320 The American Geologist. November, 1905 
burg, Munchen, St. Louis, Mo., H. Herder: 11 Teil, Spezielle. Ge- 
steinskunde mit besnnderer Beriisichtigung der geologischen 
Vcrhaltnisse, mit 133 Textfiguren und 8 Tafeln. Seiten 331, 
1905, 9 marks, Freiburg, Wien, Strassburg, Miincben und St. 
Louis, Mo., B. Herder. 
These volumes are comparisons of the same author's Gcsteins- 
bildenen Mineralien a id Anleitttng zum Gebrauch des Polarisations- 
mikroskops which are well known petrographical text books. To- 
gether they constitute a series by a single author covering the 
whole field of lithology. It is sometimes an advantage to a student 
after he has become familiar with the terms and usages of an author 
to be able to transfer his attention to another branch of the science 
without the necessity of acquiring the ready use of a lot of new 
terms. 
Part I. contains a resume of the known distribution and mise 
en place of the different kinds of rock masses. It has little to do 
with the composition of rocks, but describes vulcanism and the 
forms of rock masses it produces, the first crust of" the earth and 
the crystalline schists, magmatic differences, rock-weathering, de- 
nudation, nature and distribution of sediments, eolian and alluvial 
deposits, marine sediments, glacial deposits, metamorphism, its 
agents, and its products, both contact and regional, and all forms 
of rock structures. "It has a full and useful index. 
Part II. treats of rock species, going through the whole gamut 
from granite and gabbro to the sedimentary rocks whether mechan- 
ical, chemical or organic, with a good index. A special chapter is 
devoted to the crystalline schists. 
Both these parts are well illustrated with half-tones from pho- 
tographs. The German is simple and easily read by a novice in that 
language. The work is distinctively a German production, with little 
reference to English and French literature. n. h. w. 
Structural and Field Geology. James Geikik Murchison, professor of 
Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Edinburg, for 
students of pure and applied science. New York. D. Van Nos- 
trand Company, 1905, pp. 435, 56 plates and 142 illustrations in 
the text. $4.00, net. 
This book is remarkable for two things — It has no references to 
authorities, and it does not touch on paleontology. It is what its 
title implies — structural and field geology — yet some might query 
whether it would have been, under that title, as reasonable to omit 
all reference to the mineral composition of rocks as all reference to 
their organic contents. Still, it is plain that the author had an 
idea, which he has tried to exemplify in his work. It is, further, 
very reasonable that a Scotch text-book on geology should reflect 
the dominant geological features of Scotland, and these certainly are 
not paleontologic. The illustrations are also taken from Scotch 
geology. 
