Reviews — Brief Notices. 429 



National Museum, 1915, published by the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Near Ballast Point in the neighbourhood of Tampa Bay, Florida, 

 occur certain limestones associated with clays, marls, and cherts, 

 which are very fossiliferous. The calcareous structures have dis- 

 appeared through solution, so that the fossils are mostly represented 

 by siliceous cavities the characters of which can be reproduced by 

 wax or gutta-percha impressions, but where silicification has been 

 more complete the organisms are preserved as beautiful translucent 

 objects in silica besides being sometimes of various shades of brown. 

 A number of silicified corals, also, accompany the shells of these 

 deposits, as well as Foraminifera represented by Orlitolites floridanus 

 of Conrad, a form closely related to Lamarck's 0. complanata of the 

 European Eocene. The author furnishes his monograph with an 

 interesting review of the literature of the subject, commencing with 

 the earliest notice of the beds written by John H. Allen in 1846 

 (Amer. Journ. Sci., ser. ir, vol. i, pp. 38-42), followed by 

 references to the researches of Conrad, J. W. Bailey, Heilprin, Dall, 

 T. L. Casey, Gr. C. Matson and F. C. Clapp, Bailey Willis, and 

 T. W. Yaughan. From the occurrence of the characteristic fossil, 

 Orthaulax pugnax, in the Oligocene beds of Panama, Antigua, 

 Anguilla, etc., the author considers that the Silex Beds of Tampa 

 may be correlated with the Oligocene deposits of the "West Indian 

 and Caribbean regions. It is recognized that 312 species and 

 varieties of Mollusca are now known from this zone, of which more 

 than ninety are described on the present occasion as new ; they bear 

 the estuarine facies, being made up of land and freshwater species 

 as well as marine forms. The whole of this fauna is systematically 

 described and figured, the text occupying 173 pages, while the 

 twenty-six plates of illustrations form a handsome addition to the 

 work. The monograph, like all previous writings of the author, has 

 been prepared with great thought and detail, many remarks being 

 offered on conchological nomenclature which cannot fail to be of the 

 utmost service to all students of molluscan science. 



IV. — Brief Notices. 



1. Human Remains and Implements in England. — In a recent 

 number of Z' Anthropologie (vol. xxvi, p. 1, 1915) Professor Marcellin 

 Boule has published a paper entitled " La Paleontologie Humaine en 

 Angleterre". In this he gives a critical account of recent papers 

 dealing (1) with flint implements and (2) with human remains. The 

 first part is concerned chiefly with the vexed question of the nature 

 of the so-called rostro-carinate implements from the base of the Crag. 

 The author, after carefully considering the various papers dealing with 

 the subject, comes to the conclusion that these implements are of 

 purely physical and natural origin and not the work of man at all. 

 The second part of the 'paper discusses for the most part the already 

 large number of papers relating to the Piltdown man. Professor Boule 

 on the whole supports the views of Dr. Smith Woodward as against 

 those of Professor Keith. At the same time, however, he seems 

 inclined to accept the very improbable suggestion put forward by 



