Abstract
THE object of this little book is to give an account of the important facts and deductions in geology, without “unnecessary scientific terminology.” That there is room for such a work will not be questioned, and doubtless many who have paid no heed to the subject would begin to study it if only their lessons were made easy and attractive. This was accomplished in old times by Hugh Miller, and more recently by Canon Kingsley in his charming “Town Geology ”; and Mr. Lobley, in his enthusiastic preface, raises the hope that he will follow a similar course, and provide “all intelligent readers” with a simple record of the earth's history. In this respect, however, we are disappointed. The work is a condensed account of the leading geological facts and deductions, arranged much after the fashion of an ordinary text-book. Of its general accuracy and clear ness we can speak with confidence; and indeed, through his long connection with the Geologists' Association, the author has had ample opportunities of qualifying himself for his task. The work, however, is more adapted for the young student who wishes to pursue the subject, than for the general reader. We fear the patience of the latter will be tried when he reads the explanations—and not always happy explanations—of outcrops, anticlinals, unconformities, and outliers, for there are no diagrams to give pictorial aid. Nor is the chapter on the composition of rocks likely to prove more readable; for surely the accounts of the physical characters of minerals, and the chemical formulæ, introduce “unnecessary scientific terminology.” Again, when we read of the acidic and basic rocks, of the seismic focus and the meizoseismic curve, of the “homocircle (sic) or equal-lobed tailed fishes,” and of those that present a “heterocircle-tailed character,” we feel that the author has not sufficiently carried out his good intentions. In the chapter on metamorphic rocks a popular account might have been given of recent researches in the Highlands, and then perhaps the author would not have remarked that “arely a reversed-fault is seen.”
Geology for All.
By J. Logan Lobley, &c. (London: Roper and Drowley, 1888).
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W., H. [Book Reviews]. Nature 38, 125 (1888). https://doi.org/10.1038/038125b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/038125b0