REVIEWS. ' ^ 490 
much of "fiist" language iu the book; but igarily of val^liiw, to talk 
about tobaeeo-smoking. ^ ^ 
His geological statements are equally valoless, as witness al^ page 5 his 
remarks about " veyis of porphyry and sepeiitiue in tlie trap and bassdt;" 
those at page 44 about "the extinct voleniic agency" that had made "red, 
yellow, and green jnspcr-flints" out of " bunt flints" from the chalk ; and others 
01 t lie like sort too numerous to mentioTi » 
Although his notions about kaoV • ti„. age of graidte, and the 
n- alions of el ay and feldspar, ..hjccts may be vague and 
rid:c,d.H.s enough, he so. ^^y- ^.^^^^^^ 
Hifh passages ' I'.- n :,.,.„ 1 ^'beautiful. 
Une of (hcso - 1- i> r out as well «uiiii_v .,1 .. ItHot book 
• M" ! i^-le, il is sur( 1\ ;is guiltless of indigenous gcii.» s, ,,'f 
" '>!• bii-ds of paradise, iliMl any sueh existed with us, tiiey 
must lung ere liiis have been broughi 1.. light and ajjpeared in the market. 
We fiave oored the plain to two huudji M lulhoms depth; we have pierced the 
hill-sidc in timnels wOiieh extend for ihi! -. ; geologists and antiquarians iia\ c 
dcivcd, and hammered, and sifted; mall^ urious fossils have turned up, and 
n ^^<lrld's wealth in minerals, but never i< thing like a diamond or oriental. 
" It is well that to console us under sm l. iipparcnt poverty as to the gems, we 
posstss the treasure an hundred-fold in mlicr shapes, though derived from the 
same sources. Clay gives us no sappliirc ^ , but it floors our ponds and canals, 
furnishes our earthenware, and yields llir bricks wliich have built the ribs of 
Ix)iidou. Carbon refuses to flash upon us in the rays of an indigenous 
" brilliant," but it feeds our furnaces, propels our steamers and locomotives, 
and cheers a million of household heartlis under the welI-kno\ra form of coal. 
And iron is our national sceptre; it reddcn.s here no jacinth or ruby; but it 
supplies us with spades and ploughshares, lays down thousands of ^miles of 
railway, and has made England the forge and workshop of the kno^vn world 
for giant engines and ma.ssive maehinery. 
" Tf "iir earth be li s.s tiiu/.Uix^ iliiui lliiit I'lom Oolconda or Peru, it is, wc 
iiiav hope, more durable, flowing to us througli a lu-althier channel, by the 
honest labour and steady persever;uiee of the sons of the soil." 
V^e have admitted that we have read only half the book ; we have, however, 
skimmed over the rest, hoping sincerely to find some redeeming parts ; but, 
alas ! we have only found it worse and worse. 
Here and there, as we have already said, there are pretty bits of writing; 
but as neither gold nor silver, however beautifully elaborated by human art, 
redeems the treacherous mock jewel within the setting, so such attractive pas- 
sages oiily gild with a showy fihn the rottenness of the work within. 
Handbook of Geological Terms and Geology. By David Page, F.G.S. Lon- 
don and Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sous, 1859. 
This is a valuable book that has long been wanted by professional geologists 
and amateurs. The "General Terms and Teeluiicalities" (pages 55 — 381) are 
carefully elaborated. The derivations are con-ectly given ; the explanations are 
fuU and suggestive. The right pronuueiatiou of the terms is indicated by 
proper accentuation. 
The list of "Specific Appellations" (pages 385 — 416) wiU be a boon to many 
a student, who can hereby make liimself acquainted with their meaning and 
pronounce them correctly, though imacquainted with Latin and Greek. 
The "Tabular Schemes of the Chemical, Mineral, Litliologieal, and Vital 
aspects of the Globe" (pages 11—51) form a skeleton of g('olf)gieal knowl('(lu<'. 
