31 JULY 1880, Page 24

Chapters from thd Physical History of the Earth. By A.

Nicole. (C. Kegan Paul and Co.)—The geological and the palmontological sections of this book are equally sound in substance and interesting in treatment. Here are to be found brief, but clearly written, chapters concerning stratified and nnstratified rocks ; upheaval, sub. sidence, and denudation, and the large class of rocks formed by the intervention of life, vegetable or animal. The most distinct and most important formations are arranged in sequence, and a few of their characteristic organic remains are described and figured ; and lastly, comes a chapter on fossil man. Most of the woodcuts through- out the volume have the air of familiar friends,—friends we hare met so often, and in so many different places, that we have lost reckoning of our first introduction to them. The book seems care- fully and accurately printed, and may be safely used as a pleasant means of commencing geological study. It will enable persons of ordinary literary culture to grasp the main features, at least, of the earth's history.