Geology and Natural History, 75- 



general distribution of volcanoes follows, and then in the third, 

 fourth and fifth chapters descriptions are given of the several vol- 

 canoes, in the order of their distribution, found in Central 

 America, Mexico and along the Cordilleran region of the United 

 States to its most northern province Alaska, and in the Aleutian 

 belt of islands, where the greater number are of volcanic 

 origin. In these descriptions typical examples of volcanic moun- 

 tains and of lava flows are selected for presentation, and they 

 make a series of the author's characteristic portraits of nature, the 

 more truly artistic and impressive because of their severely accu- 

 rate and realistic nature. We are made to see these from the 

 point of view of a scientific observer who has done not a little, 

 himself, to explore and bring to light the American wonders of 

 both fire and ice. 



The theory of volcanoes is left for the seventh chapter, after the 

 reader has learned what volcanoes are, and it is not till the facts 

 and theories are both before us that the author gives free leash 

 to the imagination and vividly depicts the life history of a vol- 

 canic mountain. The book is thoroughly readable and instruc- 

 tive, and the reader is referred all along the way to the original 

 literature where fuller scientific elaboration of the facts may be 

 found. h. s. w. 



3. British Museum Catalogues: (Catalogue of Tertiary Mol- 

 lusca in the Department of Geology, British Museum of Natural 

 History. Part I. The Australasian Tertiary Mollusca ; by George 

 F. Harris, pp. i-xxvi, 1-407, plates I- VIII. London, 189*7.) 



Catalogue of the fossil Cephalopoda. Part III, containing the 

 Bactritidse and part of the suborder Ammonoidea, by Arthur 

 H. Foord and George C. Crick, pp. i-xxxiv, 1-303, figures in 

 the text 1-145. London, 1897. 



The two new numbers of the increasingly valuable series of 

 British Museum Catalogues, whose titles are here given, have been 

 recently received. 



Mr. Harris, in the Catalogue of Australasian Tertiary Mollusca, 

 has done a particular service to paleontology in bringing ta 

 notice the phylogenetic characters of the Gasteropoda, and in 

 using the characters expressed in ontogenetic development of in 

 dividuals for the close discrimination ol the geological age of the 

 faunas to which they belong. The plates contain a large number 

 of illustrations of the protoconchs of Gasteropoda, beautifully 

 drawn by Miss G. M. Woodward. 



The Catalogue of the Cephalopoda is augmented by a volume 

 on the Goniatites. The authors have brought the classification 

 and nomenclature of Goniatites up to date, given a brief synopsis 

 of the chief steps in the historical modifications in nomenclature. 

 The figures are particularly valuable in bringing together repre- 

 sentations of the suture lines for a large number of the species 

 described. h. s. w. 



4. Coral Boring at Funafuti. — It is stated in Nature of Dec. 

 9, that the coral boring carried on in the atoll of Funafuti under 



