Mollasks. 53 



strength and size, it seems to have been amply furnished with weapons of defence. — 

 Such was the strength and massiveness of its covering, that its remains are found 

 comparatively entire in arenaceous rocks impregnated with iron, in which few other 

 fossils could have survived." — p. 162. 



Is it quite certain that Cephalaspis was a fish ? K. 



Notice of Mrs, Gray's Figures of Molluscous Animals,* 



This unpretendingly announced work of Mrs. Gray is fraught with 

 the greatest interest to all who study Conchology. When this study 

 first assumed a name and a place amongst the sciences, attention was 

 only paid to the shell. The gay hues, the polished coats, and the 

 various forms of the solid habitations, were criticised and studied; 

 while the soft inhabitants which formed them were almost completely 

 overlooked. The genera of animals which inhabit shells were reck- 

 oned only five in number by Linnaeus, nor were there many additions 

 made to that number by his followers for a long period after his time. 

 The celebrated Lamarck, however, saw the necessity of a more care- 

 ful study of the molluscous animals, and formed a new arrangement 

 of shells upon that basis. Taking advantage of the labours of his pre- 

 decessors, as the celebrated and philosophic -minded Adanson and 

 others, and of his cotemporaries, as Cuvier, &c., he established a 

 system, which holds the first place in this study at the present day. 

 Since the time of Lamarck many improvements have been made and 

 much new information added to the stock already possessed by us. 

 Various authors have paid attention to particular groups, and much 

 valuable knowledge has been imparted by the naturalists attached to 

 the various expeditions fitted out by different governments, especially 

 the French. Their labours are valuable in the extreme, and the works 

 in which they are published have been splendidly got up under the 

 auspices of the governments which sent them forth. These works, 

 however, though reflecting the highest credit on these governments, 

 are so expensive, that they are accessible only to a few; and the fi- 

 gures of the molluscous animals given by other authors, are scattered 

 over such a variety of scarce and costly works, that to the general 

 student they are almost sealed books. To remedy this want, and to 

 present at one view a continuous series of the interesting class of crea- 

 tures called Mollusca, has been the object of Mrs. Gray in this valu- 

 able volume ; and exceedingly well has she accomplished it. For 



* Figures of Molluscous Animals, selected from various authors. By Maria Emma 

 Gray. Vol. i. London : Longman. 1842. 



