1878.: Notices of Books. 413 
wants of the country, both for manufactures and domestic and 
naval purposes. 
Part 2 gives the geology of the Rajmehal Hills, a country 
bounded on the north and partially on the east by the Ganges, 
on the south by the Dwarka River and the district of Birbhum, 
and on the west by the hilly country and the plains of Birbhum 
and Bhagulpur. One of the most singular geological features of 
the district is the radiating columnar trap figured in Plate IV., 
which presents the appearance of pillars radiating out in all di- 
rections from a common centre. The region, calmly considered, 
is pronounced “ one of many in India where properly organised 
commercial enterprise may fairly expeCt to achieve a reasonable 
amount of success. There is a total area of about 1200 square 
miles of coal-field, containing on the lowest estimate 210 million 
tons of available coal, not of the best quality, but easily access- 
ible. The basaltic trap yields agates, chalcedony, common opal, 
and various kinds of rock crystal in abundance, but no attempts 
have yet been made to colled; them for commercial purposes. 
The Physical System of the Universe , an Outline of Physiography . 
By Sydney B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S., H.M. Geological 
Survey. London : Dalby, Isbister, and Co. 1878. 
This is one of the most comprehensive works upon Physiography 
that has yet appeared. The excellent treatises of Mrs. Somer- 
ville and Prof. Huxley are “ too much of the earth, earthy,” and 
treat our tiny globe with an excessive amount of consideration. 
Mr. Skertchly, on the other hand, takes a much broader view of 
the subjed, and refuses to look upon our earth as being the cen- 
tral point of the Universe, regarding it as nothing more than an 
infinitesimal portion of one vast whole. As might be expeded, 
therefore, the larger half of the book deals with fads and prin- 
ciples which affed the whole of creation, the rest being devoted 
to the description of the earth, which is looked upon more in the 
light of a unit in the solar system than as a habitation for man. 
Mr. Skertchly travels far and wide, taking his reader with him 
from atoms and molecules to suns and systems. 
The author is evidently possessed of the broadest of views in 
scientific matters, and seems ever ready to seize hold of the 
newest fads and theories, and lay them before his readers in a 
digestible form. The latest discoveries relative to the otheoscope 
and radiometer, for instance, are described at length, and the 
important light thrown by them upon the modern theory that 
light, heat, and chemical adion are different effeds of the same 
kind of wave-motion, is well brought out. In connedion with 
this theory Mr. Skertchly proposes that we should get rid of all 
