NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 193 



The first contribution is by Dr. Pompeckj, on " The Jurassic 

 fauna of Cape Flora," which, as Nansen informs us, " situated 

 in circ. 79° 56' N. lat. and circ. 49° 40' E. long., is the western 

 extremity of the long and narrow peninsula which forms the 

 south-western part of Northbrook Island." Unfortunately the 

 fossils examined were generally in a very imperfect condition, but 

 some complete work even under these circumstances was ac- 

 complished, and a fauna of at least twenty-six forms demonstrated 

 as occurring in the Jurassic Sedimentary Rocks collected by 

 Nansen in the Cape Flora district. Among the peculiar features 

 of the fauna may be just mentioned the " prominent part which 

 the Ammonite genus Cadoceras plays in its composition" ; while 

 in all the known fossils from the marine jura of Cape Flora, the 

 Gastropoda are represented by a single specimen only. The 

 Callovian fauna Dr. Pompeckj reports as "nothing but a part of 

 the fauna of the Russian Callovian," 



The description of the " Fossil Plants " are outside the 

 province of this Journal, and we pass on to an account of the 

 " Birds," by Prof. Collett and Dr. Nansen, the first named of 

 whom has contributed the strictly ornithological matter, while 

 the second has added personal observations. This contribution 

 is eminent by a very full account of the Roseate Gull (Rhodostethia 

 rosea), referred to in more than one place, and in its juvenile 

 first plumage forming the subject for a very beautiful chromo 

 plate. 



The Crustacea are described by Prof. Sars, and, when this 

 excellent authority receives sufficient material, we all expect a 

 banquet in biological information, and we are not here dis- 

 appointed. We read: " As is well known, it has until recently 

 been the general assumption of geographers, that the Polar basin, 

 north of Siberia and Franz Josef Land, could only be quite a 

 shallow sea, with depths scarcely exceeding some hundred 

 fathoms, and the zoological equipment of the * Fram ■ Expedition 

 was arranged in accordance therewith. But, in direct contradiction 

 to this generally adopted view, that part of the Polar Sea through 

 which the ' Fram ' drifted with the ice proved to be everywhere 

 of enormous depth, exceeding in this respect even the Norwegian 

 Sea." Although it is probable that there is very little animal 

 life on the bottom in this part of the ocean, it was remarked that 



