Eevieivs — Strata of the EartlC& Crust. 173 



presents a fine fickl for the study of donudation. The entire features 

 appear to be the result of subiicrial agencies, in support of whicli 

 Mr. Mallet adduces several striking instances. 



Mineral Wealth. — No metallic wealth has yet been discovered in 

 the Vindhyan scries, nor, as the author remarks, was it to bo expected 

 in such an accumulation of sandstones. Their mineral resources, 

 .with one remarkable exception — the diamond mines of Punna' — are 

 chiefly confined to building stones and limestones. Superficial de- 

 posits of iron-ore occur scattered over the Kymore tal>lc-land, which 

 are worked to some extent, and brown haematite occurs on the Punna 

 range of hills. Iron pyrites occur in the black Bijigurh shales (of 

 the Kymore Group). The black colour of these shales led to a belief 

 that coal existed, but it is now well known that none of it exists in 

 the Vindhyan formation. — H. B. W- 



III. — " On the Steata of the Earth's Crust, and the Fossils 

 CONTAINED IN IT." By Dr. Anton Fritsch, of Prague. 



[0 vrstv&,ch kuiy zemske a skamenelych tuorech v nich obsazenych. Sepsal. Dr. 

 Antonia Fric. v. Praze, 1869. 12mo. pp. 232, profusely illustrated,] 



Under the above title Dr. Fritsch. publishes, at Prague, in the 

 Czechian- Slavonic language, a Popular Geology, written for the 

 Bohemian people, and illustrated with 473 well-executed woodcuts 

 of sections and fossils, etc., mostly found in Bohemia. 



First, there is an introductory chapter on the nature of geological 

 research, and the places to be visited around Prague where fossili- 

 ferous strata are to be met with. Then succeeds an outline of the 

 zoological orders represented in a fossil state, from the microscopic 

 DiatomacecB to the remains of the Mammoth and Ehinoceros. 

 Thirdly, we have a brief account of the chief physical agencies at 

 work upon the crust of our globe, and the subterranean forces mani- 

 festing themselves in earthquakes, elevations, and sinkings of the 

 land, and the outbursts of volcanos. The formation of sedimentary 

 deposits beneath the sea, and their subsequent elevation at different 

 angles, so as to form our hills and mountains, are each illustrated, as 

 is also their subsequent waste and erosion into ravines, valleys, and 

 plains. The arrangement of the rest of the work is stratigraphical, 

 each formation being illustrated by its characteristic fossils from the 

 Primordial zone to the Quaternary deposits and the Swiss pile- works. 



The groups of fossils illustrating the book have the great recom- 

 mendation of being correctly drawn — a feature too often neglected in 

 cheap popular works on geology and palaeontology, the artists 

 appearing to think that "anything will do for a fossil." 



What we particularly wish to call attention to, is the interesting 

 intelligence that a society in Bohemia, formed for the purpose of 

 publishing cheap books, have printed 20,000 copies of Dr. Fritsch's 

 little geological handbook, to be sold at the price of 4^cZ. each ! and, 



^ Diamonds occur in the Punna Shales (Rewah group). Vide Mr. Medlicott's 

 Report, Mem. Geol. Survey of India, toI. ii., p. 65. 



