REVIEWS. 
165 
phenomena under normal conditions, that we need not refer to it further 
here. 
This portion of Dr. Lindsay’s hook is followed by an appendix containing 
a bibliography of the numerous works from which his facts have been 
derived, and elaborate tables of the genera and species of animals referred to 
in the text, the whole concluding with an elaborate analytical index, a most 
important adjunct to a work of this nature. In fact, as we have already 
hinted, Dr. Lindsay’s aim throughout has been to render his book as perfect 
as possible, and it will not only be read with great interest and profit, but 
will serve as a complete book of reference on the subject of which it treats. 
POPULAR GEOLOGY* 
S OME three years ago Mr. Arthur Nicols made his debut as a writer on 
Geology, by the publication of a little book entitled The Puzzle of Life, 
in which he endeavoured to explain, in terms suited to the comprehension of 
very young students, the general teachings of Palaeontology as to the nature of 
the animals whose existence is revealed to us by their fossilized remains, and 
as to the succession of life upon the earth and the arguments founded 
thereon with regard to the history of the earth itself. We felt bound to 
speak in terms of praise of this first effort of Mr. Nicols, which we suppose 
was a successful one, seeing that he has been encouraged to come forward 
again with a rather more ambitious scheme, his present Chapters from the 
Physical History of the Earth being designed as neither more nor less than a 
general popular treatise on Geology. 
Mr. Nicols divides his book into two parts, the first of which deals with 
Physical Geology, the second with Palaeontology. This second part appears 
to us to be very satisfactorily done. From its small extent it is of necessity 
sketchy ; but the author seems to have grasped very well the conditions of 
the problem set before him, and we find some of the most recent palaeonto- 
logical discoveries referred to in their proper places. This part is arranged 
in historical form, that is to say, the fossils are described under the forma- 
tions in which they occur. The section on Physical Geology is also fairly 
well done ; but here, as might perhaps be expected, we meet with occasional 
inaccuracies which detract somewhat from the merit of the work ; as at p. 17, 
where cleavage and bedding are confounded ; at p. 28, where hornblende is 
mentioned as an essential constituent of granites ; and at p. 33, where we are 
told that rocks are ( principally aggregates of sulphates, carbonates, and 
silicates, associated with oxygen.’ The illustrations are much the same as 
those used in the author’s former work, but with a few additions. 
* Chapters from the Physical History of the Earth : An Introduction 
to Geology and Palceontology. By Arthur Nicols, F. G.S. Small 8vo. 
London : C. Kegan Paul and Co., 1880. 
