Berietrs—E. Bale's Peak of Derbi/s/iin: 91 



of their original appearance " (the italics are ours). The figures are 

 somewhat grotes(j[ue libels on the fossils. Of what use can it be to 

 depict Produclns giganteus — Miss Dale prefers to keep the fossil 

 feminine — as a shell 1^ inch across? Or what peculiar characteristics 

 oi Aviculopecten are supposed to be demonstrated hy tig. IG, which has 

 not seemed worthy of a specific name? An eri'or has arisen with 

 regard to the shell called Rhynchouella pugniis (fig. 13), which is 

 evidently B. plenrodon, and Oiihis rcsuinnuta (fig. 14), which is probably 

 a large example of 0. Michelini, but is certainly not typical of the 

 species it is supposed to represent. In all, eight spt^cimens of various 

 fossils are drawn on pi. iii, but only one has a specific name. We meet 

 the curiously inexact statement that " of moUusca there are com- 

 pai'atively few. The bivalve forms are represented by several 

 extinct species of Pecten and by an extinct genus called Aviculo- 

 pecten." We have been told on the same page that " all the 

 fossils are the remains of animals now extinct." Further on, wo are 

 told that "a genus with a straight shell has been called Orthoceius." 

 We would ask in all sincerity, is this the sort of thing which 

 will help the study of geology? Palajontologists, however, need 

 not despair, for Miss Dale, speaking of the Carboniferous sea, 

 tells us (p. 39) that " at the surface and in the depths of this sea, 

 lived and died countless numbers of animals such as man has never 

 seen "; and in the orthodox higher flights of imagination with which 

 certain authors have seen fit in the past to close their accounts of the 

 geology of the Coal-measures, we are told (p. 104) that " on the 

 ground beneath is a carpet of delicate green, composed of countless 

 smaller ferns and unknown flowerless plants, amongst which dart 

 lizards and now and then a scorpion." One is, however, tempted 

 to ask Miss Dale if the imperfections of the geological record aro 

 really as great as we are led to infer from these excerpts. 



Miss Dale prefers to call the shales and thin limestones between 

 the grits and the massif of limestone, Yuredale, and to them devotes 

 chap, iii (pp. 40-59). We note that she follows the old 1 inch 

 Survey map, and regards the beds as of great thickness and ast^umes 

 faults to account for any succession wheie there does not appear to 

 be room for such a mass, e.g. along the line of the London and 

 North- Western Railway. We are tempted to ask why similar faults 

 are not necessary on the eastern limb of the anticline near Eyam, 

 and further south between Youlgrave and the Grits or belweeu 

 the Grits and the limestone boundary at Matlock and W^inster. 

 Personally we think that the thickness of this series has been greatly 

 overestimated. Is there also a series of Yoredale sandstones as well 

 as Farey's grit? We regret that no continuous sections of these 

 beds from the various brooks are given, but as in the description 

 of the limestone, it does not seem to have been part ol the 

 authoress's plan to give any original account of the local geology. 

 The pakeontology of the shales, a subject of the highest importance, 

 is only mentioned to be dismissed, and only one locality where 

 "chiefly species of Gonialites, Aviculope.cten, and plant-remains" 

 were found is ^iven. A careful search will reward the worker in 



