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T. Bland on the Geographical Distribution of Mollusca. 393 
_.They have also a determinate geographical distribution. ‘The 
facts on these subjects are even more numerous than those which 
are expanded over the whole temperate regions of North America, . 
In this respect, therefore, the island is a miniature continent. 
Probably the same is true of each of the larger Antilles.’” 
e now refer to the work of the late Dr. Binney, on ‘‘ The 
Terrestrial Air-Breathing Mollusks of the United States,” ( Bos- 
ton, 1851,) published, since his death, under the able editorship 
of Dr. Gould. This work is indeed an imperishable record of 
the talents and love of science of its author,—a noble legacy to 
his country. 
Dr. Binney highly appreciated the value of a study of the 
geographical distribution of shells. His first volume contains 
somé@ interesting chapters relating to the subject,—we refer espe- 
cially to the eighth. In that, and other parts of the book, various 
comparative tables of the habitats of shells are introduced, and the 
value of a complete series, including especially those of limited 
districts which present strongly marked topographical or climatal 
peculiarities, is pointed out. 
"he ninth chapter is devoted to “ Geological relations.” The 
most important inference, with respect to the geological history 
of this continent, deducedgby Dr. Binney from his consideration 
of its fossil terrestrial shells is thus stated :— 
“That our existing species of land Mollusks were living at a 
period which, though recent in a geological sense, was anterior to 
the last geological revolution, when the surface of this portion of 
the earth was brought to its present condition, and to the exis- 
tence of the higher orders of animals which now inhabit it, and 
even to that of the extinct mammalians which are known only 
] 
by their gigantic remains.” —p. 
Stimpson, in his “ Shells of New England,” (Boston, 1851,) 
displays the growing interest attached to the subject before us, in 
his notes on the geographical, and bathymetrical, or horizontal 
and vertical range of each species. The observations of this au- 
_ thor on the anatomy of the animals of many species of shells are 
very valuable. 
tant regions, in different oceans, and eve 
globe.” The many thousand localities carefully noted on the 
records of the Expedition go to prove beyond — that no 
Such random or wide-spread distribution obtains.”—p. Lx. 
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