120 Reviews— Baker’s ‘ Maxims ;’ Kelly's ‘ Errors, 
occupied by, the steam, where there was no resistance. Immediately when 
the steam condensed, the contents of the fissure dropped down in the water; 
pebbles being heaviest, first; next, sand, which filled up the interstices 
between them ; and lastly, the muddy sediment, deposited as future shale. 
A second effort to produce sand and mud would probably be in the same 
fissure; and a third, or perhaps several. In the early efforts, the sides of 
the fissure, with its fresh fracture, would have produced a large quantity of 
quartz-pebbles derived from the quartz-veis. After repeated efforts, the 
sides of the fissure would become worn and smooth, and in the severity of 
the friction the veins themselves would have been ground to sand. In 
later efforts, pebbles would get more scarce, and sand and mud more 
plentiful. In the last discharges from the fissure, probably little or no 
pebbles, but sand and mud more plentiful for the remaining beds of hard 
and soft rocks,’ &c. &c. 
Mr. Kelly’s idea is, rightly or wrongly (we think the latter), that 
‘a mistaken trust in Paleontology has been the cause of many an 
error’ (Preface, p. x.) ; and that the true idea of geological systems 
should be, that they are ‘all clearly separated from each other by 
unconformable junctions, showing the groups of rocks to be as 
distinct as the groups of plants or animals’ (p. 6). Being best 
acquainted with the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous rocks, 
he traces these formations throughout the border-counties of Wales 
and the whole of Ireland ; his result being, as has been anticipated 
by some geologists of repute, especially Professor Jukes, that the 
lower portions of the Old Red Sandstone should be grouped with the 
Silurian (to form one system, his ‘ Transition’); and that the upper 
part, unconformable on the rest, as has been proved long ago by 
Griffith, Murchison, and the Irish Survey, more lately by Geikie in 
Scotland, and now by Mr. Kelly himself in the border-counties of 
Wales, should be grouped with the Carboniferous. We think a 
little faith in Paleontology a bad thing ; and that fuller light would 
show him that the distinct character of the fauna, even in this 
upper member of the Old Red Sandstone, fully entitles us to adhere 
to the received classification. Fossils are not everything; but, 
seeing that we have an unconformity in the midst of the Coal-mea- 
sures without its much altering the flora and fauna, we may well 
pause at the threshold of this new theory. Has Mr. Kelly visited 
Scotland? We think not. When he does, and we hope he will, he 
will understand all that has been lately written proving the identity 
of the Devonian and Old Red Sandstone in all its parts. 
We must leave our author, recommending him to stick to the 
hammer, and yet not lay down the pen. His style is free and 
humorous, pithy, generally full of force, and of truth too, so far as 
he knows it. But then there are, we are sure; many lines of geo- 
logical research on which his clever pencil and ready pen might 
be employed with profit. We know something of him, and believe 
that poetry, rather than hard facts, is the legitimate domain in which 
he is a master. Yet we may be mistaken. He is evidently an 
earnest student of the Bible, and believes that he can see the way to 
harmonize what he knows of the Earth with what he believes of the 
Word. There is that in the latter volume which appeals to the 
