180 Reviews — Progress of the Geological Survey. 



Sowerby is culled in question, a species from the Rhenish Lower 

 Devonian described and figured in an "Appendix" to a memoir by 

 Archiac & Verneuil on that subject published in the Trans. Geol. 

 Soc, London, vol. vi, pt. ii, p. 409, pi. xxxviii, fig. 15, 1842. On p. 410, 

 and immediately following Sowerby's Appendix, is a concluding note 

 by Archiac & Verneuil, dated September 10, 1842, which would 

 indicate that this part of the Transactions was issued fairly late 

 in 1842. The reviewer's own copy of this work has the original 

 wrappers preserved, so that there is no doubt as to 1842 being the 

 year of publication of this particular part. 



The European species is tentatively regarded as being synonymous 

 with Conrad's Strophomena perplana, which, according to the present 

 memoir, "is known to have been published early in 1842." It 

 would follow, therefore, that if this synonymy is adopted Conrad's 

 name should be preferred, as Sowerby's explanata was not established 

 until a much later period of that year. Although we consider that 

 much of the descriptive work might have been more briefly stated, 

 and the synonymic lists reduced in many instances, the memoir is, 

 doubtless, a great contribution to geological science, and we heartily 

 commend it to all interested in Devonian faunas. 



R.B.N. 



YI. — Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain and the Museum of Practical Geology for 1915. 



01ST the North Wales border work was continued to the southern 

 termination of the Denbighshire coalfield, and the mapping of 

 the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury was commenced. In Warwick- 

 shire the surveying of the Upper Bed Coal-measures was completed 

 as far south as Coventry, and this has rendered possible a revision of 

 the estimates of the depth and resources of the concealed coalfield. 

 Thirty-eight square miles may now be added to the area, as estimated 

 by the last Coal Commission, within which the coals probably lie 

 between 2,000 and 3,000 feet below the surface. 



In Staffordshire an area of four square miles, hitherto supposed to 

 be overspread by Bunter, has been found to consist mainly of the 

 Upper Coal-measures supporting small outliers of Bunter Sandstone. 



In Scotland field work was carried on in the basaltic plateau of 

 Mull, near Tobermory, in the Central Highlands, near Dalwhinnie, 

 and in the coalfields of Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire. 

 But the carrying out of the original plans was much interfered with 

 by special investigations connected directly or indirectly with 

 the War. 



The report on the chemical researches contains full analyses of 

 eighteen igneous rocks, two from Lundy Island and the remainder 

 from Mull. It also contains an account of some interesting investiga- 

 tions on clays made in the Government Laboratory, Clement's Inn 

 Passage. "Rational" and "Ultimate" analyses of seven clays were 

 made, and a comparison of the results shows " that the felspar found 

 in the ' Rational ' analysis is in all cases very much lower than that 

 calculated on the assumption that all the sodium and potassium oxide 



