Brief Notices. 179 



Earth Pillars in the Tyrol ; High Force, Teesdale ; Over-deepened 

 Valley due to Glaciation, Ross-shire ; Trent Bore at Gainsborough ; 

 and the Great Barrier Reef, East Australia. 



The variety of topics which had to be treated in a limited space has 

 tended to render too meagre some of the explanations and definitions, 

 as in the case of dry Chalk valleys (p. 100), while a little more might 

 have been said in description of such features as tundras and steppes. 

 With reference to the latter the picture of the Kirghiz Encampment 

 recalls to mind some of the desolate habitations in the Hebrides. 

 In the definitions of shingle and gravel (p. 35) we should have 

 indicated the more pebbly nature of the former, compared with the 

 mixed and subangular character of the latter. The size of the stones 

 is not usually regarded as a distinction, when we bear in mind some 

 of the glacial 'cannon-shot' gravels. These, however, are trifling- 

 criticisms. The author has given so much information admirably 

 expressed and illustrated, that not only students and teachers, but 

 general readers who take interest in scenery will be glad to learn 

 about the modes of sculpture of mountain, hill, and valley, of the 

 varied origin of lakes, the development of rivers, the circulation of 

 water underground, the formation of soils, and the many other subjects 

 explained and discussed in this attractive volume. 



IV. — Brief Notices. 



1. London Springs and Spas. — In a work entitled Springs, 

 Streams, and Spas of London : History and Associations, by Alfred 

 Stanley Eoord, 1910, the author has given a full and interesting- 

 account of the courses of the old (now buried) rivers and of the 

 various noteworthy springs that supplied ordinary shallow wells and 

 pumps, holy wells, and spas or mineral-water establishments. The 

 conduit system of water-supply is described, and a few particulars are 

 given of artesian wells. There are analyses of some mineral waters, 

 and illustrations of Islington, Beulah, Streatham, and other spas, also 

 of conduit-houses and old pumps. The geological features in con- 

 nexion with springs and wells likewise receive attention. 



2. The Glacial Geology of Norfolk and Suffolk is the title 

 of a small work by Mr. F. W. Harmer (Jarrold and Sons, 1911, price 

 Is. net). The essay, which has been reprinted from the Transactions 

 of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society (vol. ix, pt. i, 1910), 

 comprises an account of the North Sea Drift (Cromer Till and 

 Contorted Drift) and of the Great Eastern Glacier that led to the 

 formation of the Chalky Boulder-clay. The various Glacial Sands 

 and Gravels are likewise described, and remarks are made on the 

 origin of the valleys of Central Norfolk. The work contains, in fact, 

 an interesting account, without tedious detail, of the Glacial period as 

 it affected Norfolk ; and it is illustrated by a contour map showing 

 the distribution of the Drift and several pictorial views. 



3. An account of Experiments with 'Water-finders' has been 

 contributed by Professor J. W^ertheimer to the Journal of the Royal 

 Society of Arts (vol. lix, February 24, 1911). Experiments were 

 made to ascertain the position of a well in the kitchen of Brislington 



