Dr. B. Dean — Fishes, Dicing and Fossil. 135 



Not the least interesting portion of the volume is that relating to 

 the " underground " Oolitic rocks, whose existence has been indicated 

 of late years over a considerable area by boring operations. In the 

 map forming the frontispiece is shown the area occupied by Oolitic 

 rocks which are directly covered by Neocomian or Cretaceous beds, 

 whilst certain areas are left uncoloured where it is probable that 

 Pakeozoic rocks directly underlie the post-Jurassic strata. If the 

 author be correct in his delineations, the area of " underground " 

 Oolitic rocks fully equals, if it does not exceed, the outcrop. The 

 Purbeck beds of Battle are indicated, we presume, on the map by 

 three little inliers, whose total outcrop must be very small. Many 

 diagrammatic sections also illustrate this portion of the work. 



As regards illustrations generally, this volume is not more 

 fortunate than its predecessors in the series. The figures of fossils 

 are numerous, and, on the whole, fairly characteristic, but in some 

 cases they are indistinctly printed, and the same may be said of 

 many of the sections. But the rendering of several of the photo- 

 graphs is positively disastrous : such cuts as Figs. 80, 92, and 102 

 are mere smudges, and there are others almost as bad. 1 On the 

 other hand, the "Fossil elephant" at Portisham comes out pretty 

 well. We may feel sure that these shortcomings are not due to any 

 iault on the part of the photographers ; can it be that such unhappy 

 results are owing to the parsimony of the "Lords Commissioners of 

 Her Majesty's Treasury " ? 



In all other respects the volume is most satisfactory. The scenery, 

 economic products, and water supply of the Middle and Upper 

 Oolites come in for their share of attention. Exhaustive lists of 

 iossils are given, and the promised bibliography of the Jurassic 

 rocks of the British Isles is now published. Nothing has been 

 omitted on the part of Mr. Woodward and his colleagues to render 

 the "Jurassic Rocks of Great Britain" a work of the highest utility 

 and importance. The author of this latest volume is especially to be 

 congratulated on the accuracy of his observations, on the impartiality 

 of his decisions, and on the many proofs which the work affords that 

 he possesses a grasp of the subject such as constant application in 

 the study and long experience in the held alone can give. 



IV. — Fishes, Living and Fossil : an Outline op their Forms 

 and Probable Relationships. By Bashford Lean, Ph.D. 

 Pp. xiv, 800, with 844 Woodcuts and Frontispiece. New York 

 and London : Macmillan & Co., 1895. 



PALAEONTOLOGY is gradually beginning to occupy a prominent 

 position in biological textbooks. Zoologists and botanists of 

 the rising school are more and more convinced of the impossibility 

 of arriving at the fundamental principles of the world of life merely 

 by reference to its surviving representatives. To Dr. Bashford 

 Dean, however, we are probably indebted for the boldest acknovv- 



1 The Stationery Office has reprinted Figs. 80 and 92. — Reviewer. 



