88 RevieiDs — Prof. Bonney's Story of Our Planet. 



entitled " The Story of the Sun." Prof. Bonney thinks, and rightly, 

 that tliere is already an ample supply of text-books, guides and 

 handbooks, in the English language to satisfy the requirements of 

 every living student, but, besides this class, there is a still larger 

 body of intelligent educated persons who feel much interest in the 

 history of the earth on which they live but who have neither the leisure, 

 nor the inclination, to master the technicalities of any one branch of 

 science, or to enter into their minute details : for this reason the 

 author has striven, by avoiding too many references, and especially 

 dry scientific terms, to make a really readable book for the public at 

 large. 



In the introductory chapter the author briefly alludes to the 

 historical records of the rocks, and the fossils which they contain. 

 After this introspection of the earth he proceeds to its extrospection, 

 in relation to the other planetary bodies and the sun. He then deals 

 with the land-regions, their distribution over the globe, and the 

 manner in which they are raised up in the continents and depressed 

 in the oceanic areas. From this he passes to the consideration of the 

 aerial region, and he discusses the great air-envelope of our globe, 

 and the movements to which it is subjected. The waters of our 

 planet next claim attention ; this section is illustrated by some 

 useful coloured maps of the ocean-basins; that on p. 38 of the ocean- 

 currents is, however, hardly satisfactory as a process-block, and 

 a far better diagram ought to have occupied its place. 



In part 2, the author describes the work performed by Nature's 

 agents in sculpturing and moulding the solid framework of our 

 globe. The first agent being the atmospkere, naturally includes 

 the action of sun and wind in the disintegrating of rocks and soils, 

 and the formation of sand-dunes and rock-pillars. It is difficult 

 sometimes to define the limits of the action of sun and wind apai't 

 from that of rain and rivers, except, of course, in so-called "rainless 

 districts." 



The transporting power of rivers is next discussed and the means 

 by which they remove the solid crust of the earth, both in suspension 

 and solution. The action of ice as a sculptor of the rocks, and as a 

 carrier of material from higher to lower grounds, and in the distri- 

 bution of erratics over land and sea, is also described and illustrated. 



The work of the ocean, although limited to the margin of the 

 land, produces considerable changes, by additions and subtractions, 

 along our coast-lines, and by alterations in the contours and the 

 depths of channels near the mouths of rivers, and by the changes in 

 shoals, sandbanks, etc. 



Under the title of "the Proletariat of Nature," by which the 

 author evidently means all the lower forms of animal and vegetable 

 life, the Mosses, the Lichens, the Foraminifera, Eadiolaria, Sponges 

 and Corals, Professor Bonney discusses the effects which these 

 humble but prolific organisms produce, either as conservators of the 

 surface — as in the cases of Lichens, Mosses, and vegetation generally 

 — or as actual builders-up of earth-masses, as in the case of Coral- 

 reefs, etc. 



