Literary Notices. 141 



facts pertaining to its subject ; but it has not been pnt together 

 with sufficient care. In many places the style is awkward, as 

 where Mr. Maury tells us " every river runs in a valley, as the 

 Valley of the Ganges, the Valley of the Nile, of the Rhine, of 

 the Amazon — which means all the country that is drained by those 

 rivers." In explaining what a hill means in physical geography, 

 Mr. Maury will not help many students by telling them " ants and 

 moles make hills." The coral polyp is called an insect, and the 

 absurd statement made that " each one is impaled in his own little 

 workshop." Further on we find an assertion in defiance of the 

 well-known mathematical demonstrations of Hopkins and Thomp- 

 son, "that at a depth of twenty-five or thirty miles below the 

 spot on which you are now standing, everything, even the rocks, is 

 in an incandescent and molten state." Notwithstanding; the author's 

 reputation, we cannot recommend a work in which such clumsiness 

 and such blunders appear. 



Advanced Text-Book op Physical Geography, by David Page, 

 E.R.S.E., F.G.S. (William Blackwood and Sons).— Like other text- 

 books of Mr. Page's, this is a well-selected and well-compressed 

 compilation of all the leading facts relating to its subject. As a 

 school-book, it would have the advantage of being decidedly inte- 

 resting to the learner, and would afford an excellent basis for the 

 higher kind of instr action. Geography should never be taught 

 without due reference to physical considerations. As a mere cata- 

 logue of names, places and positions, it only wearies the mind, 

 but, as Mr. Page has presented it, it becomes what it ought to be, 

 an intellectual and entertaining pursuit. We should recommend in 

 another edition a modification of the statements about the crust of 

 the earth being a thin film, and all below it in a molten state, and 

 of the passage ascribing volcanic action to the interior molten matter. 

 The former statement is inconsistent with the fact that a thin crust 

 could not resist the tidal action of a gigantic molten sea, and the 

 researches of Mr. Mallet have shown that whatever may be the con- 

 dition of the globe at great depths, earthquake phenomena arise 

 from causes near the surface. It is also unadvisable to say that at 

 a height of forty-five or fifty miles the earth's atmosphere is " inap- 

 preciable," as Quetelet has shown reasons for supposing that it is 

 appreciable at much greater elevations. On the whole, we think 

 very highly of Mr. Page's : labours, and- we should add that the 

 present work is illustrated by numerous diagrams and maps. 



Houses without Hands, by the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., 

 with very numerous illustrations engraved on wood by G. Pearson, 

 from original drawings made by P. W. Keyl and E. A. Smith, under 

 the author's superintendence, expressly for this work. (Longmans.) 

 ■ — The interest of this popular work is well sustained in the recent 

 numbers. The style is pleasing and the engravings excellent. 



The Salmon. By Alexander Russell. (Edinburgh, Edmonstone 

 and Douglas.) This work, part of which has appeared in periodicals, 

 supplies a great deal of information on all subjects connected 

 with the breeding of salmon, condition of rivers, legislature, etc. 



