value is increased by a list of mineral localities arranged in counties, with 
indications of the particular form of mineral wealth to be obtained in each 
of them. This section closes with a short article on the water supply. In 
an appendix we have a glossary of Geological and Celtic terms. The book 
is illustrated with a good many woodcuts of sections and scenery, most of 
which are very good, and with some plates of fossils, the figures in which, 
although rather rough, are characteristic. There is also a nicely coloured 
geological map of Ireland. 
In this little book Mr. Kinahan has certainly succeeded in producing one 
of the most original and thoroughgoing treatises on local geology that it has 
even been our good fortune to peruse, and geologists are deeply indebted to 
him for giving them so admirable a guide to the geology of his native 
country. It is rather sad to see that the book is dedicated to Sir Richard 
Griffith, whose death must have taken place almost at the time of its publi- 
cation. 
ETNA.* 
A LTHOUGH the largest volcano of Europe, and the one which, accord- 
ing to history and tradition, has been the longest in action, Etna 
seems to have achieved but scanty fame in this country, and the surprise 
which the author of the little volume now before us experienced on 
finding that there was no special work upon this mountain in the English 
language was certainly justified. Its younger sister on the continent of 
Italy is much better off in this respect, owing, no doubt, in part to its 
proximity to Naples and to the comparative facility with which its summit 
can be reached ; in part also to the celebrity attaching to it as at once the 
destroyer and preserver of the two cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
The fabled prison of the rebellious giants and forge of Vulcan has, 
however, received more justice at the hands of foreign writers, among whom 
Carlo Gemellaro and Sartorius von Waltershausen stand pre-eminent, as the 
authors of special ‘LEtnographies,” whilst our own countryman the late Sir 
Charles Lyell has contributed in no small degree to the explanation of the 
phenomena presented by the mountain. In fact, as Mr. Rod well tells us, 
“later writers usually quote Von Waltershausen and Lyell, and do not add 
much original matter ; ” and, considering the quality of the work done by 
those distinguished geologists, this may be taken rather as a compliment to 
the judgment of the later writers, of whom our present author is one. So 
far as we can see Mr. Rodwell in his little volume (which is an expansion of 
his article “ Etna,” in the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica ”) adds little to the stock 
of knowledge previously possessed by geologists as to the structure of the 
mountain, although it would be unfair to stigmatise his work as a mere com- 
pilation, seeing that while he cannot claim that it is the product of original 
research, the author nevertheless in bringing it together had the advantage 
of a personal acquaintance with the locality under consideration. Mr. Rod- 
well has in point of fact produced an excellent and readable popular account 
* “ Etna : a History of the Mountain and of its Eruptions.” By G. F. 
Rodwell. 8vo. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878. 
