Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 375 



history of Western Europe is the persistence of volcanic activity 

 along the site of the British Isles .... that from primasval 

 time, vaguely termed Archsean, onward to that of the older Tertiary 

 clays and sands of the south-east of England — that is to say, through 

 b}^ far the largest part of geological history, as chronicled in the 

 stratified crust of the globe — this long strip of territory continued to 

 be intermittently a theatre of volcanic action. Every great division 

 of Palseozoic time was marked by volcanic eruptions, sometimes over 

 tracts hundreds of square miles in area and on a colossal scale. 

 After a long period of quiescence during the Mesozoic ages, the 

 renewed outbreak of volcanic energy in older Tertiary time, so 

 marked over the western half of Europe, reached its maximum of 

 development along the Atlantic border from the north of England 

 and Ireland, through the chain of the Inner Hebrides to the Faroe 

 Islands, Iceland, and Greenland " (p. 467). 



These are at best but samples, drawn at a venture, from the vast 

 stores of valuable information which have been garnered in these 

 volumes by their author. Under his guidance we may study the 

 various forms and behaviour of eruptive rocks, whether uprising as 

 lava-flows on the surface, or, when the vents of volcanoes became 

 plugged up, the final efforts which have led to the intrusion of sills 

 and dykes, not only into the rocks beneath the volcanic sheets, but 

 also in many instances into at least the older parts of the sheets them- 

 selves. And we may learn how these subterranean manifestations 

 of volcanic action may be seen and recognized in almost every district. 



Nor has the nature of the volcanic products of eruptions been 

 left unstudied or unrecorded, and the student may gather much as to 

 the behaviour of eruptive rocks in the field on a large scale, and if 

 their microscopic structure is not so extensively dealt with, yet 

 sufficient is said upon microlites, perlitic and spherulitic structures, 

 granophyres, dolerites, etc., to satisfy all but the most exacting and 

 enthusiastic of petrologists. 



In closing this notice of the Ancient Volcanoes of Britain we 

 cannot fail to congratulate the author on the very splendid series 

 of illustrations with which the pages of this admirable work abound. 

 The maps and printing are excellent, and evidently the publishers 

 have determined to make the book a complete success. Every 

 geologist who can spare 36s. will secure a copy for his private 

 library ; every public library and book-club will order a copy ; 

 of course Mudie's will take several ! and we venture to believe they 

 will be read by many. 



Geological Society of London. 



I._june 23, 1897.— Dr. Henry Hicks, F.K.S., President, in the 

 Chair. The following communications were read : — 



1. " Notes on a Collection of Eocks and Fossils from Franz Josef 

 Land, made by the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition during 18l»4:-6." 

 By E. T. Newton, F.R.S., F.G.S., and J. J. H. Teall, Esq., M.A., 

 F.E.S., V.P.G.S. 



