Pictefs Treatise on Palaeontology. 301 



portion of M. Pictet's treatise, I shall abstain from speaking 

 of thera at any great length. I may be allowed simply to re- 

 mark, that if there be any merit in having accomplished the 

 original investigation, I have experienced a lively satisfaction 

 in seeing the result of such long-continued and arduous la- 

 bours presented in so concise and interesting a form. The 

 reflection that my researches have now begun to supply, in the 

 history of organized beings, a chapter hitherto entirely ne- 

 glected in most of the treatises of this kind, is the most de- 

 lightful recompense which I can receive for my exertions. I 

 experience only one regret, and that is, that the results of my 

 investigations are incomplete. Even now, however, M. Pictet 

 might have filled up some of the blanks which he has indicated, 

 had he received, in sufficient time, my memoir on the fossil 

 fishes of Sheppey. and my monograph on the species found in 

 the Devonian system. But though Ave include that informa- 

 tion, and although I am already acquainted with 1700 species 

 of fossil fishes, the history of that class of animals is still so 

 far from being completed, that, reasoning upon considerations 

 which it would take too long to develop in this place, I have 

 arrived at the undoubted conclusion, that in estimating at about 

 thirty thousand the number of species of fishes which have 

 been successively entombed in the beds constituting the solid 

 crust of our globe, we are still far below the truth ; for such 

 are the riches of the creation which we endeavour to recon- 

 struct by our researches, that it seems to increase in magni- 

 tude and in extent, in proportion as we make progress. 



The second volume of M. Pictet's treatise contains the com- 

 mencement of the history of the Mollusca ; but as that portion 

 of the work is still incomplete, we sball give no account of it 

 at present. 



Palseontologists will, doubtless, look with eagerness for the 

 third volume of the treatise now before us, as it will contain, 

 besides other matter, the history of articulated animals, a sub- 

 ject to which the author has more particularly devoted his 

 attention. 



Let us hope that the pleasure which M. Pictet must have 

 derived from his palaeontological labours will induce him to 

 study, in a special manner, fossil insects, — a branch of the 

 subject which no one is capable of examining with greater pre- 



