Reviews— Quarterly Journal of Science. 121 
poetic instinct, as well as challenges devout study by the man of 
science ; and we cannot finish this short notice without expressing 
our real and earnest belief that such studies as our author has 
attempted will, in abler hands, bring forth much solid fruit. The 
task, as before said, is not an easy one. 
Tae QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ScIENCE. No. V. January, 1865. 
ESIDES the usual chronicles of Geology, Paleontology, Mine- 
ralogy, and Mining, this Number contains—I1st, A second article 
by Mr. E. Hull, F.G.S., on the History of the British Coal-measures ; 
2nd, A very interesting, comprehensive, and yet succinct review of 
the Relations of Geology and Geography to the History of Great 
Britain, and the causes of her greatness, by Mr. W. Pengelly, F.R.S. 
3rd, A chapter on Petroleum, by Dr. H. Draper of New York ; and 
an article on Metal-mining, by Dr. R. Angus Smith, F.R.S. 
Mr. Hutt here gives an account of the distribution of the Coal- 
formation beneath the more recent strata of the Central and Southern 
Counties of England, and shows, by a shaded diagram-map, the 
probable extent of the Scotch, the Central, and the Southern Coal- 
measures of Britain. 
Under the head of ‘ Nature of the Floor and Original Margin of 
the Carboniferous Strata,’ Mr. Hull says that the Carboniferous beds 
in South Wales succeed the Devonian in nearly regular sequence, 
whereas in the North of England and Wales, owing to disturbance 
and denudation, the floor of the Coal-measures is for the most part, 
if not altogether, Cambro-Silurian beds. From the outcrop of Cam- 
brian rocks in Leicestershire, and by tracing the boundaries of the 
Coal-fields of the Midland Counties through Warwickshire, S. 
Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Shropshire, into North Wales, 
frequent evidences of the proximity, or actual appearance, of a 
ridge or barrier of land, which formed the margin of the Carboni- 
ferous area, across the centre of England, may be found. Mr. Hull 
is of opinion that the Coal-measures originally formed two sepa- 
rate areas, one lying to the north, the other to the south of the 
‘ Barrier ; these two areas having subsequently been broken up into 
separate ‘ Coal-fields,’ which may be thus arranged :—orth of the 
Barrier—North Wales, Forest of Wyre, North and South Statford- 
shire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire, 
Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland; the Coal-fields of the 
central valley of Scotland having been probably connected with these 
round the East coast. South of the Barrier—South Wales, Somer- 
setshire, and supposed band along the Thames Valley. 
By tables of thicknesses of the Carboniferous series North of the 
Barrier it is shown that the greatest mass is attained in Lancashire 
(12,800 feet), decreasing in North Staffordshire (8,800 feet), and 
less than one-fourth in Leicestershire (3,100 feet). South of this 
elevated tract, in Glamorganshire, the thickness is 11,980 feet, 
whilst in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, it is only 3,210 feet. 
