[page] 181

MR. DARWIN'S GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.*

IN publishing the volume of "Geological Observations" now before us.  Mr. Darwin has performed a feat parallel to that of the elder Mr. Shandy, which, as that gentleman's son tells us, was calculated to make the man in the moon beat his breast in despair, and apostrophize the "eternal Maker of all beings" to know why the moonites should be incapable of such ingenious flights. He has brought out a second edition of a book of which the first never appeared. The volume, in fact, contains a reprint, apparently without alteration, of two treatises published by Mr. Darwin shortly after his return from the exploring voyage of the Beagle; namely, his "Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands" and his "Observations on South America," which appeared respectively in 1844 and 1846.

Both these works have now been out of print for some time, and as the observations described in them are of the highest importance, and the books themselves are constantly referred to in all general treatises on geology, their author has certainly conferred a boon upon students, whose only chance of obtaining them was the picking up of an occasional second-hand copy, by republishing them in so convenient a form. The only thing we can wish is that, as the knowledge of the volcanic rocks has made such prodigious strides of late years, Mr. Darwin had appended to the first of these treatises such notes as would have sufficed to bring the statements contained in the text into accordance with modern views and nomenclature. The maps and illustrations are the same as in the original edition.