Geology. 163 



ordinary cellulose to the peaty state of vegetable matter. As a 

 contribution to the ^ecology of plants the work is of exceptional 

 interest. To the student of Pleistocene and Post-glacial deposits 

 it seems clear that a like investigation of the vegetal deposits of 

 America, for which there is abundant material, would prove 

 equally valuable. There is an appended bibliography of 280 or 

 more papers, and a topographic map of Switzerland on the scale 

 of 1 : 530,000 showing by colors the distribution of swamps. 



J. b. w. 



13. A Study of Recent Earthquakes: by Charles Davison, 

 Sc.D., F.G.S. Pp. xii -f- 355, with 80 illustrations. London, 

 1905 (Contemporary Science Series. The Walter Scott Publish- 

 ing Co.). — The scope and object of this work are well stated in 

 the opening paragraph of the preface, here quoted : 



" The present volume differs from a text-book of seismology 

 in giving brief, though detailed, accounts of individual earth- 

 quakes rather than a discussion of the phenomena and distribution 

 of earthquakes in general. At the close of his Les Tr emblements 

 de Terre, Professor Fouque has devoted a few chapters to some 

 of the principal earthquakes between 1854 and 1887; and there 

 are also the well known chapters in LyelPs Principles of Geology, 

 dealing with earthquakes of a still earlier date. With these 

 exceptions there is no other work covering the same ground; and 

 he who wishes to study any particular earthquake can only do so 

 by reading long reports or series of papers written perhaps in 

 several different languages. The object of this volume is to save 

 him this trouble, and to present to him the facts that seem most 

 worthy of his attention." 



The eight earthquakes selected are those which have been most 

 thoroughly studied, "or which are of special interest owing to 

 the unusual character of their phenomena, or the light cast by 

 them on the nature and origin of earthquakes in general." 



This volume is a welcome addition to recent earthquake litera- 

 ture, and forms what may be regarded as a valuable supplementary 

 volume to the recent work of Dutton's treating of earthquakes 

 in general. j. b. 



14. An Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony ; by A. W. 

 Rogers, Director of the Geological Survey of Cape Colony. 

 With a chapter on the fossil reptiles of the Karroo Formation by 

 Prof. R. Broom, M.D., BSc, of Victoria College, Stellenbosch. 

 463 pp., 21 plates, 22 text figures and a colored geological map. 

 London, 1905. (Longmans, Green & Co.) — This well written and 

 clearly printed book makes a very desirable addition to geological 

 literature, bringing into one compact volume the geology of Cape 

 Colony and enabling the specialist in other geological fields to 

 gain, with a minimum of effort, a comprehensive idea of this 

 distant part of the earth. 



The Cape System is the oldest within which organic remains 

 have been found, the middle member consisting of shales and 

 thin sandstones 2500 feet thick containing fossils identical with 

 or closely related to species which are found in Devonian rocks 



