412 
Notices of Books. 
[July, 
Dr. Croll and Mr. James Geikie,” agrees in many points with 
the views put forward by Mr. Mattieu Williams in his “ Through 
Norway with Ladies” (see “ Quarteily Journal of Science,” 
vol. vii., p. 537). Mr. Somervail, though by no means ques- 
tioning the fa cl of glaciation or of a glacial epoch, entertains 
doubts concerning the so-called “ Interglacial periods,” and holds 
that “ the conditions under which the lower drift deposits have 
been formed were not of that severe and rigorous kind that has 
of late been so vigorously advocated.” He does not find evi- 
dence for a vast ice-sheet coming from Scandinavia, and 
coalescing, upon what is now the bed of the North Sea, with 
another sheet descending from the Highlands. He remarks that 
many of the supposed interglacial beds, which, according to 
Dr. Croll and Mr. Geikie, should have been formed under a sub- 
tropical temperature, “ have yielded abundance of marine shells 
which show a much colder set of conditions than those actually 
inhabiting our present seas.” The climatic conditions of the 
Glacial period may, he thinks, when more fully understood, be 
explained on geographical grounds without having recourse to 
the astronomical theory as elaborated by Dr. Croll. 
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Lidia. Vol. xiii., Parts 1 
and 2. Calcutta : Government Survey Office. London : 
Trubner and Co. 
This volume consists of an account of the Wardha Valley Coal- 
field. The first notice of the existence of coal in the locality 
dates as far back as 1831. Twenty-three years later, Mr. Hislup, 
one of the pioneers of Indian geology, examined the valley. 
The coal-field, “ as limited by an arbitrary line to the south, and 
by its natural geological boundaries to the east, west, and north, 
covers an area of about 1600 square miles, and is included be- 
tween latitudes 19 0 28' and 20" 27' N. and longitudes 78° 50' and 
79 0 45' E. The distridl, as suspedfed by Mr. Blanford and sub- 
sequently fully proved by Mr. Fedden, bears evident marks of 
glaciation. “A boulder-bed, containing some beautifully polished 
and scored boulders, rests upon a floor of compadt Vindhyan 
limestone, which, when freshly exposed, is found to be striated 
and grooved in long parallel lines, in the manner so familiar to 
glacialists.” This observation was made “ near the little village 
of Irai, on the right bank of the Pern River, not quite a mile 
above its confluence with the Wardha, and 10 miles W.S.W. of 
Chanda.” In the Wardha Valley numerous beds of coal occur, 
one of them 60 feet in thickness. Some of the best, however, 
are very limited in area. Still the amount of coal is vastly in 
excess not merely of the present, but even of the probable future 
