REVIEWS. 
301 
Indeed, through nearly all the superscriptions of his works, there runs this 
pleasant archaic flavour, reminding the reader of an old library, of George 
Herbert, and Sir Thomas Browne. Nor is the tone of their contents dis- 
similar to the promise of the title-page. Although dealing with subjects 
exceptionally “ dry,” Mr. Proctor is what, for want of a better antithesis, 
we cannot refrain from calling, the most succulent of expositors. To men 
of formal, rigid, and “ tetragonal ” minds, this is perhaps a fault, a detraction 
from the sternness and severity of science. Contradicting the stoic exclu- 
siveness of ovdels ayeofX€Tpr]Tos e’laaro, he says, Come hither, ye unlearned, 
while I discourse in simple and untechnical language of light, and space, 
of the infinitely minute, of the mystery of gravity, of the end of many 
worlds. Such, indeed, are the headings of his first five chapters. Nor are 
those which follow on the Aurora, lunar halos, moonlight, the planets, Mars, 
Jupiter, and the “winged Saturn,” or on “fancied figures among the stars,” 
treated with less of his usual fluency and discursiveness. The last chapter 
is on “ transits of Venus.” Here we must confess to a slight reminiscence 
of Mr. Dick, in the true history of David Copperfield, “ who had been for 
ten years endeavouring to keep Charles the First out of the Memorial.” But 
on this occasion we are only very gently reminded of the great controversy 
between Halley’s and Delisle’s methods of observing those important phe- 
nomena. As before, so now, we hold the opinion that these books are 
useful, and appeal to a class of Tenders who stand in awe of sines, cosines, 
and co-eflicients. 
W. H. Stone. 
FIELD GEOLOGY.* 
rjTHE substance of this book, originally given as two lectures upon geological 
-L maps and instruments of surveying, in connection with the Scientific 
Loan Collection, has been considerably enlarged and revised, so as to form a 
new and independent work. 
The long experience of Professor Geikie as a field geologist and Director 
of the Survey will fully qualify him to supply the wants of a large 
body of readers, who, having a general and even extensive knowledge 
of geology, find themselves to a great extent helpless when they try to in- 
terpret the facts they meet with in the field. Field geology is broadly dis- 
tinguished from the researches which may be carried on in the library or the 
laboratory, and hence the object of the author has been to describe the 
methods by which the geologist may obtain his information regarding the 
nature, position, arrangement, and structure of a country. The subjects are 
arranged under two divisions — outdoor and indoor work, the former occu- 
pying by far the larger portion. 
In the series of chapters composing the first part, which is well illustrated, 
the author describes the nature of field work, the necessary accoutrements, 
geological and other maps, the essential characters and origin of rocks, the 
nature and use of fossils, the unravelling of geological structure as connected 
* “ Outlines of Field Geology.” By A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S, Second 
Edition. Sm. 8vo. London : Macmillan & Go., 1879. 
