﻿34 Revieics — Prof. Gosselefs Cours Elimentaire de Giologie. 



time is divided (especially in school-books). Thus the Carboniferous 

 system is called " Regne des Productus,'" the Cretaceous is headed 

 " Begne des Budistes," and so on. This method will probably be of 

 considerable help in reminding young students of some of the more 

 strongly characteristic fossil groups, and Prof. Gosselet claims no 

 more than this in its favour. There are 166 figures in the text, of 

 these those representing fossils (mostly from d'Orbigny's vporks, 

 etc.) are very good, whilst the others, although well chosen and in- 

 structive, are as a rule very inferior, having probably been spoiled 

 in the engraving. 



The style of the Lille Professor is extremely clear, and entirely 

 free as it is from any attempt at so-called " popular " writing, it is 

 yet decidedly interesting. There is an absence of theorizing which 

 one is not accustomed to find in foreign manuals of geology. The 

 book is in fact a collection of carefully selected facts, the inferences 

 drawn from which are striking and obvious. Those parts of geo- 

 logical science which still belong to the region of speculation are 

 omitted, and the student is only told what is known and how it is 

 known. Cataclysms, Pentagonal systems, and all the other horrors 

 of so many French text-books, find no place in this one. 



In two instances only, we believe, does the author depart from 

 the well-established views which there is no risk of the student 

 finding contradicted in larger works. One is in the use of the term 

 "Paleontonique." Under this unusual name are grouped the Silurian, 

 Devonian, and Carboniferous rocks, the pre-Cambrian rocks being 

 denominated " Azoic," notwithstanding Eozoon, which is mentioned 

 as " ce pretendu fossile," and the Cambrian being regarded merely 

 as the base of the Silurian. The other case is the division of the 

 Carboniferous into three stages, viz. : 1°. The Lower or Carboniferous 

 Limestone. 2°. The Middle, or Coal-Measures. 3°. The Upper, or 

 Permian. Now there is. Of course, very much to be said in favour 

 of this grouping, and it is quite possible that a continuation of re- 

 searches, such as those of Dawson in North America, and Ludwig in 

 Russia, may bring us some day to accept this as the normal and 

 typical state of things, yet it seems scarcely wise or in keeping with 

 the admirable reserve which marks the rest of the book, to include 

 an innovation in which there is so much room for criticism. 



Naturally the text-book refers chiefly to French Geology, and its 

 value is much enhanced by the two coloured folding plates which it 

 contains, one being an excellent little geological map of France in 

 eight divisions, and the other consisting of three sections illustrating 

 the rock-structure of the country between the Vosges and Paris, 

 Paris and Ijaon, and Brussels and Mezieres. 



On the whole the book will compare favourably with the best of 

 cur geological primers and introductory text-books, and leaves most 

 of the foreign works of the kind far behind. G. A. L. 



