86 Be views — Geology of Mid-Argyll. 



The little book before us, by the President of the Geological 

 Society, is well calculated to promote this object ; indeed, it was 

 written as an introduction for those who will subsequently proceed to 

 more advanced treatises and as a guide to those general readers who 

 simply desire to obtain some idea of the science. As far as possible 

 in a limited space the author has provided good and stimulating 

 material for both classes of enquirers, a task alwaj's difficult, and if, 

 as will surely be the case, the student finds that the information on 

 this or that point is too meagre, he will, we trust, be induced to turn, 

 to other guides and philosophers, if not to the classroom where 

 Dr. Marr has so long and successfully expounded the principles of 

 geology and the methods of research. 



The book is illustrated by many diagrams and by several 

 beautiful photographs, notably those of a glacier, glaciated rocks, 

 graptolites, a trilobite, and nummulites. 



We are doubtful whether the diagram of fan-structure, fig. 15, p. 93, 

 would be easily intelligible to the student. It ratlier represents an 

 anticlinorium than the structure en eventail where the bands of rock 

 in a doubly inverted anticline spread out in fan-like form, as 

 figured in Sir A, Geikie's Textbook, vol. i (1903), p. 678, or in 

 Chamberlin & Salisbury's Geology, p. 484. In saying this we 

 admit that a figure somewhat similar to that in the book before 

 us was given by Lapworth in his " Secret of the Highlands," 

 Geological Magazine for 1883, Plate V, but we think that the 

 true fan-structure of A. Favre, Heira, and others is rej^resented in 

 Plate VIII, Figs. 6 and 7, accompanying the same article. Such 

 a handy book is certain to be taken up by many readers. 



II. — Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 



The Geology of Mid - Argyll. By J. B. Hill, R.N., with 

 the collaboration of B. N. Peach, LL.D., F.R.S., 0. T. Clough, 

 M.A., and H. Kynaston, B.A. With Petrological Notes by 

 J. J. H. Teall, D.Sc, F.E.S., and J. S. Flett, M.B., D.Sc. 

 pp. vi, 166. (1905. Price 3s.) 



THE area embraced in this memoir, very lucidly described by 

 Mr. Hill in the Introductory Chapter, extends from the borders 

 of Upper Loch Fyne into the district of Lome on the north-west 

 and to Cowal on the south-east. The capital of Argyllshire stands 

 near the centre, and there is an excellent photographic frontispiece 

 showing Inveraray Castle and the raised-beach platform that fringes 

 Loch Fyne. A great part of the district is formed of metamorphio 

 schists, including slates, quartzites, schistose grits, and limestones, 

 together with mica schists, graphite schists, and the problematical 

 "Green Beds," which may have originated as clastic rocks derived 

 from basic igneous rocks. Lower Old Bed Sandstone and con- 

 glomerate with andesites, etc., occur in the north-western region. 

 The most mountainous portion is that in the north-east, on the 

 borders of which the ancient schistose rocks of Beinn Buidhe 



