REVIEWS. 



The Geology of the British Empire. By F. E. C. Reed, M.A., 

 Sc.D. 8vo., pp. viii + 480, with 12 folding maps and 13 maps 

 and sections in the text. London : Edward Arnold. 1921. 

 Price 40s. 



rpHE title of this volnme reminds one of the curious but un- 

 -*- profitable discussions as to the meaning of the word " empire ". 

 Can there be an empire without an emperor ? There is an Emperor 

 of India, but not an Emperor of England : is India then a part — or 

 the whole — of the British Empire, and England not ? But if the 

 intention of the title is clear, such verbal subtleties do not concern 

 us, and in this case there is only one respect in which any mis- 

 apprehension can arise. No account of the geology of the British 

 Isles is included. But we are not a logical race, and it is unlikely 

 that any British geologist would think of referring to a Geology of the 

 British Empire for a description of the geology of the British Isles. He 

 would recognize that convenience is more important than logic. 

 There are manuals of all sizes dealing with British geology, but 

 information with regard to the geology of the outlying dominions is 

 often difficult of access. It is for such information that he would 

 look to a " Geology of the British Empire ", and in the volume 

 under review he would find it. 



For purposes of reference the value of Dr. Reed's book is un- 

 questionable. It has been carefully compiled and brought up to 

 date. It is reasonably full and complete in all its parts, and its 

 lists of references are ample. If a geologist wishes to find out 

 what is known about a distant part of the British dominions he will 

 discover it here more easily than anywhere else. 



There is no pretence to originality. The author is not developing 

 his own views : he is expounding those that are currently accepted. 

 It might, perhaps, have been an advantage if he had been a little 

 more critical, and had given some indication of the strength or 

 weakness of the evidence ; for in many cases the current opinion 

 rests on a very slender foundation. This is exemplified even in 

 India, where there has been a Geological Survey for considerably 

 more than half a century. According to the official view the whole 

 of the pre-Gondwana rocks of the Peninsula are of earlier date than 

 the Cambrian. There is no real evidence in favour of this opinion, 

 and the best that can be said for it is that there is no evidence 

 against it. Dr. Reed hardly em j)ha sizes sufficiently the extreme 

 uncertainty of the correlation. 



The amount of information that Dr. Reed has contrived to 

 pack into his pages is enormous. It seems that everything is 

 noticed. Occasionally, indeed, the notice is so slight that it becomes 

 unintelligible to those who are not already acquainted with its 

 subject. Thus the " cock-pits " of Jamaica are mentioned, but the 

 term is not explained, and the very remarkable features of the cock- 



