176' Remews — Page's Popular Geology. 



But these are generally prepared for sale by men of universal know- 

 ledge, who, with the help of" scissors and paste," are able at a few 

 days' notice to send to press an introduction to Painting, Pugilism, or 

 Palasontology, as required. Such productions are utterly worthless, 

 but in the hands of an enterprising publisher, who can give them an 

 attractive appearance, they sell, and unfortunately in a double sense. 

 It is a gain to science when a popular volume is prepared by one 

 who is really acquainted with his subject ; such a volume we have 

 before us. Mr. Page, however, must not continue to imagine that 

 such attempts have not been successfully made by others. We need 

 only remind him of that charming volume of Prof. Phillips, pub- 

 lished in 1860, under the title of " Life on the Earth," and another 

 by Prof. Ansted, some two or three years back, entitled " The great 

 Stone Book of Nature." 



This is one of the best of Mr. Page's many good books. It is 

 written in a flowing popular style. Without illustration or any 

 extraneous aid the narrative must prove attractive to any intelligent 

 reader. As a specimen of his style we quote his notice of the changes 

 which are continually taking place on the earth's crust. 



" To the casual observer the hills and valleys that surround him 

 appear unchanged and unchangeable. The plains and battle-fields 

 mentioned in ancient history, the sites of cities and harbours, the 

 courses of rivers, and the contour of mountains, are much the same 

 as when described one thousand, two thousand, or even four thousand 

 years ago. But to him who looks a little more narrowly the case is 

 altogether different. The stream in the valley has cut for itself a 

 deeper channel, and has repeatedly shifted its course — eating away 

 the banks on one side, and laying down spits of new ground on the 

 other. The cliffs in the hills are more weather-worn and rounded, 

 and a larger mound of rock-debris has accumulated at their bases. 

 The lakes of the old historic plain are partly converted into marshes, 

 and the marshes into meadow-land ; the site of the old city on the 

 sea-cliff has been partly wasted away by the encroaching waves ; 

 and the ancient harbour, once at the river-mouth, is now a goodly 

 mile inland, and separated from the sea by a flat alluvial delta. 

 The Nilotic plain is not precisely the same as when described by 

 Herodotus ; the sunderbunds or mud-islands of the Ganges have 

 been largely augmented during the last two hundred years ; and 

 many areas that were laid down on the charts of our earlier traders 

 as mud-flats now form fertile portions of the great Chinese plain. 

 Vesuvius has repeatedly changed its aspects since Herculaneum and 

 Pompeii were buried beneath its ejections ; and there is scarcely an 

 active volcano that has not materially added to its bulk since the 

 commencement of the current century. Such changes are incessant, 

 and though individually they may seem insignificant, yet when 

 viewed in the aggregate, and continued from century to century, 

 they assume a magnitude commensurate with the crust of the globe 

 itself, every portion of which has repeatedly suffered degradation 

 and renovation, been repeatedly spread beneath the waters as sedi- 

 ment, and as repeatedly reconstructed into newer strata and upheaved 



