332 The American Geologist. November, 1894 
Jefferson City, 1894.) The first installment of the report on the fossils 
of Missouri is a thick volume of some 350 pages, besides 30 plates and a 
large geological map of the state. The work shows a marked, as well 
as happy, departure from most official reports on the subject. Instead 
of devoting all energies towards multiplying species and giving long, 
detailed descriptions of the fossils. Dr. Keyes has attempted, and very 
successfully, too, to make it the foundation of a broad stratigraphic 
study of the entire Mississippi basin and a guide to the future develop- 
ment of mineral wealth, thereby giving the report an economic twist. 
The work is fourfold in its character. Briefly, it comprises: (lj An 
index to the fossils of the state, through means of which the forms now 
known to occur within the limits of the region under consideration may 
be recognized readily without recourse to great libraries; (2) a bibliog- 
raphy of Missouri paleontology, bringing together all that has been 
written on the subject, now so widely scattered and practically inacces- 
sible; (3) a summary of what has been done up to the present time in 
this branch of science, in so far as it pertains to the state of Missouri: 
and (4) an introduction to more comprehensive faunal studies, tending 
toward a solution of stratigraphical problems at present more or less 
obscure. 
The general plan of treatment of the different species enumerated 
has been to give under each a more or less complete bibliography, by 
reference to which additional information or good illustrations of the 
forms not here figured may be found. In the diagnoses it has been the 
aim to give a rather full description of some leading representative of 
each genus, accompanied by a suitable figure: and to make the sketches 
of the other members of the group brief and in a great measure com- 
parative. By this manner of dealing with the subject it is thought that 
the characterizations of all the species would be sufficiently ample for 
intelligent comprehension and for the particular uses to which the work 
will be put. At the same time, the bulk of the report was reduced very 
greatlv — to one-fourth, at least, of what it would otherwise have been. 
The horizon and some of the leading localities of each species are also 
given. The matter of localization has had to be rather general, allusion 
being made to the nearest postoffice usually, or in a few instances, as 
when the fossil is common and the distribution wide, merely to the 
county. With the greater portion of the material the exact bed, with 
reference to a particular section, has not been made known. 
It is astonishing what avast array of fossils is represented in Mis- 
souri, and this state must certainly be one of the most favored provinces 
in all the great Mississippi basin for the study of ancient forms of life. 
The wide range of geological formations present, from the Cambrian to 
the top of the Paleozoic, makes the record exceptionally complete, prob- 
ably nowhere surpassed in any state of the great interior basin. 
Something of the vastness of the present undertaking may be inferred 
when it is learned that in the two volumes on the subject— the second, 
it is understood, will be issued in the course of a few weeks — there is 
condensed material which if it were written up after the manner of the- 
