360 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
ancients, of some geological ideas. The work is througliout marked by a 
manly, vigorous, style of thought, which alone would entitle the author to 
take the prominent place amongst Europe's most philosophical thinkers 
he has assumed. In the confidence that future researches will speedily 
result from his prolonged attempts to pierce into the hidden fountains of 
human thought during past ages, we cannot better express the pleasure 
and admiration we have felt while reading the work than in this necessarily 
brief and imperfect notice of Dr. Schvarcz's volume. 
Vblcanos, and the Character of their Phenomena. By G. Poulett 
Scrope, Esq. London : Longman. 1862. 
There are only two ways of reviewing a book, either thoroughly or 
briefly. To review Mr. Scrope's book properly would not only occupy the 
space of a number, but it would be superfluous on our part ; for, as with- 
out exception, it is the standard work on the subject, every geologist 
who studies volcanic phenomena must have it. Mr. Scrope's views are 
well known. He traces in all the mass of evidence accumulated the proof 
of the general uniformity and simplicity of the phenomena of which vol- 
canos and the volcanic formations are the expressions. Opposing Hum- 
boldt's view of their " isolated, variable, and obscure character," he 
mostly labours to show, that in every quarter of the globe the eruptions 
that have taken place are characterized by the same repeated splitting of 
the earth's crust in fissures, and generally accompanied by earthquakes and 
other indications of the swelling and heaving of subterranean effervescent 
matter, the same explosive outbursts of steam and A^apours, throwing up 
liquid drops and cellular fragments of wholly or partially fused mineral 
substances or lava, or expelled in jets or streams, which flow or spread over 
considerable areas, or accumulate in bulky masses about the eruptive vent 
according to their degree of liquidity or gravity, and an examination of 
which discloses everywhere the same basalts, greystmes, or trachytes, 
composed of the same minerals in varying proportions. He points out 
everywhere the same composition and structure in volcanic formations, 
from the smallest cinder-cones to the greatest and loftiest mountains, pre- 
sentiug the accumulated result of a long series of successive eruptions ; 
the same general quaquaversal dip of their component beds of lava and 
conglomerate from the central heights, as formed by successive outpourings 
and successive showers of ejected materials ; the same hollows drilled here 
and there through the axes of the mountain-masses by the force of explod- 
ing volumes of steam ; and, finally, the general parallelism over the entn-e 
surface of the globe of the chief trains of volcanic vents as if the fissures 
through which the eruptions find their way outwardly were owing to 
the lateral drag occasioned by the upheaval of some contiguous superficial 
portion of the earth's crust overlying a stratum of intensely heated and 
highly elastic matter, the tension of which, through increase of tempera- 
ture, had more or less overcome resistances exposed to its expansion. 
