lievieics — Lord Avehury\ Scemrij of England. 233 



or in the publications of learned and often of local societies ; but 

 there is, after all, much truth in this aspect, and more still in the 

 fact that very few of our geological writers possess the happy 

 method of placing the dry bones of our science in an attractive 

 manner before the ordinary reader, or can show that there is 

 a romance and poetry in the geological aspect of "hill and dale and 

 wooded grove," which may even move the commonplace reader, 

 ■or the ordinary man in the omnibus, to enquire what are the causes 

 which have brought about the present scenery of England. 



In the earlier days of our science, geological observers dealt 

 largely in cataclysmic and paroxysmal action, and firmly believed 

 in the sea as the great denuding agent, assisted by the frequent and 

 often sudden elevation or subsidence of the land by volcanic or 

 earthquake movements, and that to these agencies the wearing away 

 and carving out of the land were chiefly due. 



One is readily impressed by noise and commotion ; thus the loud 

 •striking of the clock affects one's nerves more forcibly than the 

 gentle yet constant oscillation of the pendulum, doing its ceaseless 

 jet silent work. So, too, in Nature the lightning and thunder of 

 the tempest, the eruption of the volcano, the violence of the 

 earthquake, and the roar of the storm-swept sea, vividly impress our 

 imagination ; but it needs a careful observer to appreciate the work 

 •of her quieter but ceaseless agents, the sun, the atmosphere, frost, 

 snow, and ice, and her constant carriers, rain and rivers. 



Lord Avebury cites Mackintosh's " Scenery of England and 

 Wales " " as an illustration of a work written under the belief that 

 the configuration, and consequently the scenery, was mainly due to 

 marine action." " Subsequent researches have led to, I think, 

 a general agreement that subaerial action has been the predominant 

 partner." Again, "The sea" (writes the author) "can only act 

 along the coast-line ; rain is ubiquitous." " Sea-erosion is horizontal 

 and leaves headlands ; rain-erosion is vertical and leaves hills ; 

 along the coast the harder rocks stand out, inland they stand 

 up" (p. 136). 



It was because of their apparent insignificance that rain and 

 rivers, frost, snow, and ice were at first neglected by geologists ; 

 now we see the vast importance of these agents, whilst still crediting 

 the sea, the volcano, and earthquake with their due. In the pages 

 of this Magazine may be found numerous articles by Mr. Poulett 

 Scrope (1866), Sir A. Geikie, Mr. W. Whitaker (1867), Colonel 

 Oreenwood, and many other writers, showing how fully the effect 

 of subaerial denudation has been understood and advocated bj' all 

 advanced geologists long since. 



But to return to "The Scenery of England." The first two 

 chapters are devoted to sedimentary and other geology, and give 

 the reader an epitome of the igneous and sedimentary rocks from the 

 Archtean to the Quaternary, the latest having by far the larger 

 share of space given to them, for, although the youngest and most 

 superficial deposits, they affect the present surface of the ground, 

 ^nd often mask the older rocks beneath Drift and Boulder-clay, or 



