KEYIEWS. 
193 
GEOLOGICAL STORIES* 
pj OOD as was undeniably the former work by Mr. Taylor which we had to 
review in these pages, we are bound in all honesty to confess that the 
volume now before us is still better. Indeed we know of few who are so 
admirably adapted to the task of writing for the public alone as the author 
of the “ Geological Stories.” We, of course, do not consider this little book 
as in any way addressed to students of geology ; but to those who have 
never opened a geological volume, who, even if they had the time, w'ould 
never dream of taking up a geological text-book, the ‘‘ Geological 
Stories ” must undoubtedly appeal. They are popular in the extreme, and 
withal they have not the faults of popular treatises. Their author is too 
good a geologist for that. But they furnish a series of stories much in the 
vein that Professor Huxley adopted some years ago in many of his popular 
lectures. A series of stories constitute the chapters of the volume, and in this 
way the several formations are disposed of. Thus, there is the story of a piece 
of granite, a piece of slate, a piece of limestone, a piece of sandstone, a 
piece of coal, a piece of rock-salt, a piece of jet, a piece of Purbeck marble, 
a piece of chalk, a lump of clay, a piece of lignite, and finally the story of 
the crags, a boulder and a gravel pit. The volume which contains these 
several stories is amply and excellently illustrated, the cuts numbering 
nearly 200, whilst a number of plates, of most of which we heartily approve, 
are scattered through the volume. Each substance is made to tell its tale 
in the first person, and the humour of the author displays itself occasionally 
in a pleasant and telling manner. The illustrations are capitally printed, 
better far than is generally the case : some of them, too, are novel to most 
readers — those of the foraminifera being especially so. Altogether we are 
well satisfied with the work, and we cordially trust our young friends will 
get it and read it : if they derive as much pleasure from its perusal as the 
writer has, we will vouch for their satisfaction. 
HARVESTING ANTS AND TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS.f 
I T is not often we find a series of observations published now- a- days upon 
the habits of a particular animal. Nor indeed is it at all common to 
find, when such a series of studies are given to the public, that they at all 
justify the praise of the Natural History reviewer. But such can certainly 
not be said in the case of Mr. Moggridge’s labours, for they are unquestion- 
ably most valuable, and have been most ably made and most creditably pub- 
lished. The illustrations to this book are, by themselves, of extreme value, 
* “ Geological Stories. A Series of Autobiographies in Chronological 
Order.” By J. E. Taylor, E.G.S. London : Hardwicke, 1873. 
t Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders. Notes and Observations on 
their Habits and Dwellings.” By J. Traherne Moggridge, F.L.S. Lon- 
don ; L. Reeve and Co., 1873. 
TOL. XII. — NO. XLVII. 
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