Reviews — Contejean's Elements of Geology, etc. 421 



large area in the North-west and Central provinces, and probably 

 occurs in the neighbourhood of Madras. From this series the finest 

 building and ornamental stones of India are obtained, chiefly in the 

 upper or Bundair group ; but the lower or Kymore sandstones are 

 also extensively worked, especially at Chunar. 



Although intended merely as notes of reference for the student of 

 Indian geology, the general geological reader will find it of some 

 interest as comprising our present knowledge of Indian geology, and 

 in comparing it with that of the European area, for which purpose a 

 table of the presumed equivalent formations is given, which, although 

 showing a general similar succession of formations, may not represent 

 the synchronism with European strata, " for it must be understood 

 that the term equivalent does not infer synchronism or contempo- 

 raneity. It appears that some forms of life existed earlier in India 

 than in the European area, and this, taken with the fact of the occur- 

 rence of the same species in the distant strata, requires the inference 

 that time elapsed during a migration or a natural distribution." 



This Abstract is alike creditable to Prof. Duncan and to the author- 

 ities under whose auspices it has been published. J. M. 



II. — Elements de Geologie et de Paleontologte. By Ch. Conte- 

 jean. Paris, 1874. 8vo. pp. 745 (467 Woodcuts). 



IT is by means of the higher class of text-books to which this 

 work belongs that we are kept posted up in the progress in 

 other countries of Geology as a whole. It is seldom, however, that 

 a manual presents so many points of contrast with its forerunners, 

 nor, it may be added, so many signs of advance, as Prof. Contejean's 

 Elements. French Geologists, though frequently of the deepest red 

 in politics, have always been extreme Conservatives in their special 

 science. They have in many cases shown a degree of deference to 

 mere authority in scientific matters which we can scarcely match in 

 the annals of British Geology. In no instance has this deference 

 been more marked than in the all but universal acceptance of the 

 late M. Elie de Beaumont's " Pentagonal System." To this theory 

 we owe the collection of so large an accumulation of valuable 

 stratigraphical facts, that it seems almost ungrateful to say that it is 

 refreshing to see in Prof. Contejean's book not only a very fair 

 resume of the famous system, but also a very full and complete 

 refutation of it, comprised altogether in some twenty pages of close 

 print. We, in England, who have never been caught in the great 

 Pentagonal net- work, are hardly able to appreciate the importance of 

 so clear and able a statement of the insuperable objections to it, 

 coming, as this does, from a man holding an acknowledged position in 

 the professorial hierarchy of France. Truth will out, as we all 

 know, but due honour should be given to those who help the most 

 vigorously to draw her out of her well. This Prof. Contejean is 

 distinctly doing by means of his new manual. 1 



1 It may be well to mention that Prof. Contejean's book was published just before 

 M-. Elie de Beaumont's lamented death. 



