Reviews — The Geology of the Fenland. 231 



lessons in the history of life which the hard facts of Geology con- 

 tinually reveal. Thus such a dreary district as the Fenland may 

 become invested with considerable interest. 



To attain to this hapjDy state of mind, much hard work must first 

 of all inevitably be done ; and Mr. Skertchly, in prosecuting the 

 work of the Geological Survey, has devoted four years to field-work 

 and to the study of the ancient and modern historical records which 

 treat of the land he describes. 



It must not be supposed that the district has altogether been 

 neglected by geologists, and attention is drawn to the observations 

 especially of Sedgwick, Eose, Fisher, Bonney, and Seeley, who have 

 made frequent excursions into the Fenland. 



Their general conclusions, however, by no means harmonize with 

 those at which Mr. Skertchly has arrived, and if they seem to be 

 rather severely criticized, some of them, at any rate, will be able to 

 do battle in support of their views. 



Briefly to state his conclusions, we may use Mr, Skertchly 's own 

 words. He claims to have finally settled the relations of the peat 

 and silt beds to each other, the age and marine nature of most of the 

 gravels, the origin of the Boulder-clay, and the interglacial age of 

 the palaeolithic deposits. 



Mr. Skertchly describes the Fenland as an old bay excavated in 

 the Kimmeridge and Oxford Clays, and filled up with peat, and 

 gravel, and silt, and Boulder-clay. 



He states that the estuaries of the fen rivers are now enclosed 

 marshes; and the Wash, whatever parts of its area may formerly 

 have been, holds no such relation to the rivers, nor are any of the 

 fen-beds delta-deposits. 



Three areas of gravel are noted at the surface : a northern area 

 which merges into the hill drift of Lincolnshire ; a western area 

 which is a true beach gravel ; and a southern and eastern area, which 

 seems to be the remains of the old valley gravels of the adjacent 

 rivers. These are all older than the peat and silt beds, and are 

 considered newer than the Chalky Boulder-clay. 



The peat land occupies the western and southern portions of the 

 Fenland ; the silt land the north and central portions ; and they 

 show that the ground was a debatable one between the land and sea : 

 for when the one prevailed, peat grew ; and when the other had the 

 mastery, silts were deposited. There is no definite order of suc- 

 cession in these two groups, inasmuch as they inosculate one into 

 the other. 



In the vicinity of the highlands buried forests are found in the 

 peat, and five distinct horizons of trees are noticed. 



In the valley gravels, which are known to be newer than the 

 Chalky Boulder-clay, palgeolithic implements are found ; and in the 

 newer fen strata many neolithic implements are met with. 



The author discusses the break between them, and maintains that 

 the paleeolithic deposits belong to an interglacial period. 



We need not follow him through his history of the Fenland in 

 Eoman, Early English, and subsequent times. He has gone over 



