232 Review of " Outlines of the 



The Sections are very elegant and instructive. Two of 

 them cross the whole extent of England, in its longest di- 

 rections : the one, from Land's End to the German Ocean ; 

 the other, from the Irish !sea, in Cumberland, to ihe Chan- 

 nel in Sussex. The third exfesids from the Irish Sea in 

 Cumberland, to *he North Sea in Durham : the fourth is a 

 section along the Valley of the Wye in Derbyshire; ex- 

 hibiting the openings of lateral dales into it, on the north, 

 &;c. : the fifth and sixth pass through the interesting islands 

 of Purbeck and Wight. 



The introduction to the work now claims some attention. 

 It contains a general view of those principles of geology, 

 which may be regarded, apart from all hypothesis, as estab- 

 lished ; and really, after all that has been said and written 

 of late, upon the imperfection and falsity of geological po- 

 sitions ; after witnessing the extensive scepticism of one 

 of the first geologists of England, in his late work ; and 

 observing the anxious doubts his writings have infused into 

 some, and the irritation produced by them upon others,swho 

 sawadeathblowgivento their favourite system; after this, we 

 are truly happy, that there are some principles of the Sci- 

 ence, that have lived through the furnace and come forth 

 with additional brightness. We are glad also to see other 

 principles , springing up and flourishisig, on the mouldering 

 ruins of former systems. We havenotroom to recapitulate 

 all these principles, as the work before us presents them ; 

 but two or three points are discussed more fully than the 

 rest, because newer and more interesting ; and to these, 

 we would pay some attention. 



The first relates to the distribution and character of or- 

 ganick remains. It is too early to generalise much concer- 

 ning these ; as even in England, where they have received 

 the greatest attention, the subject is in a mere incipient 

 state. Yet some of the laws of their arrangement are de- 

 termined to a good degree of certainty. They are confi- 

 ned to secondary strata, although Dr. Mac CuUoch obser- 

 ved some appearances of them among primitive rocks ; 

 but thss, as the author of this Introduction observes, might 

 have been deceptive. Their distribution in the various 

 strata is thus stated. 



" F'rst, we have a foundation of primitive rocks destitute 

 '^f these remains ; in the next succeeding series (that of 



