Illustrated Guide to the Fish, Amphibian Reptilian, and supposed Mammalian Remains of the Northumberland Carboniferous Strata. With Atlas of Ten Plates

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Abstract
Mr. Barkas does not seem to be at all sure as to what his work ought to be called, for while the designation given above is quoted from the title-page, we find impressed on the outside boards the alternative title of ‘Manual of CoalMeasure Palæontology.’ The book consists, however, of notes on such fossil vertebrate remains from the Northumberland coal-field as have come under his own observation, and can in no sense be called a “manual” even of any one department of the somewhat extensive domain of “Coal-Measure Palæontology.” The remains described in the ten chapters are for the most part very fragmentary, and have been also mainly derived from one stratum of shale known as the Low Main Coal Shale. Mr. Barkas describes and names as new some fishes, and several Labyrinthodonts. He claims the discovery of true reptilian remains in the Northumberland coal-measures, and even advances the theory that certain footprints and a fragment of a jaw are mammalian. Should the latter supposition prove true Mr. Barkas is certainly on the high road to eminence as a palæontological investigator. We are certainly glad to see these discoveries published in a compact and accessible form, seeing that many of the original descriptions first appeared in the ‘English Mechanic,’ a periodical which most people would consider a somewhat strange medium for the publication of original palaeontological work.

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