260 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



due to his own steady and powerful advocacy all geologists are 

 aware ; but he gracefully reminds us that we also owe much to 

 the labors of those American geologists who have found in the 

 Western Territories such convincing instances of the work of 

 denudation in shaping the surface." . The first part of the book, 

 comprising the lectures, deals with land-sculpture in general, and 

 describes the working of Nature's sculpturing tools. The reader 

 is then taken in succession to the different characteristic regions 

 in the country and shown in detail, with much wealth of illustra- 

 tion, how the hills and valleys and salient features have been 

 wrought out. The subject could very well be treated in such a 

 manner as to make the presentation of it formal and dry in the 

 extreme ; but, says Mr. Green, the author " knows and loves his 

 fatherland too well to look upon it merely as the object of geo- 

 logical research. Legend and history, old ballads and modern 

 poetry, have all been pressed into his service, and he interweaves 

 into his narrative allusion and quotation in a way that enlivens 

 even the most technical parts of the volume. The chapter on 

 The Influence of the Physical Features of Scotland upon the 

 People shows well what a vast amount of human interest attaches 

 even to so special a science as geology." 



Prof. Geikie himself predicted in an address before the Geo- 

 logical Society of Edinburgh, in 1873, for the future of his theory : 

 " Of one thing I feel surely confident : When the din of strife has 

 ceased and men come to weigh opinions in the dispassionate light 

 of history, the profound influence of the Huttonian doctrines of 

 the present time on the future course of geology will be abun- 

 dantly recognized. By their guidance it will be possible to recon- 

 struct the physical geography of the continents in successive ages 

 back into some of the earliest periods of geological history." 



Prof. Geikie's theory is further elaborated and applied in his 

 five lectures, delivered at the Royal Institution, in 1884, on The 

 Origin of the Scenery of the British Isles. In these lectures the 

 author held that " the present surface of Britain is the result of 

 long, complicated processes in which underground movements, 

 though sometimes potent, have only operated occasionally, while 

 superficial erosion has been continuous so long as any land has 

 remained above the sea. The order of appearance of the existing 

 features is not necessarily that of the chronological sequence of 

 the rocks. The oldest formations have all been buried under 

 later accumulations, and their re-emergence at the surface has 

 only been brought about after enormous denudation." The lect- 

 ures conclude with an indication of the connection between the 

 scenery of a country and the history and temperament of its peo- 

 ple. This subject was considered from four points of view, the 

 influence of landscape and geological structure being traced in the 



