234 Revieics — Memoirs of the Geological Survey. 



feature of the book ; coming as it does from the pen of Mr. F. A, 

 Bather, who has made such a special study of the group, it will 

 form a classical work of reference for all students of the Pelmatozoa, 

 and will form an interesting companion to the shorter account of 

 this group revised by Mr. Wachsmuth in Zittel's Text-book. We 

 think, however, that Mr. Bather might have dealt a little more 

 fully with the actual facts of anatomy in the general part (pp. 1-37), 

 and given us a few more figures of the general morphology of the 

 Echinoderma, and perhaps fewer theoi'etical diagrams. 



The Holothurians are very briefly dealt with in 18 pages, and 

 somewhat meagrely illustrated with a series of almost blackboard 

 diagrams. The remaining 96 pages are devoted to the Stelleroidea 

 and the Echinoidea, and are from the pen of Dr. Gregory, Both 

 these accounts seem unduly compressed, and the forms are perhaps- 

 dealt with too much from the standpoint of the skeleton, as if the 

 variations in the soft parts were comparatively of little value. 



The whole work is profusely illustrated with a large number 

 of excellent figures, most of which are new. Some, however, of 

 those not acknowledged in the description are old ones, and one 

 or two of the old ones might well have been replaced by fresh 

 figures, notably fig. iv, p. 242, which is a very poor representation 

 of the general anatomy of a starfish. 



Professor Lankester, in his conception of this work, has filled 

 a void long felt in zoological literature, and, in obtaining 

 Mr. Bather's assistance to write the greater part of the Echinoderma, 

 he has exercised a wise selection, the result being that the student 

 is furnished with a most admirable systematic text-book, in which 

 he will find the characters of the classes, orders, families, etc., of 

 the Echinoderma dealt with in a manner not hitherto attempted 

 in any of our zoological text-books. We can only hope that the 

 succeeding parts will be of equal merit and not too tardy in their 

 appearance. 



IV. — Memoirs of the Geological Survey : The Geology or 

 Belfokd, Holy Island, and the Fakne Islands, Northumber- 

 land. By William GuNN, F.G.S. 8vo ; pp. iv, 155. (London: 

 Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1900. Price 2s. 6d.) 



ri^HIS Memoir is an Explanation of the New Series Geological 

 JL Survey Map, Sheet 4 (Old Series 110 S.E.), and it contain* 

 accounts of the Carboniferous Limestone Series, Glacial Drifts, and 

 more recent deposits, with descriptions also of the Whin Sill, whose 

 northern limit is seen in the Fame Islands. The chief part of the 

 Memoir is occupied with descriptions of the Carboniferous rocks, 

 the Tuedian or Cement-stone group, the Fell Sandstone, the 

 Scremerston Coal, and the Limestone groups, the two latter con- 

 taining seams of workable coal. Details of many pit-sections are 

 given, and there are lists of Carboniferous fossils. 



