416 
Notices of Books. 
[July, 
author clearly and conclusively demolishes the vague hopes 
entertained by many that when our coal-fields are exhausted 
electricity will, in some way or other yet to be discovered, come 
to our rescue. 
Mr. W. J. Harrison’s lecture on “ Local Geology, with special 
reference to that of Leicestershire,” is interesting from the lucid 
manner in which the author describes the gradual changes from 
Castanea atavia to C. vesca, as traced by Baron von Ettings- 
hausen, in proceeding from more ancient to more modern 
formations. Mr. Harrison adds — “ If we grant that even one 
species can change in this way, we shall do all that Mr. Darwin 
desires.” 
We regret that the w^ork has not appeared earlier, and that it is 
unaccompanied by an index. 
Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liver- 
pool , during the Sixty-sixth Session, 1876-77. London : 
Longmans and Co. Liverpool: D. Marples and Co., Limited. 
This volume contains an account of the papers read and the 
discussions held at the meetings of the Society. From these we 
are happy to learn that good work is being done. The Rev. H. 
H. Higgins, a zealous and able naturalist, has taken a cruise in 
the West Indian Seas on board the Argo, and has brought back 
and described a large and interesting assortment of sponges, 
Mollusca, fishes, and cryptogamic plants, which are now lodged 
in the Liverpool Museum. Several Associates of the Society — - 
among whom we may mention Capt. Perry, Capt. Cawne Warren, 
Capt. Slack, and Mr. E. Dukinfield Jones — have also contributed 
observations and collections in various departments of Natural 
History. A letter from Mr. J. Adams, of Pitcairn Island, read 
by Mr. J. L. Palmer, R.N., gives an account of the appearance 
of a sea-serpent on October 15th, 1870. It is represented as 
from 30 to 40 feet in length, and about a foot or 18 inches in 
diameter. No improbable or sensational features are ascribed to 
the animal. 
Among the papers read before the Society, and here inserted 
in full, very few indeed can call for our notice. The Rev. T. P. 
Kirkman laments to see “ crowds of good heads busy with mere 
observations obtained by rifling sea and land and sky, by dissec- 
tion of the dead, and vivisection of the tortured living,” and 
wishes that, like himself, they would devote themselves to the 
discussion of questions which Milton happily represents as en- 
gaging the attention of a Literary and Philosophical Society in 
Pandemonium. 
Mr, E, Davies, F.C.S., contributes an interesting paper entitled 
