314 Revieivs — C. D. Walcott's Cambrian Brachiopoda. 



in point of numbers comes Europe with about a hundred species, but 

 the British Islands can only boast about one-fifth of this total ; the 

 greatest number is provided by Scandinavia, including Finland. 

 Asia yields about forty species and Australia six, but there can be 

 little doubt that further exploration of these regions would increase 

 the number. 



This very elaborate monograph cannot fail to be of the utmost 

 importance to the student of the Brachiopoda of the Palseozoic rocks. 

 There is a bibliography extending to thirteen pages, and, what is always 

 of the very greatest assistance to the worker, there is an exhaustive 

 Table of Synonymic References — how exhaustive may be judged 

 from the fact that it extends to about seventy pages; it is also testimony 

 to the large amount of investigation, and the constant rearrangement 

 in the light of further knowledge, which the Cambrian Brachiopods 

 have received. That the present monograph exhibits the nomenclature 

 in anything like a final form no one could pretend to hope, especially 

 when it is considered how very obscui'e are some of these small fossils, 

 and how difficult they are to interpret. But the energy which 

 Dr. Walcott has brought to bear on the elucidation of his subject 

 deserves our warmest thanks. America may well boast of the 

 industrious, and, what is perhaps more important, of the very 

 progressive investigators of Brachiopoda which she has produced, 

 men who have given us what has almost seemed to be revolutionary 

 work. James Hall and C. E. Beecher, Professor J. M. Clarke, 

 Professor Schuchert, Dr. E. R. Cumings, and others form with the 

 writer of the present monograph a band who have made our knowledge 

 of fossil Brachiopoda, especially of the older formations, advance 

 from comparative chaos to well-arranged order. 



Considering the nature of the remains and the magnification so 

 frequently required, the excellent plates are deserving of special 

 commendation. Dr. Walcott says (p. 13): " the drawings have been 

 prepared mainly by Miss Frances Wieser, of the United States 

 Geological Survey. The plates are the evidence of her faithful 

 work." They are ; it is not only good work but a magnificent task. 

 There are over a hundred plates, and the number of separate figures 

 must run into several thousands, figures full of fine detail, all very 

 carefully executed. Nothing more beautiful has been placed before 

 the student of Cambrian Brachiopoda: perhaps if we said of any 

 Brachiopoda it would not be incorrect. 



There is a small matter connected with the plates — mainly an 

 editorial matter — to which we would call attention. It is very 

 desirable that all the explanation of each plate should appear in the 

 one opening, opposite the plate. In view of the immense amount 

 of literature, workers' time should be saved in every way, and 

 reference to figures of a plate should be made as clear and easy 

 as possible. But this cannot be where there is the too common fault 

 of separating the explanation from its plate, or even, ns in the work 

 before us, carrying the explanation over to a leaf behind the plate. 

 In many cases in the present work such carrying over has been quite 

 needless, and all the explanation could have been placed on the facing 

 page. In other cases the use of smaller type would have enabled the 



