166 Revietvs — Maclarens Geology of Fife, ^c. 



between the eruptions of the trappean materials ; intervals in which 

 the muddy basms became the receptacles of many forms of organic 

 existence, and then subsequent trappean flows overran and covered up 

 these lacustrine deposits, long afterwards to be exposed again by 

 denudation, nearly as we see them now. The author has paid special 

 attention to the relations between the form of the ground, and its 

 geological structure, and to the effects of denudation, elevation, and 

 depression, in modifying the surface features, thus rendering the 

 Memoir a practical and useful contribution to geology. 



.J. M. 



ni. — A Sketch of the Gteology of Fife and the Lothians. By 

 Charles Maclaren, F.E.S.E., etc. Second Edition. Edinburgh, 

 1866. pp.820. 



IN 1839, when this work was originally published, the Science of 

 Geology had, at least in the Scottish metropolis, a very different 

 direction from what it has now. The value of fossils was unknown. 

 Their importance had already dawned on students in England and 

 France, but in Edinburgh the lithological aspect of the science 

 engrossed the chief, almost the whole interest; and arguments in 

 defence of the particular theories of the observer, were the great 

 lessons that were learned in the field. Mr. Maclaren's work belongs 

 to those happily bygone days. It abounds with accurate descriptions 

 of the rocks of the district, accompanied with sections and diagrams 

 of the more interesting phenomena, so careful and characteristic that 

 it has been for many years an invaluable hand-book to the student 

 of local geology. Mr. Maclaren knew only two kinds of fossils from 

 the Silurians of the Pentlands ; fragments of Trilobites and Ortho- 

 ceratites ; but he was the first to notice that they existed there at 

 all. Since 1839 Edinburgh students have not been idle. Papers 

 and volumes have been published by Fleming, Miller, Chambers, 

 , Bryson, Geikie, Howell, and others. The nature and relation of the 

 rocks, and the character of the organisms contained in them, are 

 now well known — even the very language of the science is changed. 

 It is strange to take up this volume with the date of 1866 on its 

 title page, and find oneself carried back a quarter of a century, and 

 immersed in discussions long since exploded, without a ray of light 

 from subsequent observers. Even Mr. Maclaren's own later views, 

 published at intervals in the Scotsman, are overlooked. There are 

 sufficient verbal changes throughout the volume to make it not a 

 simple reprint of the first edition. But it does not express the 

 views now entertained, regarding the structure of the district — nor, 

 indeed, the views entertained, for many years before his death, by its 

 venerable author. It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Maclaren 

 was advised to bring out his volume in this form. To those who 

 know anything of the history of this volume, and who remember 

 that its talented author was considerably over eighty years of age 

 when he was induced to republish it, it will not affect the high 

 position which Mr. Maclaren's contributions to science won for him ; 

 but the general reader, who only knows that in 1866 these views 



