410 Reviews — Thomas's Prize Essay. 



tinted ground, in Paris. Certainly they do these things, in some 

 instances, hetter abroad. Professor Phillips gives figures and 

 descriptions of 32 species of Liassic Belemnites, of which 16 are new 

 to science. 



m. — Prize Essay upon the Encroachment op the Sea between 

 THE EivER Mersey and the Bristol Channel. By J. E. 

 Thomas. 8yo. pp. 24. London, 1867. 



THIS pamphlet gives a short account of some of the changes of 

 our western coast, in great part derived from published works, 

 which the author has diligently searched ; but in part also from local 

 traditions and from personal knowledge of the district. An essay of 

 this sort, which refers to notices that have appeared at various times 

 and in various ways, is very useful, as collecting together information 

 on one subject which before was scattered about in many publica- 

 tions. It is to be hoped that the author will be able to extend his 

 researches, and to treat of the changes of the western coast in the 

 detailed way that Mr. Eedman has done with the south-east of Eng- 

 land in his two papers published in the Proceedings of the Institute 

 of Civil Engineers. 



It would have been better if there were proper references to the 

 authorities quoted : in some cases there are none at all, the quotations 

 being simply given as by Dr. Hume, Mr. Boult, etc. ; in another 

 case we are told that the information has been got from page 70 of 

 the Journal of the Geological Society, but as that interesting work 

 is now in its 22nd volume it would hardly be a labour of love to 

 hunt up the reference. From an unfortunate misprint that occurs 

 many times we may infer either that the author vrrites a very bad 

 or a very good hand — in the former case, misleading the printer ; or, 

 in the latter, making him careless : it is the use of the word tratk 

 (of alluvium, etc.) instead of tract. 



At page 11 it is remarked that the "the chlorite and mica-schists 

 have been more able to withstand the dashing of the waves than the 

 limestone and other rocks ;" but it may be questioned whether the 

 dashing of the waves alone can do much harm to any hard rock, and 

 one is inclined rather to think that the greater endurance may be 

 owing to something in the composition structure or condition of 

 the rocks by which they suffer less from those splitting and dis- 

 solving subaerial actions that are mostly the cause of the fall of cliffs. 



Mr. Thomas is a Civil Engineer, and, in the course of his pro- 

 fessional work, it may be in his power to do good service to geology 

 by such researches as that now noticed, which it is to be hoped is an 

 earnest of others. 



rV. — The American Naturalist : a Popular Illustrated Magazine 

 OE Natural History. Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., U.S. 

 London : Trubner and Co. Nos. 1-5, March-July, 1867. 



WE look with natural interest upon all attempts of our trans- 

 atlantic cousins at rendering Natural History studies popu- 



