2 Prof. Nicholson — Progress in Palceontology. 



but necessarily dry, publication the student will find the titles of 

 all works and papers on geological or palceontological subjects 

 published during the current year throughout the world, together 

 with, in most cases, a short summary of their contents. The value 

 of such a record of contemporaneous work can hardly be over- 

 estimated. But in order to bring this subject to ideal perfection, it 

 will be necessary that there should be prepared for each country a 

 complete bibliographical and descriptive catalogue of all works and 

 memoirs dealing with its palgeontology, which have been at any time 

 published. As regards the Invertebrate Palaeontology of the North 

 American Continent, such a " Bibliographical Eeport " is now in 

 process of preparation by Prof. C. A. White and the author, 

 and I hope to see the thankless and laborious but useful task of 

 preparing a similar bibliographical record of British palgeontological 

 literature ere long undertaken by some public-spirited pala3ontologist. 



As regards the second point to which I have adverted, namely 

 the preparation of catalogues of the fossils of special formations and 

 special countries, something has been already accomplished, and 

 very much is in process of actual accomplishment. 



Amongst work of this kind, which has been already done, the first 

 place is due to the well-known " Thesaurus Siluricus " of Dr. Bigsby. 

 It is to be regretted, however, that this veteran geologist did not 

 enhance the usefulness of his valuable and laborious work by the 

 citation of the references to, at any rate, the original descriptions 

 of all the species catalogued ; and it is to be hoped that this defect 

 will be remedied in the " Thesaurus " of Devonian and Carbon- 

 iferous fossils which he is now engaged in preparing. In the re- 

 cently published " Catalogue of the Genera and Species of American 

 Palgeozoic Fossils," by Mr. S. A. Miller, references to the original 

 descriptions of all the species quoted are given, and the usefulness 

 of the work to students is thus greatly increased. The magnum 

 opus in the way of catalogues, however, is the " Stratigraphical 

 Catalogue of British Fossils,"' now in course of publication by Mr. 

 Eobert Etheridge, the appearance of which will be hailed by every 

 student of Paleontology. A large portion of this gigantic under- 

 taking has, I believe, already passed through the press, and the 

 general plan upon which it is constructed is both scientific and 

 comprehensive. Not only is each recorded British species cited 

 under its proper place, but the quotation of each is accompanied 

 by a reference to the work or works in which it has been 

 described, together with a full synonymy of the species, and a 

 statement as to its known range in time and space, along with a 

 list of the British localities in which it has hitherto been discovered. 

 Mr. Eobert Etheridge, jun., following, liaud imparl passu, in the 

 steps of his distinguished father, is engaged in the publication of 

 a similar exhaustive Catalogue of Australian Fossils," the general 



1 A Stratigraphical Catalogue of British Fossils. By Robert Etheridge, Esq., 

 F.R.S., L. & E., F.G.S. 4 vols. 4to. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 



^ A Catalogue of Australian Fossils (including Tasmania and the Island of 

 Timor), Stratigraphically and Zoologically arranged. By Robert Etheridge, Esq., 

 jun., F.G.S. 1 vol. 8vo. University Press, Cambridge. 



