Reviews — Bevonico- Carhoniferus. 321 



given to tlie species under tbeir respective genera, thus furnishing 

 us with a census of the Fauna and Flora of the Devonian and 

 Carboniferous rocks of the world. Those who know the detailed 

 labour, time, and anxiety involved in making 80,000 to 100,000 

 references will best appreciate the service rendered by Dr. Bigsby 

 to PalEeontological science. The contributions of every author are made 

 manifest, but so voluminous and complicated are works of reference 

 now, that it is not easy, nay, at times it is next to impossible 

 (except in public libraries), to obtain complete evidence of the 

 labours of foreign geologists, so as to arrive at facts and reliable 

 data as to the history and distribution of life through time and space. 

 Such, however, is the painstaking and laborious nature of the task 

 requisite in order to collect and verify every species in the Thesaurus 

 just issued by Dr. Bigsby. 



The plan is comprehensive and clear, showing at once the distri- 

 bution of every species known to have existed, and which now 

 constitutes the Devonian and Carboniferous Fossil Fauna and Flora. 

 The results of appearance and distribution, etc., are given in separate 

 tables at the end of each sub-kingdom or class. This resume em- 

 bodies both the geographical or distribution in space, as well as the 

 geological and stratigraphical, or distribution in time. 



It is the tabulation of such results that leads to clear generaliza- 

 tions, and, as in the present case, affording a knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of Devonian and Carboniferous life over the globe, and this 

 is the aim and end of Dr. Bigsby 's work. No library of reference, 

 public or private, should be without such works. Certainly no 

 geological library can be said to be complete that does not contain 

 upon its shelves such works of reference as will enable the student 

 in natural science to obtain correct and ample data both certainly 

 and readily. 



Dr. Bigsby has greatly aided paleozoic palEeontologists by the 

 compilation both of his Thesaurus Siluricus, in 1868, and the present 

 contribution on the Devonian and Carboniferous groups, no genus or 

 species seem to have been omitted or overlooked. Fourteen countries 

 or areas in Europe, and fifteen in America, have been selected as 

 geographical localities for the distribution of the Carboniferous 

 species. The European are Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, 

 France, Rhenish Prussia, Westphalia, Silesia, Hartz, Moravia, 

 Bohemia, Saxony, Eussia in Europe, and the Altai. In America- 

 Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, 

 Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, Cape 

 Breton, New Brunswick. The labours of the numerous American 

 and European Palseontologists who have enriched the literature of 

 their respective countries are faithfully chronicled, and the horizons 

 and localities of their fossils given. 



In the Silurian Thesaurus of 1868, Dr. Bigsby discussed with 

 great ability, under his " facts and observations," seven questions or 

 subjects of high importance to a right understanding of the distri- 

 bution, and laws of life through all time. These may well be con- 

 sulted with refei'ence to the present volume, bearing as they equally 



DECADE II. VOL, V. — NO. VII. 21 



