116 



EE VIEWS. 



The Land and Freshwater MolhisJcs indigenous to, or naturalized in, the 

 British Isles. By Lovell Eeeve, F.L.S. London : Eeeve and Co. 1863. 



One thing must be admitted of Mr. Eeeve's books : they are always 

 got out with great care and taste. The volume before us is another ex- 

 ample, and is, typographically, and in size, paper, and illustrations, the beau 

 ideal of what such a book should be. It is of most handy and convenient 

 size, clearly printed, and illustrated with very characteristically and very 

 nicely executed woodcuts. The matter is also good — we need scarcely say 

 that of Mr. Eeeve's conchological labours — and very conveniently arranged. 

 First, is an Alphabetical List of Species, then a Systematic List, followed 

 by an Analytical Eey, displaying at a glance the natural groups into fami- 

 lies and genera, and the characteristic features of each species. A map of 

 both hemispheres shows the boundaries of the Caucasian province, over 

 which the British species range, and the position of this area in respect to 

 other areas, and the general terrestrial system. Of the broad, general 

 divisions of molluscan distribution, Mr. Eeeve recognizes in the eastern 

 hemisphere the following provinces : — the Caucasian, the West African, 

 South African, Malagan, Australian ; in the western hemisphere — the 

 ]S"orth American, Columbian, Brazilian, Bolivian, and Chilian provinces. 

 After a brief description of the appearance, condition, and extent of the 

 British fauna, we pass on to some 240 pages of descriptive matter, giving 

 the accepted names of each species, its s\"nonyms, and its characters and 

 habitats. 



So important as fossil shells are in the pala?ontological history of the 

 earth's past states, a good work like the present, on British shells, cannot 

 fail to be of service to the geologist. Other books, such as Hanley and 

 Forbes's ' British Mollusca,' exist, but such an elaborate and costly work is 

 much beyond the attainments of ordinary students; while Mr. Eeeve's 

 less pretentions and inexpensive book contains all essential information. 

 It is by the practical study of British shells that those British geologists 

 who are not travellers must obtain their knowledge for the comparison of 

 fossil mollusks, and the comprehension of the probable conditions of their 

 ancient existence. The concluding chapter of Mr. Eeeve's book, " On the 

 Distribution and Origin of Species," will be read, however, by the practical 

 geologist and naturalist with much interest. We all remember the late 

 Edward Forbes's theories of Centres of Creation, and how fully the idea of 

 species taking their origin each from a single pair, the progeny of which 

 spread around and around the birthplace of its progenitors into wider and 

 wider geographical areas, was accordant with popular notions. Mr. Eeeve 

 take* a very opposite view, and pleads for a plurality of originating in- 

 dividuals on the following important grounds: — Firstly, that land species, 

 with greater facilities of migration than freshwater, are less widely and 

 evenly diffused; secondly, that land and freshwater species of opposite 

 hemispheres are not always representative, but sometimes identical ; and, 

 thirdly, that the range of land and freshwater species over areas or zoolo- 

 gical provinces indicated by uniformity of type, is not arrested by the in- 

 tervention of seas. 



The following extract will suffice to show the important bearing of this 

 chapter on geological science : — " The doctrine of the migration of all the 

 individuals of a species from a single parent (or pair) involves the con- 

 clusion, that species permanent, as I think, in their character, and immu- 

 table, diminish in number in their march from the specific centre of a pro- 



