318 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Catalogues of Fossils. — Sir,— I sliould csiccm it a favour if yon could 
give mc some plan to assist nie iu making a catalogue of iny little collec- 
tion of fossils. I enclose a specimen leaf of the book I have had made for it, 
witli my idea of the way to do it, and shall be extremely obliged for your 
opinion, and also for any information you can give me as to where I could find 
informat ion about those fossils of which I may perhaps have only the names, and 
whether such a thing is to be had as a catalogue of fossils of the dill'ercut 
formations classified. » 
Deposit. 
No. 
Name. 
Kingdom. 
Class. 
Family. 
Locality. 
1 
2 
EUipsocei)halus HoiJii. 
Invertebrata. 
Invertebrata. 
CiTista-cea. 
Crustacea. 
Ellipsocephalus. 
Bohemia. 
Bohemia. 
— Yoni-s truly, A. M. 
It is not usually found advisable to be continually stating the kingdom and 
class of animals fossilized, as the student soon becomes acquainted with these 
great features. A general table of the classification of animals and plants 
slioidd be kept at hand for reference until the mind is actiuainted with the 
chief points. We should advise a more condensed method, such as the 
followmg : — 
No. 
Genus. 
EUipsocephalus. 
Species. 
Stratum. 
HoiEi. Limestone. 
Bock Series. 
Upper SUm-ian. 
Locality. 
Bohrmia. 
Catalogue-making for a coOeetion is not an easy task to begin with, and as 
specimens are always accumulating, the catalogue is constantly requiring 
iJteration. We are not, therefore, prepared to propose any definite plan, but 
we willingly give our corresjiondeut and our readers some hints which we thiidc 
may be useful to them. In the first place they nmst decide upon what principle 
they will base their catalogue. It must be either upon the dratiyraphical svc- 
cession of the geolocjical formaiioiis or on a natural history basis ; we must 
arrange our fossils in stratal groups, each group being the contents of a certain 
bed or formation, or we mu.st arrange our fossils according to their stmeture, 
value, and position in the animal or vegetable kingdoms. In other words, we 
must sort them into geological or pala3ontological order. For our part we 
think local collectors will do most wisely in arranging their fossils Avith the 
most minute accuracy and precision in sets representing each individual stratum 
of the formations which are developed in their neighboui'lioods. This method 
win give a real value to the collection, howeier small, and will also induce the 
collector to observe minutely the zones of organized forms as they occur in the 
rock-masses. In the arrangement of these distinct stratigraphieal groups the 
natural history order may be subordinately adopted, and we shall thus get the 
advantage of seeing at a glance the relative number of species of each animal 
or vegetable family or order of which any remains exist iu the bed. We think 
also it would be very desirable to head the chief divisions of the catalogue with 
one or more accurate sections of the formations from which the fossils are 
obtained, and to number and name the strata of which the groups of fossils 
represent the organic contents. 
The greatest difficulty in cataloguing arises from the constant accumulation 
of specimens, and the only way to surmount this obstacle, perhaps, is to give a 
definite number to the species, and a second or subsidiary number to the speci- 
men, thus : — 
Catalogue. 
No. 
39 
Specimen. 
No. 
Plagiostoma spinosa, Chalk, (Dover). 
(or Spondylus spinosus.) 
■ ■ , Chalk, (Lewes). 
