REVIEWS. 
133 
Illustrations of the Geologic Scenery of PiirhecL 
Illustrations of the Qeologic Scenery of Weymouth, Portland, and Purhech. 
Illustrated Historical and Picturesque Guide to Svxinage and the Isle of Purbech. 
By P. Brannon. Sydenham, Poole ; London, Longman & Co. 
The hunililest effort deserves connnendation and snpport when it is made in a 
rigiit spirit. We confess to a weakness for letter-heail views and those cheap litho- 
graplis and engravings, wliicli provincial hooksellers so abundantly display as baits 
for the small silver snpeiHuities of the strangei-'s purse. 
Connnon in execution as many of these are, they are more quickly purchased 
than sketches could be made even by expert draughtsmen, and they serve years 
afterwards to remind us of the famous or cherished spots, which we, like other 
pilgTims on the road of Life, have chanced to visit. 
The above set of hrochures -which the author has fonvarded to us, are illustrated 
amply with engravings of the letter-paper class, but of far better exec^ition 
than the average of such productions. The " Illustrations of the Geologic Scenery 
of Weymouth, Portland, and Purbeck," and " Illustrations of the Geologic 
Sceneiy of Purbeck," each contain eight such views without any descriptive letter- 
press ; but they are useful memoranda for the geologist or the visitor to bring away 
from this most picturesque portion of Dorsetshire. In the latter set is a pretty 
view of the Hag'gerstone, or Agglestone, as it is there spelt, a natm-al mass of 
rock, with no legitimate claim to the falsely given title of a Dmidical remain. 
The famous Lulworth Cove, Durlstone Head, and St. Alban's Head, are 
among the numlier of these well-selected views, which tlius represent the scenic 
characters and physical geography of the Tertiaries, the Chalk, Portland Oolite, 
and Kimmeridge Clay, besides the Wealden and Purbeck beds. 
The " Illustrated Giude to Swanage " contains more geological and other 
scientific information than we have ever seen in any work of so unpretending a 
character. The geological features of the district are undoubtedly worthy of such 
fuU notice, and the author has well pointed out the conciseness, so to speak, of 
the display within tliis limited area of many geological groups of strata. In a 
subsequent place the author ]ioints out the high commercial value of many of the 
mineral products of the locality described, the vast beds of fine pottery-clay, the 
fire-clay, the alum- and copperas-shales, pyrites and iron-ore, paving-, building-, 
cement-, lime-stones, and marble, the bituminous shales so rich in gas and 
paraffine. 
The natural divisions of the region are next given, attention being specially 
drawn to the two gieat hill-ranges of chalk and oolite, stretching nearly due west 
from Swanage Bay, dividing the tract into two upland and three valley districts ; 
the chalk range forming the south-western extremity of the great basin of Hamp- 
shire and Sussex. 
Mr. Beckle's excavations and researches, his discoveries of mammalian remains, 
the stone and marble quarries, from sixty to seventy in number, and other points 
of geological interest, are all successively noticed, and with sufficient accuracy to 
make the observations of value to the student, as well as to the general reader, 
or to the mere visitor. 
The shelly-marble of this district is well known from its extensive use in eccle- 
siastical buildings of the Middle Ages, and Mr. Brannon's account of the Purbeck 
strata, and the nide manner in which the quarrying work is still carried on, will 
not only be of interest to our readers, but will afford a good example of the style 
of this very unassuming production : — • 
" The true Purhecks, or thin beds of shelly limestone, alternating with clays 
and sands, formerly considered as Wealden, now as upper oolite, furnish the great 
staple of the stone exports from this district. They consist of an innnense 
number of beds from a quarter of an inch to four feet in thickness, mostly very 
hard and close grained, and separated from each other chiefly by beds of clay, 
varied with sandy and loamy, gravelly or marly earth. A very gi'eat proportion 
of the stone beds are useless, either on accouni; of their excessive hardness, their 
