Notice of the Wo?iders of Geology. 5 



telligible by itself, and all are united in a consistent harmony and 

 beauty. 



The numerous illustrations of the Wonders of Geology are well 

 selected and beautifully executed. Finer wood cuts cannot be 

 found, in any work of science ; they are, of course, inserted in the 

 text, and thus the figures and descriptions accompany each other. 

 In studying the organic remains in this work, the student, al- 

 though without a cabinet, gains great assistance from such excel- 

 lent figures. Bones and skeletons, and fragments of birds, quad- 

 rupeds, and fishes ; shells in all their endless variety ; corals and 

 coralline rocks ; the crinoidea or lily-shaped animals, and all 

 the rich variety of zoophytes, or animal structures, in form, re- 

 sembling plants ; the vegetable remains, especially the leaves 

 and stems, exuberant in the coral formation, beyond the con- 

 ception and belief of one who is not a geologist ; all these are 

 fully illustrated in Dr. Mantell's work, and all necessary sections 

 are appended, shewing the relations of strata, their dislocations, 

 elevations, depressions, inflexions, and lacerations, by intrusive 

 masses. It was evidently an important point, in Dr. Mantell's 

 view, to preserve a manageable form in his volumes by avoiding 

 folded plates, an object certainly very important, and in this work 

 happily attained ; but aside from this reason of convenience, we 

 should have wished for sections on a larger scale, especially in. 

 the general view of the relations of the groups and families of 

 rocks, giving the strata in more detail, and in more contrasted 

 distinctness. 



The order of the subordinate parts of the Wonders of Geology 

 is very good. The physical relation of the earth to the solar and 

 stellary systems is set forth, both in the beginning and conclusion 

 of the work, in connection with some of the grand deductions of 

 modern astronomy ; the general classification of the rocks, and 

 the great causes that are operating to produce geological changes, 

 are indicated, and the consistency of the whole with divine rev- 

 elation is successfully maintained. 



It was natural for the author to write with fullness upon the 

 tertiary and secondary formations, since England is so opulent in 

 interesting facts relating to these departments, and Dr. Mantell 

 himself has happily illustrated the tertiary and upper secondary 

 by his own beautiful discoveries, some of them unique and very 

 remarkable. 



