214 Notes and Comments. 



by ' The Father of English Geology ' to the Society, when he 

 received the award of the Wollaston Medal in 1831. The 

 history of the various maps and sections published by Smith 

 was given, and two hitherto unknown maps by Smith in the 

 Society's possession were described, and Mr. Sheppard also 

 exhibited another of the Scarborough district, which he had 

 found when cataloguing the Society's maps ; this particular 

 map had been lost for over eighty years. Smith's finest piece 

 of work, his map of the Hackness district, dated 1832, appar- 

 ently has not been seen by any worker since its publication, 

 and the lecturer explained how he had recently been able to 

 trace one or two copies, one of which was exhibited. 



LATER MAPS. 



The maps of Greenough, of which the Society possessed a 

 very large and valuable collection, published and in manuscript, 

 were then described. Next followed an account of an extra- 

 ordinary series of coloured maps of England and Wales, and 

 of the British Islands, issued by Arrowsmith, Murchison, 

 Walker, Ramsay, Ravenstein, Knipe, Phillips, Johnstone and 

 others, during the middle of the nineteenth century. The 

 Geological maps of Scotland and Ireland were dealt with, 

 and it was shown that the Society possessed many maps of 

 those countries, some of which were of great value and historical 

 interest. Special reference was made to a manuscript map 

 of Scotland by Necker, dated 1808, which was earlier than 

 Smith's large map of England and Wales. Then followed a 

 description of various privately published maps, such as those 

 of the Bristol Coalfield by Sanders, The London District by 

 Jordan, The Lancashire District by Elias Hall, etc., and finally 

 reference was made to the earlier maps of the Geological Sur- 

 vey. He concluded by referring to the scope of the catalogue 

 of the maps in the Society's possession, which he was preparing, 

 and which contained details of something like three thousand 

 maps. 



NATURAL HISTORY IN I485. 



Among many interesting items for sale in a catalogue 

 recently issued by Messrs. W. Heffer & Sons, Cambridge, is 

 a small quarto volume, dated 1485, by J. Publicius. It is 

 entitled ' Oratoriae artis epitoma, vel quae brevibus ad consuma- 

 tum spectant oratorem ex antiquo rhetorum gymnasis,' etc. 

 An illustration from this book is given, which we are permitted 

 to reproduce herewith. The block is interesting, as it represents 

 various animals as they were understood to exist in the fifteenth 

 century. We are not in the habit of having guessing com- 

 petitions in connection with this journal, otherwise we might 

 have offered a prize for the correct names of the twenty-five 

 animals shewn thereon. 



Naturalist. 



