378 Brief Notices. 



The volume before us is divided into six chapters, dealing with the 

 Natural Features; Agriculture; Soils on different formations, with 

 methods of analysis ; Relation of Soils to Crops ; Building Stones and 

 other Economic Products ; and Analyses of Soils. There is also 

 a bibliography and capital index. The illustrations are numerous 

 and include orographic and geological maps, map of rainfall, maps 

 showing the distribution of arable, grass, and wood lands, of crops 

 (cereals, roots, hops, fruit, etc.), and of the distribution of cattle. 

 There are pictorial views of the features of the Wealden, Lower 

 Greensand, Chalk, and other formations, and Ronmey Marsh. There 

 are pictures of oxen, sheep, and pigs, of hop-kilns, and of charcoal- 

 burning. The illustrations, indeed, give an idea of the many subjects 

 discussed, and of topics that will interest not only landowners and 

 farmers, but geologists, geographers, and general readers, for there 

 are many historical references to the state of the country in old times. 

 " H. B. W. 



Y. — Brief Notices. 



1. Cambrian Geology and Palaeontology. — Dr. C. D. Walcott 

 continues the publication of his researches on these subjects 

 (Smithsonian Misc. Collections, vol. lvii, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, 1911). In 

 No. 2 he deals with the " Middle Cambrian Merostomata", describing 

 a new sub-order of the Eurypterida, to which he gives the name 

 Limulava ; a new family Sidneyidse, and a new genus Sidneyia named 

 after his son Sidney S. Walcott, who discovered the type-specimens in 

 the Stephen formation in British Columbia. The species is named 

 S. ineocpectans. Another new genus from the same locality and 

 horizon is named after Dr. H. M. Ami, Amiella ornata, knd it is 

 remarked that a second species of this genus or a closely allied form 

 occurs in the Lower Cambrian of Yunnan in Indo-China. 



In No. 3 Dr. Walcott describes certain "Middle Cambrian 

 Holothurians and Medusae", and in No. 4 he describes some Cambrian 

 Brachiopods, Mollusca, and Trilobites from China, being his third 

 preliminary contribution on the " Cambrian Faunas of China". It is 

 anticipated that the full memoir on the subject will be published 

 this year. 



2. Moldavites or Tektites. — In a paper "On the supposed origin 

 of the Moldavites and like sporadic glasses from various sources " 

 (Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum, vol. xl, p. 481, 1911) Mr. G. P. Merrill 

 considers that there is no proof that the specimens, which Suess has 

 included under the name ' tektites ', had a cosmic origin. He observes 

 that " Whatever may have been their original source, the Bohemian 

 and Moravian specimens are now simply water-worn pebbles of 

 weathered glass, originally etched by corroding vapours or solutions, 

 the results being indistinguishable from those produced by artificial 

 etchings on obsidian with fluorhydric acid ". 



3. Lessons on Soil. By E. J. Russell, D.Sc. (1911, pp. xv, 132; 

 price Is. 6d.). — This is the first volume of a " Nature Study Series" 

 in course of publication by the Cambridge University Press. It is an 

 elementary work, admirably clear and concise, the main object of 



