i895. SOME NEW BOOKS. 429 



Geological Survey of Ireland have for some years been arranged, 

 according to geographical areas, in upright cases in a room of the 

 Dublin Museum ; wliile the fossils have been displayed in table-cases 

 associated with them. The arrangement of these flat cases is, of 

 course, stratigraphical, and the figured and type-specimens have been 

 removed to a special collection. The geology of the country has 

 been further illustrated by a series of the one-inch maps of the 

 Survey hung in the upright cases, so as to correspond with each 

 geographical group of rocks, and by photographs and water-colqur 

 paintings, exhibited to such advantage or disadvantage as the lighting 

 of the building will permit. To crown their labours, Mr. McHenry, 

 who chipped out so many of the specimens with his own hands, and 

 IMr. Watts, who for a time had charge of the petrographic investiga- 

 tions, have drawn up in an unpretentious form a systematic account 

 of the collections. 



Both the petrological and palsontological portions of this guide 

 show evidence of regard for recent literature, and the former section 

 has afforded scope for many original observations. Workers, intent 

 on elucidating some one of the local problems of Irish geology, will 

 again and again find that they have been anticipated by the careful 

 but comprehensive work of Mr. Watts ; while Mr. McHenry has long 

 possessed a capacity for attacking difficult areas and bringing home 

 a mass of useful information. An index of localities would have 

 improved the present guide as a work of reference ; but it wall at 

 once take its place in the librar)' and not only as a guide to the 

 museum. 



While the petrological portion presupposes a certain amount of 

 geological knowledge, and even a familiarity with some of the generic 

 names of rocks evolved in German laboratories, an attempt has been 

 made to preface the palaeontological pages by an outline of the animal 

 kingdom. This, we think, is a mistake, especially as there is a 

 well-equipped department of zoology close at hand. It would be 

 ungracious to criticise details where so much compression of material 

 has been effected ; but some revision may be possible in a new 

 edition. Thus (p. gg) the occurrence of corals in the American 

 ■OleneUus-idiVLX\3. .is overlooked ; nor can an ophiurid be aptly described 

 as " pentagonal in outline." On page loi, we read " the Eurypterids 

 were large crustaceans, most of whose abdominal segments were 

 devoid of limbs." There is, moreover, a great vagueness in the 

 reference to the King-crabs ; whether the concluding sentences refer 

 to Limulus or to the Limuloids, one or other of the statements made 

 must be incorrect. On p. 116 we may quarrel with the description 

 ■of AstevophyUites ; but slips and misprints are delightfully rare 

 throughout the work. 



Full use has been made of the most recent researches on Irish 

 .geology, although space would not permit of reference to more than 

 the authors' names. But the work of Messrs. McHenry and Watts, 

 in the field and in the office in Hume Street, has contributed a host 

 of new details, which appear here in the most modest manner. As 

 an example of the skilful treatment, on the other hand, of a mass of 

 older information difficult to correlate, we may cite the description of 

 the Old Red Sandstone in Munster, on pp. 83-85. 



This little paper-covered volume, the price of which is a few 

 pence, not shillings, is unquestionably the best informed work on Irish 

 geology extant. It is not a museum-catalogue, but a readable guide, 

 indispensable to those who would have an accurate knowledge of the 

 stratigraphical geology of our islands. G. A. J. C. 



