280 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Introductory Text-hook of Physical Geography. By David Page, F.K.S.E., 
F.G.S. London and Edinburgh : Blackwood and Sons. 1863. 
What ran 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 superfi.cial 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, F.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 rei{ion, 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 iDcst local books in our literature, and is one of 
a class that \^ e should like to see more frequently produced. 
