138 Reviews — Baron Richthofen^s China : — Palceontology. 



although he is credited with the order TetractinelUdce and the families 

 Mouakidce and Follahidce (Marshall, " Ideen iiber die Verwandscliaft- 

 verhaltnisse der Hexactinelliden," Zeitschr. fur Wiss. Zool. 1876). 

 But these are mere sun-spots and cannot be seen by ordinary eyes ! 



We must not omit to commend the beautiful series of 38 quarto 

 lithographic plates with 503 illustrations of sponges and sponge- 

 structures, reflecting much credit on the lady-artists Mesdames M. 

 Suft and G. M. Herschel, and upon Mr, A. Gawan. 



If we bear in mind the fact that every specimen described has been 

 examined microscopically by Dr. Hinde, and, whenever practicable, 

 sections prepared, showing the minute microscopic structure of each 

 species, the labour of the task now completed will be more fully 

 appreciated and understood by our readers. The sections drawn 

 under the microscope have been transferred to stone by Miss Suft. 



III. — China. Ergbbnisse eigener Eeisen und darauf gegrun- 



DETER StUDIEN. Von FeKDINAND FrEIHERRN von RiCHTHOFEN. 



Vierter Band. Palaeontologischer Theil. Enthaltend Abhand- 

 lungen von Dr. Wilhelm Dames, Dr. Emanuel Kayser, Dr. G. 

 LiNusTROM, Dr. A. ScHENK und Dr. Conrad Schwager. 



China. Results op Personal Travels and Studies founded 

 THEREON. Fourth Volume. Palseontology. Containing Memoirs 

 by Dr. W. Dames, Dr. E. Kayser, Dr. G. Lindstrom, Dr. A. 

 ScHENK, and Dr. C. Schwager. 4to. pp. 288, with 15 Wood- 

 cuts and 54 Lithographed Plates. (Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 

 1883.) 



IN spite of the obstacles incident to the collection and trans- 

 portation of fossils in the course of a series of rapid journeys 

 through a previously unknown country, where the traveller is always 

 exposed to the jealous suspicion and sometimes to the hostilltj^ of 

 the inhabitants. Baron Richthofen succeeded in obtaining a fairly 

 large number of fossils from the vast series of sedimentary strata 

 described in the second volume of this work. On his return from 

 China he entrusted the collection for description to several authorities 

 eminent in different departments of palgeontology, and the results of 

 their investigations are contained in the present work, which possesses 

 so much the greater interest since it is the first, with the exception 

 of the short notice of Professor Newberry on the plant-impressions 

 obtained by Pumpelly, in which the localities from whence the fossils 

 proceed are definitely known. Davidson and others have described. 

 a few Brachiopods of Devonian age, and Sir R. Owen some 

 Mammalian teeth ; but these fossils were procured from the shops of 

 native druggists, who use them extensively for medicinal purposes. 

 The fossils ri-^ferred to in this work are for the most part of Palasozoic 

 age ; they are now in the Collection of the Royal Mineralogical 

 Museum at Berlin. The author states that the collection, from the 

 causes above referred to, but imperfectly represents the rich fossil 

 fauna abundantly present in the sedimentary strata of the moun- 

 tainous districts of Northern China, and as the lowest Cambrian 



