34 Reviews — EKsee Beclus on " The Earth.'' 



which are unquestionably of Secondary age — may throiTgh closer 

 investigation be found to be of nearly the same epoch. Associated 

 with the flora are Labyrinthodont and Dicj^nodont remains, the 

 latter significant of the Poikilitic group in India, Africa, and Europe. 



The Economic Summary shows the local value and importance 

 of this Coal-field and the industrial wealth associated with this 

 important fuel. 



Estimates as to quantity are assuring for the future of India. 

 Analyses of iron-ores associated with the coal are given and bear 

 comparison with our British deposits. 



The surveys of our colonies are looked upon in a different light 

 by the general population when immediate utility is impatiently 

 looked for, or when material gain almost entirely sways the public 

 and official mind. Under these circumstances the usefulness of such 

 a memoir as this by one of the officers of the Indian Survey in 

 keeping alive the interest iip. the proceedings of our Colonial Geo- 

 logical Surveys cannot be over-estimated. 



L. — The Eakth : a Descriptive History op the Phenomena op 

 THE LiPE OP THE Globe. By Elisee Eeclus. Translated by 

 the late B. B. Woodward, M.A., and Edited by Henry Wood- 

 ward, British Museum. Continents : — Sections I. and II. Two 

 vols. 8vo., pp. 666.^ (Chapman and Hall, 1871.) 



JUST as our stage is indebted to French writers for the plot and 

 groundwork of the numerous " adaptations " which form the 

 bulk of the repertoire of our actors of light comedy, so are our 

 popular scientific gift-books mostly translations of French compila- 

 tions, such as the one whose title stands at the head of this article. 

 But there is this difference. While French comedies require for 

 an English audience so much " adaptation " of their ornament and 

 incident that they cease to be sparkling, the compilations of French 

 savants can be allowed to retain their brilliancy. The latter possess 

 a sufficiently polished surface, and leave nothing to be desired but a 

 more solid background to reflect their light and irradiate their 

 readers ; but the former require the aid of a moral Nemesis to 

 neutralize the artificial attractiveness of their vice. In a word, 

 French science is too poetical, just as French comedy is too prurient. 

 The book before us well represents a French scientific compilation 

 of the first rank ; and its possession of the idealism characteristic of 

 its nationality serves chiefly to invest its theme with a "harmony" 

 and even with a "rhythm" which are not the less attractive because 

 they are inconsequent. Thus, although "the Earth" has been the 

 subject of many books by many writers, from Hutton's "Theory " to 

 Gosse's " Omphalos," and from Strabo amongst the ancients to the 

 Goldsmith of our schooldays, we do not remember any book which 

 has covered exactly the same ground as M. Eeclus's " La Terre." 



^ The two remaining volumes are now in the press. — Edit. 



