Reviews— Geology of Melton Mowbray. 181 
forms of life have been protected from the action of such physical 
changes as transgressions and mountain building, for a very long 
period. There are regions which since the time of the great dis- 
turbances of the Upper Carboniferous have been practically untouched 
by such movements, and the history of these—extending over a very 
long period, as a rule from the Lower Gondwana down to the present 
day—is solely represented by the remains of successive land floras ; 
marine sediments are completely absent. It is true that in these 
places life was not exempt from the influence of climatic changes, nor 
from economic disturbances produced by the immigration of invading 
organisms, nor even from the effects of complete subsidence beneath 
the sea; nevertheless, floras followed one upon another in successive 
development, and the living world was less molested in these places 
than elsewhere: we shall therefore term them asylums.” 
We have referred to the author’s view on the diminution of the 
earth’s circumference. In his final sentences he remarks: ‘‘ If there 
were even a remote tendency in the contraction of the planet to 
establish a new, uniform radius; if the Atlantic subsidences which cut 
through our most valuable asylums, have actually been produced by 
an effort to establish planetary equilibrium; then we should have to 
fear a progressive diminution of the area inhabitable by land and 
freshwater animals. Not life itself, but a very important, and indeed 
the most highly organized, part of it would be doomed to final 
destruction, and would be restored to the pan-Thalassa. In face of 
these open questions let us rejoice in the sunshine, the starry 
firmament, and all the manifold diversity of the Face of the Earth, 
which has been produced by these very processes, recognizing, at the 
same time, to how great a degree life is controlled by the nature of 
the planet and its fortunes.” 
Il.—Memorrs oF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
Tur Gronrocy or THE Metron Mowsray District anp Souru-Hasr 
Norrinenamsuire. By G. W. Lamptuen, F.R.S., W. Grsson, 
D.Sc., C. B. Wepp, B.A., R. L. Saertocg, B.Sc., and B. Suira, 
M.A.; with notes by C. Fox-Srraneways, F.G.S. 8vo; pp. vi, 
118, with 4 plates and 10 text-illustrations. London, 1909. 
Price 2s. 35d. 
f{\HE area here described is largely a clay-district of Red Marl, 
Lower Lias, and Boulder-clay. It extends on the south from 
Loughborough Station, Quorndon, and Barrow-upon-Soar to Melton 
Mowbray, and on the north into the Vale of Belvoir; and it is 
perhaps most widely known as a hunting country. From a geological 
point of view it includes an unbroken sequence of strata from the 
Keuper Marls to the Lincolnshire Limestone, a series largely concealed 
by the Drift deposits. 
The memoir is an explanation of Sheet 142 of the new series colour- 
printed map, which is accompanied as usual by a geological section. 
This does not show the oldest strata proved in the area, which 
comprise Coal-measures that have been reached by borings beneath 
