Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Second Supplement to the Monograph of the Crag Mollusca, With Descriptions of Shells From the Upper Tertiaries of the East of England, Vol. 4: Univalves and Bivalves
I was thus induced to enter upon a second Supplement, which I at first thought might be confined to a single plate, but when this had been engraved I reflected that as so many species had been introduced into lists of Crag shells, which I had not introduced into my first Supplement from a feeling that the authority for them was too scant or doubtful to justify it, or, in some instances, from a feeling that the identity was erroneous, it was incumbent on me to present to geologists by figured representations the evidence upon which these introductions were based. This, therefore, I have endeavoured to do, and by it have, perhaps, exposed myself to the objection that the plates have been extended to but little purpose, as many of the so-called new species are either very doubtful in themselves, or are merely derivatives from destroyed beds; though most of these beds probably belong either to the Coralline, or to some still older'part of the Crag; to the Oldest Pliocene, now present in Belgium. To such objections my answer would be that I have long felt that the introduction of so many new species into Crag lists, either from the unsatisfactory evidence of a single Specimen, or from the (in my view) improper identification made, or from the presence of mere derivatives, must produce among geologists, especially those abroad, very erroneous conceptions of the Crag Fauna; and that it was to the advantage of science that these evidences should be placed in an appreciable form before the scientific world. I fear that most of the additions thus made of late years to the Crag Fauna, coupled with the antagonism between the views of Dr. Jeffreys, concerning the identification of many Crag shells with recent species (as expressed by the list which accompanies the paper of Prof. Prestwich, in the twenty-seventh Volume of the Journal of Geological Society') and those of myself, will render the subject of the Crag Mollusca, for some time to come, a subject of more perplexity than interest to students of the upper tertiaries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
