348 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 
LITERATURE OF RUSSIAN GEOLOGY 
WE are glad to note that Dr Nikitin’s “ Russkaya gheologhicheskaya 
biblioteka” for 1896 [dated 1897] reached England 1st September. 
Like all records this valuable publication grows in bulk year by year, 
with, of course, a corresponding difficulty of compilation. This diffi- 
culty has now proved insuperable to Dr Nikitin and his collaborator, 
Miss Marie Tzvetaev, and the work will in future be continued by a 
special committee of the members of the Commission of the Geological 
Committee of St Petersburg, of whose publications this biography 
forms a part. The compiler records 577 papers in the geology of 
Russia, which, if in Russian, are given a translation of title and brief 
abstract in French, and if in any other language, are similarly dealt 
with in Russian. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
A NEW edition of Dr Carrington Bolton’s invaluable Catalogue of 
Scientific Periodicals has just been issued by the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. Part I. of the alphabetical catalogue is a reprint from the plates 
of the first edition, with the necessary changes to bring the titles down 
to date. Part II. contains additions that could not be made to the 
plates of Part I., together with about 3600 new titles. 8600 periodi- 
cals are noted in this catalogue. 
SCRAPS FROM SERIALS 
THE Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association tor August are de- 
voted to a sketch of the geology of the Birmingham district by Pro- 
fessors Lapworth and Watts and Mr W. J. Harrison. The Association, 
it will be remembered, visited the district this summer, and this 
modestly-named sketch is 103 pages long, and is fully illustrated by 
photographs and horizontal sections, and is really a masterly account 
of the geology of the Midlands. The following list of contents will 
give some idea of its value :—Physiography ; Geology ; Archaean rocks 
of Malvern, Wrekin, Barnt Green, Caldecote, and Charnwood; 
Cambrian System of Wrekin, Malvern, Nuneaton, and Lower Lickey ; 
Silurian System of Malvern, Abberley, the central area, Lower Lickey, 
Walsall, Dudley, etc.; Carboniferous System of S. Staffordshire Coal- 
field, Lower Lickey, E. Warwickshire and Severn Coal-fields ; Permian 
System; Triassic System; Post-Triassic Formations; Petrology ; 
Ancient Glaciers of the Midlands; and last, but not by any means 
the least important, is a history of discovery in the Birmingham dis- 
trict, a valuable adjunct to most unofficial work. The Geologists’ 
Association may well be proud of the interest shown in them by Pro- 
fessor Lapworth and Watts. A new term ‘Charnian’ is proposed in 
the paper (p. 335) by Prof. Watts for the Charnwood series. 
No. xvi. of the Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New 
Brunswick contains a portrait and life of Dr James Robb by Dr L. 
W. Bailey. Dr Robb published as early as 1841 a paper on the geology 
of New Brunswick in the Reports of the British Association, and fol- 
lowed it up in 1850 with a report on the agricultural capabilities of 
the province, to which he appended a geological map. He died in 
