Bibliographical Notices. 129 



most useless. We should much like, for the sake of our geological as 

 well as entomological readers, to give a translation of his prefatory- 

 observations, which contain a synopsis of all that is yet known of 

 fossil entomology, and also many useful observations directing us in 

 the determination of the existence of insects without their actual 

 presence ; and in methods for facilitating the discovery of collateral 

 evidence of the same fact : to this however we may possibly return, 

 as it is a subject replete with interest. The application of trivial 

 names to such mutilated remains is a vain and hopeless endeavour 

 to enlarge our knowledge of species, and can scarcely answer any 

 end, especially when we reflect what nice discrimination is frequently 

 required to determine recent species, in the best state of preservation ; 

 and in a fossil state the same individual species, from the variety of 

 states of preservation in which it may come down to us, would be 

 thus propagated into as many species, from their presenting no tan- 

 gible means of identification. All therefore that we can reasonably 

 hope for in fossil entomology is a knowledge of the genera peculiar 

 to certain geological formations and their contemporaneous zoology 

 and botany. Of course it will be understood that we exclude from 

 this sweeping condemnation insects preserved in amber and copal, 

 in which substances they usually retain their pristine perfection. 

 We must however be thankful that this uninviting task has fallen 

 into hands which can enliven with great interest a subject apparently 

 so barren. 



Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. 

 The unassuming Transactions of this locally useful Club, printed 

 for private circulation among its members and their friends, has been 

 kindly forwarded to us. The exertions of the Club are continued, and 

 we now have the result of their labours during 1839, commencing 

 with the Annual Address of the President, the Rev. T. Knight, Vicar 

 of Ford. — Next a " Notice regarding the Cessation of the Flow of the 

 river Teviot" on 27th Nov. 1838 ; by Dr. Douglas of Kelso : which 

 proves that it was occasioned by accumulation of ice. — " On the 

 effects produced on Animal and Vegetable Life by the Winter of 

 1838 ;" by P. J. Selby, Esq. of Twizel House : a Paper very in- 

 teresting to compare with the season in other parts of Britain and 

 Ireland. — " Meteorological Observations made at the Abbey St. Ba- 

 thon*s, Berwickshire." — " On the Metamorphosis of Balanus punc- 

 tatus of Montague;" by the Rev. T. Riddel, Fellow of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge. — " A description of the Cephalopoda which inhabit the 

 coast of Berwickshire ;" by Dr. Johnston. — " On the Nests of the 

 Fifteen-spined Stickleback, or Gasterosteus spinachia of Linnaeus." — . 



