928 The American Naturalist. [November, 
few are blurred, but the majority are sufficiently full of detail to be of 
great aid to the reader. Two might well have been spared without 
injuring the value of the volume in the least—the map of Mammoth 
Cave (Plate 22, Fig. 2) on which the lettering is so small as to be read 
with difficulty, and the plate supposed to show the forms of crystals. 
Criticism might well be urged against the table of geological “ epochs 
and formations,” since the terms ‘ primary’ and ‘secondary’ are used 
in conjunction with Paleozoic and Mesozoic, as though they were in as 
frequent use as the latter, and the term ‘tertiary’ is used as synony- 
mous with Cainozoic. ‘Azoic’ is also used as the time term correspond- 
ing to the formation term Archean, in spite of the fact that the pres- 
ence’of fossils in the Archean rocks (Huronian and Laurentian) is 
-not positively denied. Finally the term Algonkian has no place in the 
table. While, of course, it is permitted to the author to decline to ac- 
cept this term as having a definite significance, it is at the same time 
unfortunate for his readers that they are not made familiar with it, if 
only as an aid toward the understanding of the handsome geological 
maps of the U. S. Geological Survey. 
There are 19 chapters in the book. ‘The first three treat of rocks, 
their formation and decay, the fourth of mountains, the next two of 
glaciers, the seventh of underground waters, the eighth of the relation 
between sea and land, the ninth of the interior of the earth, the tenth 
and eleventh of volcanoes, the twelfth of coral islands, the next three 
of fossils—their organization and their teachings, the sixteenth of land 
surfaces, and the last three of metals, minerals, building stones, etc. 
No one need hesitate for an instant in recommending this little vol- 
ume for use in our high schools and academies. It is by far the best 
thing of its kind that has yet appeared upon the market.—W. S. B. 
A Handbook of Rocks, for use without the Microscope 
by Dr. J. F. Kemp’ is a very welcome visitor to the desk of the teacher 
of geology. There has long been needed a little treatise on lithology 
which might be used as an introduction to the study of rocks and as a 
text-book for the use of those students in geology who have no inten- 
tion of taking up the subject as a specialty. The volume before us fills 
this need completely. It is an excellent little book, as full of detail as 
is desirable for a book of its character and as accurate as is possible 
in one of its size. Each of the main families of rocks is well characterized 
2J. F. Kemp: A Handbook of Rocks, for use without the Microscope with a 
„glossary of names of Rocks and other Lithological Terms. Printed for the 
author. New York, 1896, pp. vii, 176. Price in lots of ten copies $1.00 each. 
