270 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



Corals, Cretaceous Echinoderins, Oxford Clay Belemnites, Old Ked 

 Sandstone Fishes, Lias Pterodactyles, and Crag Cetacea. Such a 

 " bill of fare " was never before presented at so modest a price. 



Dr. Duncan's part contains six species of Corals from the 

 Greensand of Haldon, thirteen species from the Grault, and six 

 from the Lower Greensand. To this part is appended a complete 

 list of British Cretaceous Corals, fifty-eight in all. 



Dr. Duncan remarks, " The Coral-fauna of the British area was 

 by no means well-developed or rich in genera during the long period 

 in which the Cretaceous sediments were being deposited. The 

 Coral tracts of the early part of the period were on the areas now 

 occupied by the Alpine Neocomian strata, and those of the middle 

 portion of the period were where the Lower Chalk is developed at 

 Gosau, Uchaux, and Martigues." 



" There are no traces of any Coral-reefs or atolls in the British 

 Cretaceous area, and its corals were of a kind whose representatives 

 for the most part live at a depth of from 5 to 600 fathoms."* 



In Professor Phillips's monograph on the Oxford Clay Belem- 

 nites, the author notices a singular hiatus between the Inferior 

 Oolite and the Oxfordian stage. It must, however, be borne in 

 mind that pelagic and freely- wandering animals (such as the 

 Belemnitidm must have been, judging from their modern repre- 

 sentatives, the Squids, Calamaries, and Cuttle-fishes) form a less 

 sure basis for generalization than do the Brachiopoda and other 

 sedentary forms of Mollusca and the Corals. 



Free swimming Cephalopoda might forsake a large area for 

 ages, if conditions were unfavourable, returning again at a later 

 epoch, and again becoming plentiful as fossil remains in the mud 

 of the period. 



It is interesting to observe that Professor Phillips, who is per- 

 haps the most careful observer living, and the last man to be 

 carried away by an idea, has adopted the doctrine of descent with 

 modifications, as may be gathered from the following extract;! 

 speaking of Belemnites exjolanatus, sp. nov., from the Kimmeridge 

 Clay, Professor Phillips observes, "On many accounts this form 

 of Belemnite is of interest in the study of the series to which 

 it belongs. On the one hand its resemblance to the older type 

 of B. abhreviatus (excentricus) of the Oxford Clay and Oolite, 

 and on the other to that of Speeton, in Yorkshire (B. lateralis), is 

 such as to offer a most instructive example for study, in relation to 

 the derivation of successive specific forms by hereditary transmis- 

 sion with modification." 



Some interesting modern types of Loricarian fishes illustrate 

 Mr. Bay Lankester's monograph on the Cephalasjridas of the Old 

 Ked Sandstone. 



* P. 46. f P. 128. 



