contained the story of the Children in the "Wood, both in figures 
and verso : the first were on the pannels of the staircase, and the 
latter on the chimney-piece.” 
His note on Musical Snails, communicated to the ‘ Magazine of 
Natural History’ in 1820, refers to the sounds produced by a 
common garden snail in drawing itself along his window-pane. 
For somo time past his Synoptical Table of British Organic 
Remains had been in preparation, entailing much research and 
correspondence, and early in the year 1830, when ready for 
press, the manuscript was submitted by Mr. Hudson Gurney to 
Mr. (afterwards Sir Roderick) Murchison, then Secretary to the 
Geological Society. Shortly afterwards, Murchison wrote a letter 
to him, that consisted of no loss than twenty quarto pages, giving 
many valuablo suggestions, and pointing out many errors of omis- 
sion, such as arose from the want of access to works, which is 
certainly not to bo wondered at considering the difficulties and 
expenses in hunting them up in those days of stage-wagons and 
coaches. The tone of the letter did not, however, pleaso him, and 
on the 29th March ho writes as follows to Mr. Gurney : — 
“ Mr. Murchison has thrown a complete damper over me with 
his letter of five sheets, notes, &c., See. ; they contain, however, 
valuable information and suggestions which I hope to profit by. 
It bears strong traits of coming from a mineral geologist, and 
confirms an opinion long entertained by me, and which is ably 
expressed by Bakewcll the Geologist, in a recent No. of the 
Magazine of Natural History. He says, ‘ there is a certain 
prejudice more or less prevalent among the members of scientific 
societies in large cities, as London and Paris, which makes them 
unwilling to believe that persons residing in provincial towns, or in 
the country can do anything important for science.’ ” 
However, Mr. Gurney lost no time in sending him down “a 
cargo of geological books,” ho diligently set about inserting the 
required references, and the work was published at Mr. Gurney’s 
expense, on the 1st July, 1830. The list of subscribers numbered 
155, and among these it is interesting to notice the names of our 
honoured members, Mr. R. Fitch and Mr. John King. 
This work is now naturally out of date : it was superseded in 
1843 by the ‘Catalogue of British Fossils,’ by Professor Morris, the 
second edition of which is a work of constant reference to every 
