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[April, 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
The Primaeval World of Switzerland. With 560 Illustrations. 
By Prof. Heer, of the University of Zurich. Edited by 
James Heywood, M.A., F.R.S. London : Longmans 
and Co, 
We have here, under an unpretending title, a work so full of 
interest that the critic must pause, uncertain to what portions he 
ought principally to diredt attention. The ordinary traveller 
who “ does ” Switzerland in the orthodox fashion, Murray in 
hand, or even the enthusiastic worshipper of Alpine scenery, has 
little conception of the wonders that lie beneath his feet. But 
to the enquiring mind of Prof. Heer the rocks have rendered up 
their secrets, and no portion of the world has been found more 
fruitful in evidence on the climatology and the geography, physical 
and organic, of bye-gone periods. The author before the appear- 
ance of this work was already honourably known from his “ Fossil 
P'auna of the Archie Regions,” his “ Swiss Tertiary Flora,” and 
his “ Plants of the Swiss Lake Dwellings.” But in the volumes 
now before us he embodies the whole of his researches on the 
past development of his native country, and enables the student 
to examine the succession of plants and animals in the different 
geological formations, and thus to obtain information on weighty 
biological questions. As a matter of course the author belongs 
to the honourable class of monographists — observers who selecft 
some well-defined task and strive to master it fundamentally. 
But at the same time, whilst examining the Swiss fossilised 
annals of natural history, he does not neglecft the light, comple- 
mentary, explanatory, or corrective, which may be drawn from 
the changes of other parts of the globe. 
The mere economical geologist, whose attention is exclusively 
confined to the occurrence of metallic ores and other marketable 
minerals, will not find in these volumes much to enchain his 
attention. Switzerland is not a mining country. True coal, 
with the exception of the anthracite beds of the Valais, can 
scarcely be said to exist. An argentiferous copper ore occurs in 
the Sernft Rock, and was worked on the Mtirtschen Alp, in the 
canton of Glarus, from 1854 to 1861, but the mines have since 
been abandoned as unremunerative. The author remarks that 
during the Permian epoch conditions very favourable to the 
deposition of copper must have prevailed, whether by vapours 
laden with copper ascending from the^interior of the earth, and 
depositing that metal in the rocks, or by salts of copper being 
