Reviews—C. Fox-Strangways—ZTurassic Rocks of Britain. 416 
dey, Jah W/ BE aH Wwe fe 
T.—Memorrs oF THE GrotocicaL Survey oF THE Unirep Krnepom. 
Tue Jurassic Rooxs oF Britain. By C. Fox-Srraneways, 
F.G.S. Vol. I., Yorkshire, pp. 551, including Index, price 8s. 6d. 
Vol. Il. (Yorkshire) Tables of Fossils, pp. 250, price 12s. 1892. 
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Limited. 
FTER a brief outline of the physical features of the district 
and the system of classification adopted, Mr. Strangways 
draws attention to the progress of geological enquiry with reference 
to the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire. This piece of historical geology 
is not without interest to the general reader, since there is a touch 
of quaintness in the attempts of the earlier observers to account for 
so many natural curiosities. Hast Yorkshire, moreover, even before 
the days of Phillips, had attracted the notice of William Smith, the 
father of stratigraphical paleontology, and the genuine Yorkshireman 
may comfort himself with the reflection that this line of observation, 
which is the very backbone of geological science, was as much 
impressed on Smith’s mind by an inspection of the Hambletons 
and the Howardians as by that of the Cotteswolds themselves. 
These hills, then, may share with the Cotteswolds the honour of 
having cradled the infant science, which found its first expression 
in ‘Strata identified by organized fossils.” The region was sub- 
sequently rendered classic ground through the publications of 
Phillips, who brought the geology of East Yorkshire well to the 
front some sixty-four years ago. 
To survey such a district and to write the official memoir on 
its geology was no unpleasant, if no very easy task. There is much 
that is difficult in the stratigraphy of certain parts of Hast Yorkshire, 
yet nothing that can be called absolutely obscure. The beds, too, 
vary both within the district itself, and also as a whole by com- 
parison with those of other parts of England, yet not to such an 
extent but what they may be correlated. Hence the difficulties are 
not insuperable, yet sufficient to give zest to the enquiry and to 
yield credit when they have been fairly surmounted. The author 
commenced operations about the time when a long lull in the 
geological investigation of Hast Yorkshire-had been succeeded by a 
period of awakening interest. The classical volume of Phillips 
possessed all the charm which usually belongs to a pioneer’s work ; 
whilst to the average compiler it seemed to have told the tale so 
completely that there was nothing left for the next generation but 
to accept without question his reading of the rocks. Yet there had 
long been doubts in some quarters as to the precise value of certain 
of Phillips’ conclusions, and these doubts had found a partial 
expression in the writings of Oppel and Wright. The publication 
of the Survey Memoir on the Jurassic Rocks of the Midlands by 
Prof. Judd, the series of papers by Mr. Hudleston in the Proceedings 
of the Geologists’ Association and the important work on the York- 
shire Lias by Messrs. Tate and Blake, all proceeded on the basis of 
original and independent investigation, free from too close an 
