Notices respecting New Booh. 14? 5 



ley is very much varied ; on good land in good cultivation the 

 crop is good, but on dry soils it is light and thin. A very 

 small breadth of barley is sown this season. Wheat is very 

 varied, the crop being from very bad to good according to the 

 soils and management, the dry season having seriously affected 

 the dry soils. 



An unusually great breadth of spring wheat has been sown, 

 displacing, as above stated, a portion of the barley crop. 



Stock has generally done well where healthy, but Pneu- 

 monia has been very prevalent and fatal in some districts, 

 generally among Irish cattle. Potatoes, from the dry cold 

 weather, are later than usual. 



XV. Notices respecting New Books. 



The Course of Creation. By John Anderson, D.D. 

 London : Longman and Co. 



WE have been much gratified by the perusal of this work, not 

 because at the present day physical science, and more espe- 

 cially the most poetical of all the branches of it, Geology, requires 

 any defence from the reproach of being hostile to religion, but 

 because the plain and simple yet forcible and eloquent manner in 

 which the records graven upon the stone book of nature are set forth, 

 have invested this production with unusual interest ; and the more 

 so, as emanating from the pen of a divine fully imbued with the im- 

 portant bearings which exist between natural science and revealed 

 truth. "The Course of Creation" is no philosophic theory — involves 

 no metaphysical inquiry into the origin of things — nor affords any 

 new facts connected with the science itself; but is simply intended 

 to express the feelings engendered in the mind of the author by geo- 

 logical pursuits ; and thus it aims to impress others with a desire to 

 become acquainted with the works of the Creator and the records of 

 His will. 



The subject-matter of the volume consists of the various geological 

 phenomena to be met with in the line of country occurring between 

 the Grampians and the Alps ; and the relations of the several geolo- 

 gical formations to each other are treated of in geographical sequence. 



Thus we have the general structure of Scotland first mentioned, 

 with its series of crystalline, trap and palaeozoic rocks, including 

 descriptions of the more important animal and vegetable remains 

 found in the latter ; to this succeeds the geological structure of 

 England with its peculiar and interesting features, from the Silurian 

 to the close of the tertiary period ; the concluding geological portion 

 is devoted to France and Switzerland, in which we find a concise 

 account of the tertiary basin of Paris and the Loire, the volcanic 

 district of Auvergne, and the structure of the Alps, &c. 



The descriptions are embodied not only from personal observation, 

 but enriched by an extensive acquaintance with, and careful exami- 

 nation of, the most recent geological works. 



We only notice one misstatement of any importance which appears 

 Phil. Mag. S. 3, Vol. 37, No. 248. August 1850. L 



