Reviews—The South Wales Coalfield. 371 
leading idea of the book. We have chosen the examples from the 
mammals for convenience sake, and because a great part of the work 
is devoted to this class by the author himself. We refrain from 
pointing out other matters in regard to which we disagree with the 
author; indeed, it is high time that we should speak of the excellent 
qualities of the book. 
Everyone who has done work on similar subjects knows by 
experience how tedious it is to collect the necessary information 
whenever he has to travel outside his own department. In the 
present volume a prodigious amount of facts from many classes of 
the animal kingdom, with frequent references also to the flora, 
have been laboriously collected and discussed. In going over the 
bibliographical appendix we become aware that all the more recent 
publications on geographical distribution deal with but one or a few 
zoological subdivisions; so that Dr. Scharff’s book is really an 
indispensable repertory of zoogeography, brought up to date. At 
‘the same time it loses nothing of its suggestiveness for advocating 
in some instances views whose accuracy is, in our opinion, open to 
discussion. 
The numerous maps showing the distribution of single species or 
genera are exceedingly useful and instructive, many of them 
representing a vast amount of painstaking work. The hippopotamus 
(p. 78) shouting “‘ Excelsior!” from the top of his mountain is both 
-amusing and harmless. 
On the whole it is a volume of great utility which we should be 
sorry to miss from our bookshelf. C. I. Forsyrw Magor. 
IV.—Tue Gerotoey or tar Sourh Watrs Coatrrenp. Part IX: Wesr 
GowER AND THE Counrry ARounD PemBrey. By Dr. A. Srrawan, 
F.R.S., with notes by B. S. N. Witxmson, T. C. Canrritz, and 
EK. KE. L. Drxon. Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 1907. 
Price 8d. 
‘(]\ELIS is an inexpensive explanation of an interesting tract in South 
Wales; the western half of the promontory of Gower with 
a part of the main coalfield between Llanelly and Pembrey. The 
advantage of a ‘solid’ as well as a ‘drift’ edition of the map is 
apparent. Placing the two sheets side by side, we can readily grasp 
the structural features of the country from the solid edition, but it 
would be a difficult matter to decipher this from the map which shows 
the greater portion of West Gower to be covered with Boulder-clay. 
For practical purposes both editions are equally necessary, and this 
fact is accentuated by the addition in the memoir of a valuable map 
of the unproved coalfield beneath the Loughor and Burry Estuary. 
The rocks described include the Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, 
Carboniferous, Trias, and Superficial deposits; and it is worthy of 
note that attention has been given to the zonal divisions in the 
Carboniferous Limestone Series. Among the Pleistocene phenomena, 
the Raised Beach, the Bone Caves, and the Glacial drift furnish 
interesting data which support the conclusion that the mammalia 
lived before the first manifestations of glacial action in South Wales. 
