EE VIEWS. 
217 
“ British Molliisks ” is another of Mr. Hardwicke’s cheap series, and is a good 
hook. Although we do not agree with Mr. Tate in thinking that all “ the 
soft-bodied mollusks have their nervous masses” scattered throughout the 
body, we must congratulate him upon the general introduction he has 
written to his volume : it is what we do not often see, at once popular and 
philosophic. Of his descriptions of the several species of Lamellibranch 
and Gastropodous mollusks, we need only say that they are ample and 
intelligible. In some instances he has given good paragraphs upon the 
anatomy of the groups noticed, but we think he might have given us further 
details of the structure of such a common creature as the slug. The coloured 
plates are eleven in number, and are executed in Mr. Brookes’ best style. 
RECENT WORKS ON GEOLOGY* 
B Y far the most important volume which the quarter has produced is that 
upon the Prehistoric Remains of Caithness, by Professor Huxley and 
Mr. Laing, and it is only to be regretted that Messrs. Williams & Norgate 
have not expended the care befitting such a treatise upon the plates which 
accompany its pages. These, instead of being, as is usual in books of this 
class, carefully-executed lithographs, are rude unartistic woodcuts, which 
have been “ worked ” in the printing-press. The volume is divided into two 
portions. Mr. Laing describes the weapons, &c., which he discovered in 
the kists at Keiss, and offers comments upon them and "upon the observa- 
tions of Professor Huxley, who describes the human remains, to which the 
second part is devoted. Mr. Laing’s half of the book is of most interest to 
the general reader, while Professor Huxley’s demands the fixed attention of 
the anatomist. The mounds at Keiss are described with the most scrupulous 
regard for minutise, and the account is accompanied by such a number of 
illustrations that it is easy to grasp an accurate notion of the locality and of 
the objects it contains. There is nothing calling for special remark in the 
weapons found accompanying the bones ; but it is a singular circumstance 
that “ in no instance was there a vestige of hair, integument, clothing, wooden 
coffin, urn, or pottery.” The result of Mr. Huxley’s examination of the bones 
goes to show the extreme resemblance between these and the bones of the 
present aboriginal Australian race. This resemblance- is especially seen in 
the anomalous formation of the pelvis. On the whole, the evidence which 
* “ The Prehistoric Remains of Caithness,” by Samuel Laing, Esq., M.P., 
F.G.S. ; with Notes on the Human Remains, by T. H. Huxley, Esq., E.R.S. 
London : Williams & Norgate. 1866. 
“ Geology for General Readers.” By David Page, F.R.S.E. London : 
Blackwood. 1866. 
“ Reliquee Aquitanicse.” By Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy. 
London : Bailliere. 1865. 
“ Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland.” By James Nicol, 
F.R.S.E. London : Simpkin & Co. 1866. 
“ Geological Map of England and Wales.” By Professor Ramsay, F.R.S. 
London : Stanford. 
VOL. V. NO. XIX. 
Q 
