William Harmon Norton

The 1905 edition is from the age before plate tectonics, and thus has a few oddities. The descriptive parts, however, which form the bulk of the book, are entirely valid still. The work also contains much more paleontology than modern division of the sciences would lead one to expect. While the presentation as a college textbook is still a bit patchy and repetitious in this early edition, the major epochs and processes do get conveyed to the reader with clarity and comprehension.