32 Reviews — Barrande's Cephalopoda. 



pleasant task of studying this new number of the Geological 

 Society's Journal. 



n. — Barkande's Bohemian Cephalopoda. Systeme Silurien du 

 Centre de la Bohbme, par Joachim Barrande. Premier 

 Partie ; Eecherclies Paleontologiques. Vol. II. Cephalopod.es, 

 lere Series. Planches 1 a 107. Prague et Paris, 1865. 



THE author of the above work is well known to geologists and 

 palgeontologists (especially those who have occupied themselves 

 with the fossils of the older rocks) for his indefatigable researches in 

 the Silurian region of Bohemia during many years past, and for which 

 the Geological Society of London properly awarded him the WoUas- 

 ton Medal in 1857. 



M. Barrande commenced his researches in 1833, and was further 

 stimulated to prosecute them in 1840, by the publication of the 

 Silurian System, by Sir E. I. Murchison ; and a short sketch of his 

 labours and classification of the strata appeared in 1846.^ 



M. Barrande had to contend at first with great difficulties, which 

 would have daunted a less earnest geologist, for he had to make 

 himself acquainted with the language of his partly-adopted country, 

 in order to facilitate his intercourse with the Bohemian workmen 

 engaged in the quarries round Prague. Many of these he interested 

 in collecting fossils, retaining some of them as a kind of working- 

 stafi", not only assisting them with money, but supplying them with 

 instruments to facilitate their labour ; and so expert did they become, 

 as readily to detect portions of well-known forms, and even to recog- 

 nize new ones. By these means, and a constant devotion to the 

 subject, an enormous amount of specimens were obtained from the 

 Silurian rocks of the district, which have not only thrown a new 

 light upon, but considerably increased our knowledge of, the 

 Palgeozoic fauna of Bohemia, so as to enable us to compare it 

 with the fossil forms of presumed identical strata in Sweden, Eussia, 

 Great Britain, America, and elsewhere. 



Anterior to 1840, from the first observations of Zeno, in 1770, to 

 the death of Count Sternberg in 1838, and even two years subse- 

 quently (Emmrich, 1839 ; Miinster, 1840), the number of species 

 scientifically indicated from the Silurian rocks of Bohemia, was only 

 twenty-two ; although some forms, more or less defined, but not 

 named by Count Sternberg, were deposited in the Prague Museum. 



A large proportion of the forty works or memoirs published during 

 this period were devoted to a description of the geological features, 

 mines and rocks, as those by Irasek, 1786 ; Lindacker, 1791, and 

 Eeuss ; the more instructive and useful are those of Dr. E. A. Eeuss 

 on the environs of Prague and Beraun, 1794-98 ; those of T. E. 

 Gumprecht, who traced the limits of the Silurian basin on the 

 south-east, 1835-37; those of Prof. Zippe, who indicated approxi- 

 mately the contour of the " Transition" strata, and the nature of the 



1 Notice preliminaire sur le Systeme Silurien, et les Trilobites de Boheme, par 

 J. Barrande. Leipzig: 1846. 



