420 Revieics — Scharff's Origin of the European Fauna. 



From this it appears that at least sixty-four per cent, of the original 

 material has been carried away, including seventy-eight per cent, of 

 the silica originally present, twenty-seven per cent, of the alumina, 

 eighty-four of the lime, ninety-one of the potash, and eighty-seven 

 of the soda. These results are somewhat surprising, but they cannot 

 be said to be impossible. They depend only on the assumption that 

 the material analyzed was a fair sample of the soil formed from the 

 hornblende-andesite, and that no iron has been removed. If iron has 

 also been carried away, the actual amount of material lost will, of 

 course, be greater than that indicated by the calculation. 



The author was unable to examine the upraised limestones on the 

 ■west coast near Mount Nesbit, but specimens from this locality were 

 submitted to him. " These were found to consist of a shallow-water 

 foraminiferal limestone, the most common foraminifer present being 

 Amphistegina. Fragments of corals, shells, and of spines of echino- 

 derms were also present." At the extreme north-west of the island 

 the author himself observed beds of coral sand and mud at heights 

 of 150 or 160 feet above sea-level. 



His visit to Carriacou, though brief, gave results of great interest, 

 and we quote his description at almost full length. "The island 

 appears to be in the main composed of beds of fine-grained volcanic 

 sands and tuffs. Near the town of Hillsborough, on the road towards 

 Dumfries, I noticed a little exposure of what was either a compact tuff 

 or a much altered lava, but I did not notice a similar rock elsewhere. 

 As, however, I was not able to visit High North Hill and Chapeau 

 Carre, I cannot form any definite opinion as to whether or not com- 

 pact lavas occur in Carriacou. On the eastern slopes of the island, 

 and at Belair, at an altitude of 600 feet, the tuffs of which the hills 

 are composed are covered with layers, from ten to twenty inches in 

 thickness, of a shallow-water foraminiferal limestone, which, upon 

 microscopical examination, was found to be made up principally of 

 Amphistegince and organisms apparently the remains of calcareous 

 alg^. As far, therefore, as I was able to examine Carriacou, it; 

 appears to consist of layers of volcanic ashes, which were deposited 

 in the sea, and afterwards covered with a foraminiferal shallow- 

 water limestone. Later this was subjected to upheaval, with the 

 result that part of the limestone was raised to at least 600 feet 

 above the sea-level." 



The concluding part of the work deals with the agricultural 

 chemistry of Cacao. We hope that Mr. Harrison will be able to 

 find the time to continue his most interesting geological observa- 

 tions on the West Indian Islands, for he possesses qualifications 

 which are not often combined in the person of one observer. 



V. — On the Origin of the European Fauna. By E. F. Schakff, 



Ph.D., B.Sc.,F.Z.S., Keeper of the Natural History Collections iu 



the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., 



3rdser., vol. iv, No. 3, 1897, pp. 427-514. 8vo. (Dublin, 1897.) 



ri'^HIS is a most important and instructive memoir, and full of very 



JL valuable facts ; but the author has not always been able to 



arrange them in such a happy order that the reader may find his way 



