Review of Recent Geological Literature. 51 
beginning with the Vicksburg limestone and ending with the Pliocene 
of the Caroiinas, including lists of fossils belonging to each. This gen- 
eral review is then followed by a summary in tabular form showing 
the relations of the faunas to one another and statistics of the work 
covered by the text. During the progress of Mr. Ball's work approx- 
imately eight thousand three hundred and fifty species have been dis- 
cussed or compared, and eight hundred and sixty new forms described. 
More than fifty new group names, from sections to genera, have been 
proposed, and more than five times as many reduced to the rank of 
synonyms or belated. '"The number of species known at present be- 
tween the beginning of the Oligocene and the present time is between 
three and four thousand, probably less than half as many as will even- 
tually be obtained and discriminated." 
In conclusion the author mentions certain Pleistocene fossils, seven- 
ty-one species, on the west coast of Florida, and human remains, both 
found in a sandstone, of the former five being now extinct. 
The work which has been accomplished by Mr. Dall, in this long and 
systematic study here so well summed up, is destined to hold its place 
as an American standard for many years, and constitutes a masterpiece 
of American geology and a monument to the author aere perennius. 
N. H. VV. 
Text-Book of Geology. By Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S. Fourth 
edition, revised and enlarged. Pages 1472, in two volumes, paged 
continuously ; with 508 figures in the text. London : Macmillan & 
Co., 1903. 
In the ten years since the last previous edition of this thoroughly 
admirable text-book, abundant progress has been made in the collection 
of observed facts, and in their correlation and explanations, by many 
geological surveys and by a multitude of individual workers. The 
author has sought to include whatever is important in these latest dis- 
coveries and discussions, adding frequent references to the recent geo- 
logical literature of all the world, and fairly stating the various views 
and arguments on both or all sides of every large question, that yet re- 
mains unsettled. 
He says of this edition in its preface: "Some portions have been 
recast or rewritten ; others have been largely augmented by the incor- 
poration of the results of the latest researches, while between thirty and 
forty illustrations have been added. As the new material thus supplied 
amounts to 300 pages, the work has now been divided, for more con- 
venient use, into two volumes ; but to facilitate reference their pagin- 
ation has been made continuous. So uninterrupted, however, is the 
progress of investigation, that since the sheets of most of the book were 
successively printed off, various valuable memoirs have appeared of 
which it has not been possible to make use." 
These volumes are not only the most comprehensive and luminous 
treatise ever published, in any country, on this science; but they are 
written in a very attractive style, being not less interesting to students 
