i88a.J 
Analyses of Books. 687 
interior of the earth : the author holds that if the planets have 
been formed by the condensation of nebulas, the various parts of 
such nebulas must have differed greatly from each other. The 
Rev. Dr. Haughton, in a memoir on a new method of finding 
limits to the duration of certain geological epochs, gives the 
minor limit of geological time at the low figure of 11,700,000 
years. Mr. W. T. Travers ascribes the warmer climate of the 
Eocene period to heat radiated out from the interior of the 
globe. Dr. Streng, in his “ Theorie des Plutonismus,” considers 
that as the initial temperature of our earth fell, an upper light 
layer of molten acid silicates was formed upon a lower dense 
zone of basic silicates, whilst an intermediate mixture was 
formed by diffusion, a continued reduction of temperature 
forming an outer solid shell : the author supposes that the inte- 
rior may consist of a solid nucleus, with a series of alternate 
liquid and solid shells between the nucleus and the outer crust. 
Mr. A. W. Waters, treating of the influence of the position of 
land and sea upon a shifting of the axis of the earth, considers 
that any submarine elevation in the oceanic area would displace 
the pole along the line 52 0 E. long. 
The section on Palaeontology is very extensive. There is a 
notice of Prof. J. A. Allen’s paper on a fossil bird from the 
Florissant shales ( Palceospiza bella ), the feathers of which 
have been preserved. Prof. W. B. Dawkins, in discussing 
the British Pleistocene Mammalia, contends that the lion, pan- 
ther, and urus are the only three mammals exterminated in 
Europe in the historic period. “ The urus breed was introduced 
into Britain by the English ; the fallow deer marks the influence 
of the Roman power, and the domestic cat intercourse with the 
south and east of Europe.” As regards the fallow deer a differ- 
ence of opinion prevails. Mr. Grant Allen, in a work reviewed 
in our September issue, thinks that it formed a part of our indi- 
genous fauna. 
Prof. R. Owen, in discussing the “influence of the advent of 
a higher form of life in modifying the structure of an older and 
lower form, instances the changes which have taken place in cro- 
codiles since the incoming of terrestrial mammals. In order to 
prey upon these, along the brink of the rivers, the fore-legs of 
the modern crocodiles have become longer and stronger, whilst 
the palato-nares are removed farther back. 
The “ Geological Record ” is an indispensable requisite in the 
library, not merely of every geologist, but of the student of 
animal and vegetable life. 
