Reviews — Progress of the British Museum. 527 



furnace refuse, have been successfully planted. Larger schemes for 

 woodlands, more directly intended for economic purposes, are under 

 consideration, and as their success depends fundamentally on geological 

 considerations, on soil and substrata, on ground-water and drainage, 

 which affect available plant-food, it is well that geologists should 

 give some attention to the subject. We are glad, therefore, to see an 

 article on "The Use of Geology to the Porester " (Trans. Foresters 

 and Gardeners Society of Argyll for 1912, 1913), by Dr. C. B. 

 Crampton, of the Geological Survey of Scotland. He emphasizes 

 the need of giving attention to the horizontal and vertical distribution 

 of the various rocks and soils, and their relations to the physical 

 features. The formation of soils and subsoils on different types of 

 rock is briefly explained ; descriptions are given of screes, landslips, 

 rain-wash, pan, etc. ; and there ai-e notes of trees and shrubs suitable 

 for certain situations, having regard to geological, physiographical, 

 and climatic conditions. 



Special reference is made to the Scottish Highlands and to the 

 effects of glaciation, whereby old soils were removed and large tracts 

 rendered infertile, the results being summed up as "a baring of 

 glaciated unweathered rock surfaces at all levels — a smothering of 

 wide areas by sterilised and more or less impermeable boulder clay, 

 and the piling np of loose glacial debris and leached sands and 

 gravels ". Extensive areas of this transported material, however, 

 are under cultivation by the agriculturist, but as a rule they would 

 not be suitable for plantations without the benefit of tillage. 



While some of the Geological Survey maps, especially those of the 

 old hand-coloured editions, "form but a framework so far as the 

 needs of the forester are concerned, since they give little indication 

 of the presence or nature of subsoils and soils," it should have been 

 added by the author that for South Wales and for many Midland and 

 Southern counties of England, there are a number of published and 

 many more MS,, six-inch geological maps (copies of which can be 

 purchased) that show in detail the superficial deposits. Moreover, 

 even the published one-inch drift maps have been found by Mr. A. D. 

 Hall and Dr. E. J. Russell to be of essential service in their important 

 soil researches ; and such maps are now issued by the Geological 

 Survey of Scotland.^ 



III. — Annual Report of the Ehitish Museum for 1912. Pp. 212. 



H.M. Stationery Office, 1913. Price lOid. net. 

 fT'^HE annual return, which made its customarily tardy appearance 

 X at the end of the summer, some seven months after the close 

 of the year to which it refers, contains beneath a forbiddingly 

 statistical air a great deal of interest, and is eloquent testimony to 

 the important work being done by the expert staff a.t both branches 

 of this great institution. Considerably more than half the number 

 of pages are taken up with the Natural History Museum, and it is 

 with these that we are mainly concerned here. We are glad to note 

 a recovery from the great drop in the number of visitors reported in 

 the previous year, though the numbers still remain some way below 

 ^ See Geol. Mag., 1911, p. 377. 



