280 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Introductory Text-book of Physical Geography. By David Page, F.H.S.E., 

 E.G.S. London and Edinburgh : Blackwood and Sons. 1863. 



What can we say more of Mr. Page's book than that it is the best of its 

 kind ? We have said the same of his geological text-books before ; and we 

 repeat the praise for this. Mr. Page's books, however, deserve more positive 

 praise even than this, for in themselves they are excellent treatises, charac- 

 terized by great painstaking in getting good information, and judgment 

 and ability in using it when got ; while his originality of thought always 

 carries his works far beyond the class of compilations. This text-book of 

 physical geography, like the author's ' Introductory Text-book of Geology,' 

 conveys in a simple, sytematic manner, the leading facts of the science to 

 which it relates ; and the learner is not troubled with masses of details 

 which it is impossible for him to remember, nor is he debarred from study 

 by an array of subsidiary topics and data altogether unneeded in the first 

 elementary comprehension of a science. The contents are physical geogra- 

 phy, as a science ; the general condition and planetary relations of the earth ; 

 — its individual structure and composition ; distribution of land and water ; 

 the superficial configuration of the land — its highlands, its lowlands ; the 

 water — its rivers and lakes ; climatology ; the atmosphere ; the distribution 

 of plants and animals ; ethnology — races and varieties of man : and a 

 general review, with deduction of the whole mass of subjects. We need 

 scarcely add, Mr. Page's book has our good wishes and most hearty recom- 

 mendations. 



The Geology of Leek. By Thomas Wardle, E.G.S. 



Leek, in Staffordshire, stands chiefly on the Triassic rocks. The Car- 

 boniferous rocks also appear, and Post- Tertiary deposits are met with in 

 the district. The subdivisions of the rocks, their principal localities and 

 ranges, are well and orderly described ; as are also the physical aspects of 

 the region, its rivers, brooks, and springs. At the end of the work are 

 model lists of strata, with the characteristic fossils bracketed to each, and 

 a note of the locality in which each occurs. There are also classified lists 

 of fossils, and four very well lithographed plates of figures. The book is 

 very nicely printed, on very good paper, and bound in cloth. In every way 

 it deserves to rank with the best local books in our literature, and is one of 

 a class that we should like to see more frequently produced. 



