Reviews—“ Scripture” Geology. 419 
the mud, and the mud for the duck’s bill’ As geologists, we must 
put in a plea for the manner in which the inorganic substances 
are treated in this quotation. We almost fancy it is possible that 
the atmosphere, the sand, and the mud may have other objects than 
the convenience of the bird, the ostrich, and the duck. However, 
the use of mud in a geological sense is not a point wherein we 
are qualified to argue with Mr. Marsden. 
He is fond of quoting inaccurate authorities, one of whom (p. 193) 
says, speaking of tree-ferns, ‘In tropical countries . .. there are 
many more species than in temperate climes, and some of these are 
arborescent, or of a tree-like size and luxuriance.? New Zealand, 
which is certainly not within the tropics, is, however, essentially 
the land of tree-ferns ; which fact is slightly irreconcileable with 
our author’s assumption. 
In spite of the orthodoxy of Mr. Marsden, he has a most unfor- 
tunate habit of quoting the ‘ Vestiges of Creation.’ It is certainly 
heretical enough to admit the points on which the writer of that 
remarkable work founded a somewhat -eorrect argument; but to 
quote the ‘Vestiges’ when wrong is the very extravagance of 
charity. Our author says on the authority of that work, “that the 
Pterodactyle was ‘a lizard about the size of a snipe.’ The large 
species of Pterodactyles described by Prof. Owen and Mr. Harry 
Seeley would seem, therefore, not to exist. Although Mr. Marsden 
is good enough to say, ‘It has pleased God, however, - to overrule and 
to utilize the mind and labours of Prof. Owen to confirm the truth 
of this portion of His revealed word,’ he has been sufficiently 
cautious to reserve the right of appeal to himself in controverted 
points. 
The fact that the planet Mercury was received into our solar 
system at the time of the creation of man is one on which our author 
appears to entertain no doubt. However, says Mr. Marsden, animal- 
men, having some resemblance to the lower animals, existed for ages 
before the ‘present creation of spiritual man. As the accomplished 
author of Ac@weorvn wa remarks— 
‘My infant intellect began 
T’ act when the archetypes of man, 
Dawn of a still-advancing day, 
Apes, sported o’er the marl and clay.’ 
He quotes Prof. Schaaffhausen to the effect ‘that the propor- 
tions of the Neanderthal skeleton do not differ from the ordinary 
standard ; which, considering how much longer one arm of the 
skeleton was than the other, is charging Prof. Schaaffhausen with 
a good deal. 
We -have only space for the notice of one further point in 
this work. The difficulty regarding Jonah and the whale is most 
satisfactorily disposed of. The fish was not living. It was ‘the 
ruins or floating carcase of a fish sufficiently denuded on its upper 
surface to swallow up the prophet into its cavity or belly, on his 
being thrown overboard.’ After Jonah had been in this unplea- 
santly odoriferous locality for three days, the fish ‘ vomited or ejected 
EE 2 
