The puzzle of life and how it has been put together

Chapter 2: PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

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About This Book

This volume offers a concise, illustrated account of Earth's physical formation and successive life forms, explaining geological strata, fossil evidence, and deep‑time processes such as uplift, subsidence, and deposition. It surveys major plant and animal groups preserved in the rocks, sketches transitions from ancient marine and reptilian forms to mammals, and discusses prehistoric human remains, implements, and art to trace technological and cultural progression. Emphasis is placed on reading museum specimens and field signs to reconstruct past environments, with accessible explanations of scientific reasoning and references to exploratory findings and archaeological sites. Pedagogical notes and illustrations support younger readers in recognizing fossils, tools, and earthwork monuments.

PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION.

The favourable reception accorded to the first edition has induced me to give the present a more definite educational character. Foot-notes are appended, referring to the position in the British Museum of all the principal antiquities, fossils, and implements mentioned in the text; so that the specimens can easily be found by any young student who wishes, with the book in his hand, to make himself familiar with these records of past time. This will probably facilitate the search for and recognition of specimens by the reader.

The additions to the text consist chiefly of a more extended account of the deposition of chalk and other deep-sea formations, founded on the results of the “Challenger” and “Tuscarora” expeditions, and a sketch of the earthworks of the Ohio mound-builders and the stone monuments of Easter Island. Examples of pre-historic art and lake-dwellings have been added to the illustrations.

A. N.

Hampstead: March 1877.