Votes and Comments. 115 
Maps’; ‘Landscape’; The Geological Record’; ‘The Growth of 
Britain, etc.’. Both writers are well known for their lucidity, 
and Prof. Watts’ section of the work will particularly appeal 
to our readers on account of the numerous reproductions from 
photographs taken in the northern counties, and especially 
Yorkshire. There is a carefully compiled general index to 
the six volumes. We should lke to. congratulate the pub- 
lisher, editor and contributors, on the completion of this mag- 
nificent work. 
Reminiscences of a Strenuous Life, by Edward Hull, M.A., L!..D., 
F.R.S., London: Hugh Rees, 150 pp. 
‘Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime.’ 
We are not quite certain of the appropriateness of this quotation, as we are 
not sure that Prof. Hull would be classed amongst the ‘ great’ men, not- 
withstanding what is stated in the ‘‘ Reminiscences.’ On page 18, 
Prof. Hull states that it will be allowed ‘ Murchison has been happy in 
his biographer.’ We can hardly say so much of Prof. Hull, as these 
“ Reminiscences ’ really form an autobiography, and we fear the ‘author’ 
has been prejudiced. The first chapter deals with the author's pedigree, 
and we learn that it was his father’s wish that he should become a clergy- 
man in the Church of Ireland; how different things might have been if 
Prof. Hull had carried out his father’s wishes. He learnt Hebrew, Greek 
and Latin ; and wasted a good deal of time and brain power in attempting 
shorthand, and ‘ would not advise anyone to go in for this art who did 
not intend to make it his profession.’ But the present reviewer (as 
Prof. Hull will doubtless concede) is not particularly ‘ brainy,’ yet had 
no dithculty in mastering shorthand! The second chapter is headed 
“Elizabeth, Duchess of Gordon,’ and from it we learn that Prof. Hull's 
father was chaplain to the Duchess, and the son fished in the waters on 
her estate, and landed his first fish, ‘a grilse of about ten pounds weight,’ 
there. We hope this was not his first fish story. He then deals with the 
Geological Survey and the great men he met there ; his ‘ expedition ’ down 
the Danube (for a fee of £600, £500 of which is still owing!) ; his visit to 
Mount Sinai and Palestine, when Major Kitchener R.E. (now Field- 
Marshal Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum, G.C.B., O.M.) wasa companion ; 
“Sir Howard Grubb, F.R.S.’, is the heading of a further chapter, Sir 
Howard having allowed the Professor to look through his telescope ; 
“ How I came to know the “ Book of Kells ’’’ (he had been some time in 
the Survey Office in Dublin; was brought up in Ireland at a school for 
the sons of Irish clergy ; yet had never heard of it!) ; ‘ The late Earl of 
Enniskillen (whom he met at Belfast) ; ‘Sir Robert Ball’; ‘ Sir Thomas 
Wardle and the Earl of Ducie’ (the Professor met both) ; ‘ The Royal 
Commission on Coal-reserves’ (when the Professor received a match- 
box) ; ‘The Darwin Celebration at Cambridge’ (Prof. Hull attended) ; 
“My Marriage and Wedding Tour’ (Prof. Hull took part) ; etc., etc. Brief 
references are made to ‘ Inter-Glacial Submergence,’ and the ‘ highly 
imaginative theory’ that the shells on Moel Tryfaen were placed there by 
ice ; an‘ absurd ’ theory which has found numerous supporters, ‘ amongst 
whom may be specially named Professor Percy F. Kendall.’ Personally, 
we should have preferred an account of Prof. Hull’s contribution to 
science ; of the discussions in which he had taken part, and of the very warm 
debates ; but perhaps he has reason for silence on these points. This 
would surely have been more useful than the information that when he 
was married, the girls of his “ wife’s Sunday School formed a line on both 
sides to the door of the church.’ Why haven’t we been told in which pocket 
he placed the ring ? 
gti Mar. 1. 
