132 Notices of Books. [January, 
work, found in the interglacial lignite along with known extindt 
animal species (elephant, rhinoceros, cave-bear, Bos primi- 
genius, &c. 
Brief notice is taken of Principal Dawson’s “ Address on the 
Origin and History of Life on our Planet.” The author con- 
cludes that “ the introduction of new species of animals and 
plants has been a continuous process, not necessarily in the 
sense of the derivation of one species from another, but in the 
higher (?) sense of the continued operation of the cause or 
causes which introduced life at the first.” This seems very like 
the demand for a continuous miracle. Against this view the ob- 
jection urged against Darwin weighs with tenfold force. For if 
no one has witnessed an ape becoming a man, still less has any- 
one witnessed a new animal condensing out of the atmosphere, 
crystallising out of the waters, or emanating from the ground. 
Principal Dawson holds also that “ Palaeontology furnishes no 
direCt evidence, perhaps never can furnish any, as to the aCtual 
transformation of one species into another, or as to the aCtual 
circumstances of the creation of a new species ; but the drift of 
its evidence is to show that species come in per saltum, rather 
than by any slow and gradual process.” 
S. H. Scudder’s important paper on “ Fossil Lepidoptera ” is 
somewhat severely abridged. We are told that the author 
“ discusses the comparative age of fossil butterflies, the pro- 
bable food-plants of Tertiary caterpillars, the present distribution 
of butterflies most nearly allied to the fossil forms, and the affini- 
ties of certain fossil insedts which have been referred to butter- 
flies,” but there is given no summary of the conclusions 
arrived at. 
The evidence of glaciation in India is becoming stronger, but 
the details bearing on this question, as well as interesting 
accounts of the coal-fields and the other mineral wealth of the 
Empire, are to be met with in the Reports of the Geological 
Survey of India. 
The geology of Africa is still in a very imperfect state. The 
British provinces in the South ought at any rate to be thoroughly 
explored. 
Mr. J. C. Brown has written an important memoir on the 
hydrology of South Africa, discussing the causes of its present 
aridity, and suggesting appropriate remedial measures. 
The geology of Australia is engaging the attention of a 
greater number of explorers. Mr. J. Bonwick estimates the 
carboniferous area of New South Wales at 15,419 square miles, 
and expedts that part of the comparatively unknown western 
interior of the colony may prove to be carboniferous. The coal- 
field of New South Wales and Queensland he considers to be 
the western edge of a larger area now under the Pacific. 
A paper contributed by Mr. J. Goodhall to the “ Transactions 
of the New Zealand Institute” is of great importance as regards 
