328 Reviews — Sharp's Rudiments of Geology, 



notice. The American geologists have, as a body, given more 

 attention to mechanical geology of late, than those of this country ; 

 and Captain Dutton seems peculiarly fitted to cope with its 

 difficulties. 



The idea that mountain elevation has been in some way connected 

 with areas of maximum sedimentation may be found in the intro- 

 duction to Hall's Palaeontology of New York (1859). We do not 

 remember to have seen the opinion adopted by any English geologist, 

 but it is unquestionably a point of great importance to determine 

 whether it is a true generalization ; since, if it be so, it is a most 

 important one. 



Without adding any suggestions of our own upon this grand 

 subject, we await with interest Captain Button's next communication 

 to the ''Penn Monthly" Magazine. 



II. — EuDiMENTs OF Geology. By Samuel Sharp, F.S.A., F.G.S. 

 Second Edition. (Stanford, London, 1876.) 



AS the first edition of this work was reviewed in the pages of the 

 Geological Magazine so recently as August, 1875, it will 

 only be necessary, on the present occasion, to take notice of the 

 additions and alterations which have been introduced into it, now 

 that it has reached a second edition. All the changes made are, 

 we think, clearly in the direction of improvement. By enlarging 

 it from 126 to 204 pages, the author has been enabled to 

 treat the subject of Physical Geology in a rather more adequate 

 manner than was attempted in the first edition ; while several 

 portions of his epitome of stratigraphical geology have been 

 rewritten, and greater clearness and accuracy imparted to them : he 

 has also shown a commendable anxiety to bring the work up to 

 date by noticing the results even of the most recent researches. An 

 index, the want of which was certainly a blemish in the first 

 edition, has been supplied in the present ; and we may now recom- 

 mend this little manual as being among the best of those introduc- 

 tory text-books of geology, the multiplication of which may be 

 accepted as a gratifying proof of the increasing demand for elemen- 

 tary instruction in the science. 



III. — Peodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria; or Figures and 

 Descriptions of Victorian Organic Eemains. By F. M'Coy, 

 etc., etc. Decade lit. pp. 40, 10 plates. (Melbourne, 1876.) 



THE third Decade of Prof. M'Coy's Victorian Palaeontology con- 

 tains descriptions and figures of several fossils of great interest. 

 The first plate is devoted to figures of portions of the jaw of 

 Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen, representing specimens derived from the 

 identical locality from which Prof. Owen's original example was 

 obtained, Lake Colungulac, Victoria. According to Prof. M'Coy, his 

 late acquisitions suggest certain modifications of Prof. Owen's view 

 as to character and homologies. One, a specimen of the upper jaw, 

 exhibits for the first time all the teeth in front of the carnassial m 

 situ. Prof. M'Coy finds that the Victorian individuals differ suffi- 



