Reviews—Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 175 
RAVLHws. 
mre ok Roe 
J.—Memorrs oF THE GegoLocicAL SurRvEY or ENGLAND AND 
Wares. THE Grontocy oF THE YoRKSHIRE COAL-FIELD. By 
Prof. A. H. Green, M.A., and Messrs. R. Russetz, J. RB. 
Daxyns, J. C. Warp, C. Fox Straneways, W. H. Danton and 
T. V. Hotmes. Published by order of the Lords Commissioners 
of H. M. Treasury. Dated 1878, but not published until 1879. 
HIS work, perhaps the most important economically of the 
Memoirs of the Geological Survey, is also the largest in size 
yet published, exceeding in bulk even Portlock’s Report on the 
Geology of Londonderry. Intending purchasers, however, will be 
agreeably surprised to find that its price has not been fixed in 
accordance with the scale adopted in the case of some recent Survey 
Memoirs. 'T'wo guineas is the sum asked for this volume, containing 
823 pages, 26 plates (chiefly sheets of comparative sections), and 
125 woodcuts. Something might have been done to improve the 
appearance of the woodcuts, most of which have that shabby look 
almost peculiar now-a-days to Survey Memoirs; an appearance for 
which the original drawings are in no way to blame. An officer 
who finds his drawing treated as that for the frontispiece! of this 
book has been, can hardly look upon the result with satisfaction or 
even with equanimity. 
No mention is made of the Derbyshire part of the Coal-field; the 
maps, on a scale of six inches to a mile, ending with the Yorkshire 
boundary. ‘The country included in the memoir has therefore had 
the advantage throughout of the six-inch scale, which is absolutely 
necessary for good Coal-measure work. In addition, one-inch 
geological maps reduced from six-inch work are better in every 
respect than one-inch maps can otherwise be. The want of six-inch 
maps in the southern part of the great Coal-field is regretted by 
Prof. Ramsay, the Director-General of the Geological Survey, in his 
preface. But though eight years or more have elapsed since the 
completion of the geological fieldwork on the Yorkshire side, no 
steps have since been taken by the Ordnance Survey to give Derby- 
shire the advantage of six-inch maps. 
Though the book is so large that it might well have been 
published in two volumes instead of one, there is scarcely a single 
superfluous sentence in it. The editor and chief contributor, Prof. 
Green, has done his work so well that it is a model of clear and con- 
cise arrangement and expression. There are four great chapters, 
each being subdivided into sections. The first chapter is short and 
introductory, and contains a brief sketch of the physical geography 
of the district. Remarks, also, are made on the degree of complete- 
ness possible in geological surveying, and its variation with the 
amount of evidence. Cautions are given as to the weight to be 
attached to the prolongation of faults across unproved country ; and 
the desirability of borings in such places is urged, ete. 
1 The Reviewer’s little boy, having caught sight of it, remarked its inferiority to 
the illustrations in the “ Boy’s Own Paper.” 
