The Puzzle of Life. By Arthur Nicole, F.R.G.S. (Longmans, Green,
and Co.)—It is long since we read a book • which has pleased us so much. The story which geology and palaeontology toil is told in a charming manner, and with a simplicity that one would scarcely sup- pose the subject to admit of. We could almost wish ourselves children again, to have the pleasure of reading for the first time this account of the piecing-together of the puzzle of life, and enjoying it in all the freshness of its revelations. The story is told without supposing any preconceived notions of cosmogony, and yet with a reverence for the great Architect of the a puzzle," that only the most fastidious bigot could find fault with. In the " Framework of the Puzzle,' Mr. Nicola explains what fossils aro, and what relations they boar to past life. Then passing through the geological part, which treats broadly of the chief features of descriptive geology, and the three groat divisions of the rocks, he passes on to the " Vegetable " and " Animal " part. Beginning with the earliest indications of plant-life, he describes most graphically the forests of the coal-measures, and shows the relation between them and the peat-bogs. In the third section wo have the principal fossils described, from the Canadian Beacon to the Siberian mammoth, and an account of the animals of which they are the re- mains. The last addition to the completion of the puzzle is the history of man himself, as far as historic times. The illustrations, of which there is no stint, are well executed, and add no little value to the work,
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