres, Esquisses Minéralogiques. Par L. Simonin. 
Pp. 516, with 9t woodcuts, and 21 chromo-lithographs 
for coloured plates. (Paris, 1869. Hatchette et ©.) 
“eas volume is another of the recent works on popular 
science which, like “ La Vie Souterraine” of the same 
author, “Les Volcans” of Boscowitz, and others of a 
similar character, the publishers of Paris seem of late to 
compete with one another in bringing out, and of which it 
may be said that they are peculiarly French, for neither 
here, elsewhere on the Continent, nor in England do we 
find their exact representatives. 
NATORE 
| the icy raft which had floated it southwards. 
2 
a } 
| Dec. 2, 1869 
pages. The first of these is a most successful attempt to 
depict the general features of one of those polar glaciers 
which in prehistoric times have played so important a part 
in the earth’s geological history, by the transporting of vast 
accumulations of rocks and their déérzs to other parts of 
the globe far distant from their original sites. This wood- 
cut may be said to be, as it were, supplemented by 
the second, representing a Swiss landscape, showing 
in the foreground one of the great erratic blocks, or 
boulders, carried far from the glaciers themselves, and 
deposited in its present situation upon the melting of 
It may 
Copiously illustrated by chromo-lithographs, coloured 
plates, and woodcuts of a most spirited, and occasionally 
what may be termed a somewhat sensational, character, 
these works apparently seek to impart scientific informa- 
tion mainly by appealing to the eye of the reader, and it 
must be admitted that in this they are sometimes very 
successful, the illustrations often conveying at a glance 
impressions which it would be tedious, or at times even 
difficult, to communicate in words. As an example of 
this, and also at the same time of the style of the wood- 
cuts themselves, which are so abundant in the volume 
now under consideration, we reproduce two of them in our 
fairly be asked whether any description would be likely 
to produce on the mind of the geologically-inclined reader 
the effect which the mere sight of this woodcut must do? 
Does not the appearance of this gigantic pebble, with the 
| dwelling-house perched upon its summit, instantly convey 
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the most vivid impression of the more than grand scale 
of those glacial phenomena which at one period of the 
earth’s history exhibited themselves in full activity ? 
Bearing in mind that the word “stone” is throughout 
this work employed in an altogether popular sense—z.e. 
used promiscuously to designate any fossil, loose stone, 
rock, or mineral species whatsoever—the book itself is 
