1866. ] Geology and Paleontology. 103 
single fact which appears in favour of a preconceived view is too 
often sufficient to convince him of the correctness of his. theory. 
Major Austin’s idea of a classical name is also rather astonishing ; 
taking, we presume, as his basis the occurrence of such generic 
appellations as Cytherea and Venus amongst the Lamellibranchiata, 
he now gives to two new genera of Brachiopods the names of Psyche 
and Anonyma! The reproach so often cast upon scientific men, 
that their writings teem with bad Latin, has originated from the 
abundance of such barbarisms as those coined for this pamphlet, 
é. g. Cytherea minutia, Tellina antiquitus, Pinna angulatus, &e., 
and the following heterogeneous series of names given to species 
of Pecten: planus, flabellum, symmetria, tenwistria, and albidus. 
The publication of the second volume of the Paleontological 
part of M. Barrande’s ‘Systeme Silurien du Centre de la Bohéme,’ 
is an important event in Silurian Paleontology. It contains 107 
plates, comprising figures of about 200 species of Silurian Cepha- 
lopoda, belonging to the following genera: Gonatites, de Haan ; 
Nothoceras, Barr.; Trochoceras, Barr. & Hall; Nautzlus, Linn.; 
Gyroceras, Kon.; Hercoceras, Barr.; Litwites, Breyn.; Phragmo- 
ceras, Brod.; Gomphoceras, Low.; and Ascoceras, Barr. Unfor- 
tunately the text does not accompany the plates, but will be 
published shortly ; there are, however, a few notes attached to the 
explanation of each figure. As all the species figured are con- 
sidered to be new, the appearance of the descriptions of them will 
be anxiously looked forward to. The present portion of this great 
work is as good an index as its predecessor, firstly, of the wonderful 
richness of the Bohemian Silurian fauna; secondly, of its distinct- 
ness from the Silurian fauna of Great Britain ; and, thirdly, of the 
perseverance and unwearied diligence of M. Barrande. 
M. Vaillant has recorded, in a paper ‘Sur la Constitution géo- 
logique de quelques Terrains aux environs de Suez,’ published in 
the Bulletin of the Geological Society of France (vol. xxii. p. 227), 
the discovery of shells of Attheria Cailliaudi, at Chaloufs el 
Terraba, eighteen kilometres from Suez: a fact of some importance 
in regard to the ancient course of the Nile and the antiquity of the 
Nile Oyster. In the same paper some interesting details are given 
respecting the geological constitution of the neighbourhood of Suez 
in the direction of the Sinai chain; but, as might have been 
expected, the rocks whose age has been determined belong to the 
Eocene and Upper Cretaceous periods. 
An important work has recently been published by M. Jules 
Martin, entitled, “ Etage Rhetien, ou zone 4 Avicula contorta, &. ;” 
it appeared originally in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences of 
Dijon, but has also been issued as a separate volume. The author's 
conclusions may be summarized as follows :— 
The mineralogical transition from the zone of Avicula contorta 
