424 Reviews — Buchan's Text-Book of Meteorology. 



and Peeblesliire, do not all belong to one geological epoch, as has 

 been hitherto supposed, but belong to two different epochs, a lower 

 one represented by the Moffat rocks, well known by their beds of 

 Anthracite shales, and Graptolites, and an upper series of later age, 

 which lies unconformably on the Moifat rocks. These beds have been 

 long known at Wrae and Glencotho, and more recently at Galashiels, 

 through the exertions of Messrs. Lapworth and Wilson. 



V. — On the age of the Felstones, Conglomerates, and Sand- 

 stones OF THE PeNTLAND HiLLS. 

 By John Henderson. 



THE author described two sections through these hills, and showed 

 that the Pentland Felstones cut through, indurate, and inclose 

 angular fragments of rocks belonging to the upper portion of the 

 Lower Carboniferous formation, and that the so-called Old Red 

 Conglomerates contain limestone pebbles inclosing Carboniferous 

 fossils. 



IRIE^IIE^WS. 



I. — Introductory Text-book of Meteorology. By Alexander 

 Buchan, M.A., F.R.S.E., etc. 8vo. pp. 212. (Edinburgh and 

 London : Blackwood and Sons.) 



THE science of the weather has naturally occupied attention from 

 the earliest times, and in the form of proverbs the leading facts 

 and inferences of Meteorology have, longer than those of any other 

 science, been familiar to the people. But not until the invention of 

 meteorological instruments in the seventeenth century could it be 

 said to rank as a science, since which it has made such rapid advances 

 that it has tended as much as any other science to the benefit of 

 mankind. That its study has been much neglected, and does not 

 form a subject of general education, may in some measure be due to 

 the want of a concise hand-book, wherein the facts and principles of 

 Meteorology are stated in a simple and connected form. If this be 

 so, the little volume before us will, we think, remove the impedi- 

 ment ; it furnishes an excellent class-book to the student, while at 

 the same time the general reader will find in it as much information 

 as he would desire, and this in an attractive style. The author 

 describes the various meteorological instruments, and points out the 

 methods of using them. The work is illustrated with numerous 

 woodcuts, and with eight charts, showing the mean pressure of the 

 atmosphere, the prevailing winds, the mean temperature of the earth 

 at different periods, etc. 



A study of Meteorology is of great importance to the geologist, in 

 the explanations it gives of the climates of different regions, for the 

 causes which originate changes in them, and the influence they would 

 have in modifying the different forms of life, are questions of the 

 highest interest. 



