88 Reviews — Cotteswold Naturalists* Field- Club. 



II. — Peoceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club 

 for 1888-1889, Vol. IX. Part 4. 



THE Cotteswold Club continues its good work, notwithstanding 

 the heavy losses it has sustained of late years, by the death of 

 Wright, Guise, Witchell, Lees, and Symonds. Excursions have 

 been made to Cheddar, Edgeworth, Crickley and Tetbury, but 

 though old hunting-places are revisited, yet, as Mr. W. C. Lucy (the 

 President) remarks, " there is ample ground for more detailed work, 

 which can only be accomplished in a satisfactory manner by those 

 who live, like our members, in the area.". Moreover, "The subject 

 has become so vast as to make it necessary to divide its study into 

 many parts ; and hence, instead of the naturalist of broad general 

 knowledge, there will inevitably spring up specialists who will 

 work in various departments, and the mere ' all-round man ' will 

 soon be a fossil of the past." 



The number of original workers in any society or field-club is but 

 small compared with those generally interested in the pursuit of 

 science and who are content to follow in the footsteps of others. 

 To this larger body of enthusiastic students geology is mainly in- 

 debted for its support. We have been told that among those who 

 contribute most largely to the " talus-heap of geological literature," 

 there are some who affect almost to disregard the writings of others ; 

 but they are apt thereby to burden the ' talus ' with needless con- 

 tributions, like the individual in " Punch " who never read books ; 

 he torote them. If the original worker finds the productions of 

 others very dry, what must be the feelings of the ordinary student ! 

 Probably, as a rule, insufficient attention is given by those who 

 write papers to the wants and capacities of the would-be reader. If 

 the work of the specialist is intended only for specialists, the results 

 can be known to but few, and the enthusiasm of the general student 

 will be damped by his inability to keep up with the progress of the 

 science. We feel this in glancing over the list of fossils in Mr. S. S. 

 Buckman's paper on " The relations of Dundry with the Dorset- 

 Somerset and Cotteswold areas during part of the Jurassic period." 

 The familiar BliyncJionella spinosa appears under the name of Acan- 

 thothyris spinosa, and other well-known forms are obscured by the 

 new generic titles of Glossothyris, Dictyothyris, Zeilhria, Aulacothyris 

 and Plesiothyris. Surely science is hindered by the prominent use 

 of these subgeneric names, which are of biological but not geo- 

 logical interest, and are only of service as working-material to the 

 specialist. Again, in a list of Ammonites, 22 species are recorded 

 under 11 subgeneric names, some of which moreover have under- 

 gone repeated changes. As these names can convey a clear meaning 

 to few besides specialists, we regret that they were not placed in 

 brackets after the ordinary generic name. 



We have dwelt on this subject, as the nomenclature adopted by 

 Mr. Buckman renders it difficult to follow his arguments. He 

 endeavours to show that the Inferior Oolite, of which Dundry is 

 mainly composed, was in its lower portion connected intimately with 

 the Dorset and South Somerset area, while only the upper portion 



