Abstract
IT may be presumed that both these antedated works are intended for the Christmas season, and their print, illustrations, and binding make them highly attractive as gift-books for the young. Both, however, contain matter based on recent observation, and both will probably bring the results of research before many who have no acquaintance with scientific journals. There was a delightful book, entitled “The Wonders of the World,” published somewhere about the time of the battle of Waterloo, which we used to read side by side with Brewster's “Natural Magic.” It is more to the point to say that to this book Charles Darwin owed his earliest inspiration. Mr. Grew's far handsomer volume shows how far we have progressed in, style and picturesque-ness; but it depends equally on its fascinating appeal to what the earth is actually doing. Some of the examples of natural processes necessarily remain the same, but Lisbon and Calabria are now overshadowed by San Francisco and the Montagne Pelee. A fine series of photographic plates, mostly from Messrs. Underwood's well-known American series, has been chosen to illustrate the phenomena described. Extinct animals, mainly from Miss Woodward's skilful drawings, which were first published in Knipe's “From Nebula to Man,” are used to emphasise the romance of paleontology.
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C., G. Two Gift-Books on Geology 1 . Nature 79, 131–132 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/079131a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079131a0