280 Bedews — Messrs. Foord and Crick — 



Curious and frequently eccentric as the Embryonic stage often 

 appears to be in the Gasteropod, it is a question of some im- 

 portance to ask whether the use of the protoconch can be relied 

 upon as of general application for classificatory purposes in Fossil 

 Malacology. Of course, in the study of extinct forms one is too 

 often compelled to classify specimens upon imperfect materials, and 

 in all such cases without having the soft parts of the animal to 

 examine and compare ; we must not, therefore, disparage the 

 labours of the palaeontologist, who honestly endeavours correctly to 

 classify and name these testaceous remains and give us as truthful 

 a report as possible of the moUuscan fauna of the earth in past 

 times. 



We have said nothing concei-ning the fossil Lamellibranchiata 

 from these Australasian deposits, but as they only occupy 93 pp. 

 and number 54 genera, against 150 of Gasteropoda and Scaphopoda 

 taking up 300 pp., this is not surprising. Nevertheless, at least one 

 genus, occurring in the Australasian Tertiary beds, and also actually 

 living on the Australian coast, the genus Trigonia, is of immense 

 geological interest, being found fossil in all the Secondary rocks 

 down to the Trias, and enjoying a worldwide distribution in the past. 



We should like to suggest to the author that, as his work pro- 

 gresses, he should, if it be possible, try to map out these remnants 

 of the Tertiary seas, and endeavour to give us an idea of the 

 geographical distribution of the Mollusca of this past period so far 

 as the collections at his disposal may serve to enable him to do so. 



The work is carefully performed, and promises well for future 

 volumes, which we hope will speedily follow. 



III. — Catalogue of the Fossil Cephalopoda in the British 

 Museum (Natukal History) : Part III, Containing the 

 Bactritid^ and a part of the suborder Ammonoidea. By 

 Arthur H. Foord, Ph.D. (Munch.), F.G.S., and George C. 

 Crick, Assoc. E.S.M., F.G.S. 8vo; pp. xxxiv and 304 (with 

 145 illustrations in the text). (London : Printed by order of the 

 Trustees, 1897. Dulau & Co., 37, Soho Square, W. Price 12s. Qd.) 



THAT an interval of six years should have occurred since the 

 issue of Part II of this Catalogue, suggests to the ordinary 

 mind the slow movement characteristic of most geological agencies 

 conducted on strictly Uniformitarian lines (not on cataclysmic 

 action, as recently advocated in this Magazine by Sir Henry 

 Howorth !). The delay in publication is mainly due to the trans- 

 planting of the original author of the work. Dr. A. H. Foord, from 

 London to Dublin, a process which, although it has greatly retarded 

 the issue of the present work, has, we trust, proved highly beneficial 

 to him in more than one direction — as it happened to the patriarch 

 long ago when he travelled to Padan-aran ! 



One important change which has resulted from Dr. Foord's 

 removal from London, has been to throw a larger share of the 

 work upon Mr. G. C. Crick ; indeed, without his co-operation as 

 joint author the volume could never have been completed. It is 



