Many sciences contribute to the progress of geology, but none is more essential to it than that of zoology. The accurate determination of fossils, which can only be done by a trained systematic zoologist, is a necessity for stratigraphical work, and the broad questions of the geography of past ages can only be discussed with the aid of those who understand the distribution of life in the existing world. Dr. Traquair, the eminent ichthyologist of Edinburgh, though scarcely a geologist in the strict sense of the term, may therefore be claimed as one of the leaders in our science, for he has devoted more than forty years to the interpretation of fossil fish-remains, and so laid the foundations of a precise knowledge of extinct fishes which is as important to the stratigraphical geologist as to the biological philosopher.