Reviews — Geological Tables. 423 



in the series. This forms an admirable coal for iron-making. A 

 similarly valuable coal occurs in the Illinois Coal-field. 



The Pittsburgh Coal, and that of Central and Southern Ohio, 

 make good coking coal, but are too gaseous and bituminous for iron- 

 making. The coal of Northern Illinois is too sulphurous and too 

 highly charged with water to be of great commercial value. 



Tables of Analyses of all the various coals, including those of 

 Secondary and Tertiary age, have been carefully prepared by the 

 author from the various reports of Blaney, Whitney, Chilton, 

 Kogers, &c., &c. 



The space at our command precludes our noticing, as we should 

 wish to do, the geological features of the valley which are due to 

 the later formations. 



There is much in this work for the Botanist, the Archaeologist, the 

 Meteorologist, for the political Economist, for the general Naturalist, 

 and for the reading public. Few American books which have 

 passed through our hands have interested us so much. The author's 

 style of writing is extremely clear and intelligible. Whenever an 

 illustration would better explain his meaning than a mere description, 

 we find a map, a plan, or a diagram added. Lastly, the book is 

 admirably printed, which renders its perusal all the more pleasant. 



II. — Geological Tables. 



TO enumerate all the separate Geological Tables published by 

 amateurs and professionals from the times of Werner, W. 

 Smith, Alex. Brongniart, and De la Beche, to the present, would be 

 of little use except to the bibliographist ; and the many tables of 

 strata and formations given in the Manuals and other introductory 

 works on Geology, English and Foreign, would have to be catalogued 

 also in the lengthy list. We propose, however, to refer to some of 

 the Tables that have appeared of late years, and to notice their 

 respective characters and uses. 



There is no doubt that English geologists owe very much, in the 

 first place, to De la Beche, for original observation, careful research, 

 and correct judgment, in the composition of classificatoi-y tables, 

 which, founded on the conclusions of Werner, Smith, Conybeare, 

 Brongniart, and others, supplied data for subsequent writers. Lyell 

 and John Phillips also, as classificatory geologists, contemporary 

 with De la Beche, gave original thought to the subject; and their 

 continued labours have given us the results which we now find in 

 their current works ; and these, especially the Tables in Lyell's 

 "Elements," supply the manualists and fabulists of popular and 

 educational geology with the backbone, if not the body, of all their 

 Tables of Formations. 



We must not forget, however, that there have been many other 

 original thinkers and hard workers besides those mentioned above. 

 Sedgwick, Murchison, and very many other well-known names are 

 quickly thought of in connection with the advance of stratigraphical 

 geology ; and America, and every part of the Continent, as ^vell as 

 India and the Colonies, have supplied others, the results of whose 



