Reviews — Limits of Secondary and Tertiary. 87 



distribution of the particular rocks under discussion are plentifully- 

 supplied, and reference to the volume is immensely simplified by 

 means of excellent subject and locality indices. 



IV. — Limits of the Secondary and Tertiary Periods. 



IN a recent number of the Proceedings of the Palseontological Society 

 of America (Bulletin Geological Society of America, vol. xxv, 

 p. 321, 1914) Professor H. F. Osborn gives an interesting summary of 

 a discussion held at a meeting of the Society as to the precise line 

 that should be drawn between the Secondary and Tertiary periods. 

 Very divergent views seem to have been expressed. Thus Dr. F. H. 

 Knowlton endeavoured to show that palseobotany indicates that 

 no sharp line of demarcation exists between the two periods, and 

 expressed his belief that the real division occm*red long before 

 the close of the Age of Reptiles. On the other hand, most of the 

 disputants seem to have tended to the traditional view that the 

 extinction of the Dinosaurs marks the termination of the Cretaceous 

 period and that the only important survival of a Cretaceous reptile 

 till Tertiary times is that of Champsosauras. • Several papers resulting 

 from this discussion have been published in the Proceedings of the 

 Geological Society of America, especially by W. D. Matthew 

 ("Evidence of the Palseocene Vertebrate Fauna on the Cretaceous- 

 Tertiary Problem") and Barnum Brown ("Cretaceous-Eocene 

 Correlation in New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta"). 

 Dr. "W. J. Sinclair has also contributed an important paper to this 

 discussion (Bulletin American Museum Natural History, 1914, 

 p. 297). 



V. — Brief Notices. 



1. British Museum (Natural History). — The " Return " ordered 

 by the House of Commons for 1913-14 (price Is.) is as interesting 

 as its predecessors. A systematic record of accessions to the Geo- 

 logical and Mineralogical Departments is given. Among the principal 

 items are the Piltdown skull, etc. ; specimens illustrating the 

 Holocene deposits of Newquay and the North of Ireland; Trilo- 

 bites from the Comley Sandstone ; large collections of Carboniferous 

 and Devonian corals ; three Silurian corals figured by Thomas 

 Pennant in 1757 ; 760 Carboniferous and Devonian fishes (Traquair 

 Collection); 1,400 Carboniferous and 300 Cretaceous fossils from 

 Ireland (Wright and Donaldson Collections) ; the Pennant Collection 

 of minerals ; rocks from Ecuador (Whymper Collection) ; a fine 

 series illustrative of the ruby-mines of Burma; and numerous 

 exceptionally fine mineral specimens. 



2. Ealing Scientific and Microscopical Society. — A report of 

 Dr. Smith Woodward's lecture on "Fossil Man" appears in the 

 Report for 1913-14, and some notes on "Ancient Han well " by 

 Mr. H Beasley. Although the latter deals with historic times there 

 are points of interest in topography for those who study prehistoric 

 conditions. 



