Revieivs — PostletMoaite's Mining in the Lake District. 317 



is said of Laurentian or Lewisian rocks ; their place, however, would 

 evidently be with the productions of the first day. The Diluvium 

 is described as " a deposit supposed to have been caused by an 

 immense wave or deluge which passed over Europe and other parts 

 of the world, especially Asia." Some more precise information 

 as to the whereabouts of this unique formation seems desirable. 



On page 3 the author appears as an extreme evolutionist. He is 

 asked, " So God began by making the smallest and most imperfect 

 creatures?" He replies, "Yes. . . . His great laws continue the 

 same now, nothing great is done at once, but by slow degrees ; all 

 discoveries and inventions begin by imperfect forms in the first 

 instance, and they grow and improve from year to year till at 

 length they attain their full development." This comparison of the 

 operations of the Deity with those of men gifted with mechanical 

 ingenuity scarcely seems well chosen, though the author is doubt- 

 less to be acquitted of anything like intentional profanity. On 

 page 9, however. Evolutionists get but scanty justice. Some of 

 them, according to Mr. Grover, find that there is a relationship 

 between frogs and men, " inasmuch as the frog is the only animal 

 which has a calf to its leg." No clue is given to the authorship of 

 this remarkable view, and we are afraid that Mr. Grover has been 

 caught by the "chaff" of some jocular Naturalist. 



Many serious blunders occur, both from want of more accurate 

 knowledge of common facts, and also as misprints. On page 13 we 

 read, " Foraminifera, which is a mass of very feebly animated matter ; 

 seen through a microscope it resembles the roe of a fish." And again, 

 on page 5, " It is the unclouded sunbeam which strengthens the 

 fibres of the plant, and forms the hard woody substance in trees." 

 The remark about Foraminifera is certainly calculated to puzzle the 

 childish understanding, while the passage about wood and sunbeams 

 is likely to lead to the error of supposing them simply different forms 

 of the same substance. This can hardly have been Mr. Grover's 

 intention. The identification (p. 1) of the distinguished theologian 

 known as St. Augustine with the Augustine who, two centuries 

 later, converted the King of Kent, is objectionable in the interests of 

 accuracy, though not of geology. Certainly the crudity in conception 

 and looseness in execution of this work must ever prevent it, in its 

 present form, from filling the place designed for it by its author, in 

 spite of his remarkable ingenuity and good intentions. 



Well said the Duke of Argyll, in reference to popular works on 

 Geology, that none but our most able writers should venture to 

 undertake them; and forasmuch as they were designed for the 

 instruction of those but little informed upon the subject, they should 

 above all things be accurate. T. V. H. 



III. — Mines and Mining in the Lake District. By John Postle- 

 THWAiTE. (Leeds, 1877.) 



KESWICK, situated in the midst of some of the wildest and most 

 picturesque scenery of the Lake District, is not less remark- 

 able for the natural beauty of its surroundings than for its indigenous 



