REYTEWS. 



473 



and amongst the vegetable fossils, Pecopteris aquillna and various Nevro- 

 pteris are recorded. Up to this point the geological succession of tlie for- 

 mations has been unljroken ; but on coming to the Secondary period 

 we find tlie Permian, Triassic, ajid the Jurassic, or more than three- 

 fourths of the Secondary division, missing. The upper part of the Secon- 

 dary deposit is however found at the forest of Touvais, where the ceno- 

 manien beds of the cretaceous formation appear ; the white chalk, so 

 common in ascending the Loire, in Touraine, being wanting in the depart- 

 ment. The Tertiary age is represented by the Lower Eoceiie at ]\Liehecoul, 

 Campbon, and other places ; and the Tipper Miocene at A'ieillevigne, 

 Laroux, Eottereau, etc. The upper Tertiary or Pliocene is absent. Of 

 the quaternary deposits, the lower drift, marsh turbaries, and river-de- 

 posits are met with, spread as usual superficially over various portions of 

 the district. 



The topography of the map is seemingly very good, and as the number 

 of geological explorers of this interesting region must necessarily be pro- 

 portionately small, we trust that M. Cailliauci will find his labours pecu- 

 niarily rewarded by the purchases by other travellers, to whom this map 

 will prove a very useful companion for other than geological pur]30ses. 



Die Wunder der Urivelt, eine populdre Darstellung der GescJiicJite der 

 Schbpfung und des Urzustandes unseres JVeltkdrpers, etc. By Dr. 

 W. F. U. Zimmermann. 8vo. BerHn. 1861. 



The eighteenth part of this popular German treatise is before us, and is 

 devoted to paleontology and astronomy. It forms one of a cheap elemen- 

 tary series, each part price 8c^., and composed of forty-eight pages. The 

 typography and paper are rather better than the average in compilations of 

 the class ; the letterpress and illustrations much worse. This can be imagined 

 when we inform our readers that the figure on i^age 5 of " Elephas pyrimige- 

 nius [voriDeltUcher Elephant) " is that of i\iQ Mastodon OJiioticus, although 

 very badly drawn, especially in the knee-joints, and with an artificial eye 

 put in the wrong place. A woodcut on page 16 is given, exhibiting a 

 flint and a magnified Xanthidium by its side, which is labelled Feuer stein 

 mit Seeste-rn," while on the same page the triassic star-hsh has the name 

 " Seesiern " more correctly applied to it. On page 8, the two human 

 skeletons from Guadaloupe are drawn side by side, but on wholly different 

 scales, the one which is copied from Cuvier's ' Ossemens Fossiles ' being 

 about double the size of the drawing from the British Museum specimen. 

 The impression which Dr. Zimmermann is kind enough to tell us he means 

 for an " Unterkiefer eines Alligators," and which is, no doubt. Alligator 

 Hantoniensis, is perhaps the worse specimen of engraving we have ever 

 seen, except the Plesiosaurus on the same page. The follo^^ iug statement 

 is made : — EinemUngeheuer dieser Art geh'ort das unter don Xatnen Hy- 

 drarchos gezeigte Knochengerilst von 120 Fuss Ldnge.'' The author is 

 evidently not aware that later observers have reduced this 120 feet to 70. 

 The best and only diagram ot the earth's strata \a hiuh Dr. Zimmermann is 

 able to give, is the section of the artesian Avell at Pentonville ; above which, 

 a picturesque landscape of high mountains, a distant village, poplar-trees, 

 and a railway train it i'Alleniande are proudly displayed. But the vignette 

 on ])age 1 is most remarkable. It represents an encounter between a miner 

 armed with a ])ick, and a gigantic skeleton of something between a Ptero- 

 dactyle and a jackdaw. The whole thing is so fearfully grotes(pie, that we 

 must forbear to harrow our readers' feelings with its description. The 

 cover of the w ork is a golden blaze of Palaiontology, and is covered w iih 



VOL. Y. 3 P 



