508 Reviews — The Great Indian Desert. 



labours, but they gracefully acknowledge the readiness with, which 

 many friends undertook every trouble by which the work of 

 compilation might be lightened, and fullness and accuracy secured. 

 Among these, may be specially mentioned Mr. 0. Lapworth (whose 

 contributions to the Geological Magazine are well known), who has 

 not only written the summary of Silurian stratigraphy, but enhanced 

 the value of the volume by the addition of four plates of Graptolites, 

 and a table (p. 2) showing his view o-f the relation of the Silurian 

 rocks of the eastern districts with those of Lanark, Ayrshire, and 

 their English equivalents.^ 



The introduction by Prof. John Young is a useful summary of the 

 Geology and Palseontology of the West af Scotland, and is an 

 attempt to translate into history the geological details of the district, 

 although the writer feels it contains some views not likely to receive 

 general acceptance. Mr. John Young has prepared the preliminary 

 sketches of the Old Eed and Carboniferous formations, and the notes 

 on the distribution of Carboniferous fossils ; Dr. Bryce has written 

 the notice of the Jurassic strata of Eaasay and Skye ; and Mr. Robert- 

 son the chapter on the post-Tertiary deposits and their contained 

 fossils. Mr. Armstrong has compiled the chief lists of fossils, which 

 together amount to about 2000 species. Of these, 350 are Silurian, 

 including 100 Graptolites, 6 Devonian, 866 Carboniferous, 325 

 Jurassicy 12 Tertiary, and 436 post-Tertiary species. Mr. Armstrong 

 has, further, superintended the general revision of the work. 



The work is well printed, and will be a valuable addition to 

 geological literature, as affording a compendium of the geology, as 

 well as of the minerals, rocks, and fossils of Western Scotland, and 

 fully justifies the remark in the preface — that the Local Executive 

 Committee deserve the thanks of all students of science for the wise 

 liberality with which they have entered on this publication, and 

 thus secured what private means could not have easily accomplished. 

 — a record of Scottish Geology and Palseontology, which will be a per- 

 manent memorial of the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association 

 for 1876. 



IT. — "The Physical Geography of the Great Indian Desert." 2 



G LACTATION now-a-days absorbs so much research that we seldom 

 have opportunities of noticing efforts to trace the connexion be- 

 tween an existing state of things and that which immediately pre- 

 ceded, in countries where there is no room for glacial speculation — 

 at least with regard to their later geological conditions. Mr. Blan- 

 ford's paper, besides its novelty in this respect, is a valuable record 

 of observation, though its geological interest might escape attention 



' On the classification of these rocks the reader might further consult the memoirs 

 of the Geological Survey of Scotland, and a paper by Mr. J. D. Brown in Trans. 

 Edin. Geol. Soc, vol. ii. pp. 227, 316 and 377. 



2 On the Physical Geography of the Great Indian Desert, with special reference 

 to the former existence of the sea in the Indus Valley, and on the origin and mode 

 of formation of the Sand-hills. By W. T. Blanford, F.E.S., Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 

 vol. xlv. pt. ii. 1876. 



