568 



Reviews — Geology of England and Wales. 



while we should strongly recommend the work of Mr. Woodward, 

 if it were only for its clear arrangement and lucid style, we are 

 especially glad to welcome it as containing an amended classification 

 of the sedimentary rocks. 



The plan followed by the author approaches that adopted by 

 Phillips, or rather Conybeare and Phillips, who gave great pro- 

 minence to the geographical side of the question, and wrote an 

 account of the British Isles under their geological divisions, rather 

 than a description of the different formations, leaving you to find 

 by reference to maps and other sources where the best examples of 

 the rocks might be seen. 



The first important change introduced by Mr. Woodward is the 

 acknowledgment of the correctness of the classification of Professor 

 Sedgwick in the Cambrian and Silurian rocks. 



The principles of classification which Mr. Woodward has stated 

 so clearly in his introduction would not allow him to do otherwise 

 than adopt the natural grouping first so clearly made out by 

 Sedgwick, and followed by Sterry Hunt in America, Gaudry in 

 France, Dewalque in Belgium, and an ever-increasing number 

 elsewhere. 



As we turn over the pages we find under each principal group 

 a short description of the more important sub-divisions. But some- 

 times, as e.g. under Inferior Oolite, a fuller and more frequent 

 repetition of tables is wanted, to enable the student to see whether 

 under the various headings are described strata synchronous and 

 homotaxial, or only small local and subordinate beds. 



Cutting near ITphill (Bristol and Exeter EaUway). (p. 423.) 



Lower Lias, faulted against h. Carboniferous Limestone. 



In some cases, as evidence comes in, we shall expect in later 

 editions clearer definitions of boundary, as e.g. between the Silurian 

 and the variable deposits which mark the next great continuous 

 submergence of which we have clear traces in the British Isles. 



A similar difficulty meets us in defining the earliest accumulations 



