adduced by Dr. Fouquet, as much as upon the archæological evidence which he himself has carefully sifted, has come to the conclusion that the people whose remains he has found are as old as any race known in the world, and that, in any case, they are the earliest inhabitants of Egypt. On the other hand, Mr. Petrie calls them the "New Race," which appellation, viewed in the light of the evidence given in M. de Morgan's book, is clearly wrong, and shows that Mr. Petrie did not understand the facts of the case.

According to M. de Morgan the word Egyptian" signifies the man who migrated from Asia to Egypt, whose civilisation was peculiar to himself, and whose ethnic history is still unknown. Between him and his predecessor, whom we may call the aboriginal inhabitant, he draws a sharp distinction both mentally and morally, and the former was mesaticephalic and the latter dolichocephalic. It is important to note that the indigènes had smooth and fair hair, and that they belonged to the white race; thus the old theory that the Egyptians were of negro origin receives another blow, and incidentally it is quite clear that the Cush referred to in the Bible as the home of the Egyptian is not Ethiopia. In the chapter on the indigenous peoples of Egypt we have a most useful account of the various objects which have been found in the prehistoric sites, well illustrated by scores of woodcuts which will prove invaluable to those who have not the opportunity of studying the originals, and at the end is given a good account of the various methods of burial employed by the indigènes of Egypt.

In the earliest times the dead were buried without any attempt being made to mummify the body or to strip the bones of their flesh. Later, the flesh was stripped from the bones, which were then buried, frequently in great disorder; sometimes the body was simply hacked in pieces so that it might be packed easily in a small space. Still later, an attempt to preserve the body by mummification was made; for Dr. Fouquet has found traces of bitumen in the bones' which he has examined. In the earliest tombs no metal objects have been found, but of those in which no instruments of iron and bronze have been discovered, the famous tomb at Nakada which M. de Morgan first excavated, and has described in the fourth chapter, is the best known example. It is, of course, quite easy to see from the remains of offerings found in the prehistoric tombs that the belief in a future life of those who made them was both well established and widely known. And if they believed in a future life it seems that they must of necessity have believed in a divine power, and to have the superstitions which take the place of religion among early peoples. The abominable practice of cannibalism which Mr. Petrie attributed to his "New Race," finds no support in the account which M. de Morgan has given of this people, and we agree with Dr. Verneau, who in discussing this subject says—

"Les faits allégués à l'appui de cette assertion s'expliqueraient tout aussi bien si l'on admettait simpleun décharnement à l'air libre, précédant l'ensevelissement définitif."

ment

Mr. Petrie's sensational discovery therefore falls to the ground.

Space will not allow us to discuss the objects which

M. de Morgan found in the tomb of Nakada, much less to refer to the interesting deductions made by M. Wiedemann from them; it must suffice to say that quite new light is thrown upon many well-known facts, and that niany of our preconceived notions must be abandoned. Of special interest to the anthropologist is Dr Fouquet's minute description of the skulls of the indigènes of Egypt; the careful measurements, too, will be invaluable to him. Neither M. de Morgan nor Dr. Fouquet attempts to assign a date to the occupation of the land of Egypt by this people, and no guess is made at the length of its duration.

Though M. de Morgan's last work does much to settle the difficulties which his own discoveries have raised, many questions must, we fear, for some time remain open. But to him all students owe a big debt of gratitude, both for the careful way in which he has collected and stated his facts, and for the zeal with which he carried out his excavations; his work is of peculiar value from the fact that he never forgets his task as an expounder of facts so far as to become an advocate. The mere Egyptologist would have misread the evidence of the prehistoric graves because he never takes the trouble to realise that a good Egyptologist is not necessarily a good archæologist, and we must be thankful that for once the right work fell into the right hands. All will, however, regret that the French Government has removed M. de Morgan from Egypt to Persia, especially as they did so at the time when he was doing his best work.

to many.

In 1886 Mr. Druce published "A Flora of Oxfordshire "-a flora, except for the inclusion of some account of the lower plants, of the very ordinary type. In his second flora, while omitting the lower plants except Characea, he introduces in his critical notes on species a new feature. Every variation has a claim on the botanist's attention; and where can local varieties be better considered than in a local flora? It is a good feature in the book. And, further, the mania for names or for giving prominence to names does not offend. The varieties are usually mentioned in these notes in a way which gives an appearance of proportion to the enumeration, and so do not appear-undefinable gradations as they often are-in series like so many milestones along the road.

A county flora must always be considered from the dictionary standard. The main body is of necessity a work of reference. Viewed in this light, we find in the "Flora of Berkshire" merits and demerits. The division of the county into geographical areas is satisfactory, much more so than in the "Flora of Oxfordshire," where they are very unequal. In a level region, such as that of our Midland counties, there are no natural areas,

unless they be made by the soil. To follow the outlines of the various formations, as Babington well did in his "Flora of Cambridgeshire," would for Berkshire be a difficult task; and Mr. Druce may not have done amiss in defining his regions by drainage. The result of his division is that every region contains some chalk, and consequently some of its characteristic vegetation.

An original dictionary is aggravating; and Mr. Druce is unwise in choosing, by his changes in nomenclature, to publish such. Of all places, except perhaps a seedsman's catalogue, such alterations could not be more out of place. And when he selects to give Potamogeton two genders he becomes pedantic. To expect a man with more common sense than leisure to inquire before writing the name of a species of this genus whether its author made it masculine or neuter, is to proffer him a fetter of a nature as galling as purposeless. It may be safely said that this is a demerit possessed by no other English county flora.

In the next place, a county flora must be considered as a geographical study. Great pains are usually taken to get together accurate facts (and this flora is no exception); but the builder tips up his bricks and mortar at your door, leaving the building to your own architectural fancy. As long ago as 1863, in Baker's "North Yorkshire," an admirable model was set, but no one has followed in the same lines. Mr. Druce in the introduction gives a long description of his districts, and long lists of the noteworthy plants, but in the summary he fails to point out any connection between these; he points out the soils of the county well-perhaps not so well as in Pryor's "Hertfordshire Flora"--but fails to summarise their effects on the plant formations; he has pointed out the deforesting of the land, but hardly notices its effects; and he has given us agricultural returns, and passes unnoticed the effects of agriculture. Surely such things should be the crowning of such a book-a bringing into one view the long arrays of facts which have gone before. It is a fault of most floras that they are wanting in this.

This "Flora of Berkshire" forms a thick volume of more than 800 pages; and it is not free from irrelevant remarks. For instance, the fossil shells of the Lower Greensand (p. xxxi) have no bearing on the subject; the history of the "Imp" stone (p. xlii) is out of place; most of the matter on river drainage (pp. xlvii-liii) is of little use; to be informed that the late M. A. Lawson compiled a MS. index to Jaeger's "Adumbratio" (p. clxxvii) is not of interest, and but poor salve to one who needs use those two cumbersome volumes; nor does it in the least benefit us to be told that Mr. Druce has been unable to elicit any reply from certain critical botanists.

Caution, too, is sometimes left behind. That Elodea is dying out by reason of the absence of the ♂ plant (p. 465) is merely a conjecture. A little knowledge of recent literature should have shown that Nepeta Glechoma var. parviflora (p. 402) is merely a condition. In fact, Mr. Druce's "Flora of Berkshire," founded on so much labour, deserved a careful revision before it went to press, and did not get it. It may rank with our best county floras in some ways; but most of these are far from approaching a high scientific standard. There is a tendency now to aim at more ambitious works than

catalogues of "Phanerogams." The comprehensiveness of Purchas and Ley's "Flora of Herefordshire," the notice of the past vegetation of the peat in Hind's "Flora of Suffolk," the scattered biological notes of Scott-Elliot's "Flora of Dumfriesshire," and the critical remarks of Druce's "Flora of Berkshire" are good signs, which we hope may lead to better things. I. H. B.

AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. Wild Life in Southern Seas. By Louis Becke. Crown 8vo. Pp. viii + 369. (London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1897.)

THE

HE author of "Pacific Tales" and "By Reef and Palm" stands in no need of introduction either to the reader of fiction, or to the more serious-minded who seek for information upon a part of the world where the "personally-conducted" tour is as yet unknown. Mr. Becke, in virtue of his twenty-six years of wandering among the islands of the Pacific, has made himself an acknowledged authority upon most of them, from the Carolines to the Paumotus, and now that Major Sterndale is no longer with us, is probably better qualified to speak of this region as a whole than any person now living, though there are doubtless others whose knowledge of individual groups is more extensive. The volume before us is upon the same lines as "By Reef and Palm," a collection of reminiscences per ci per là, rather less full of deeds of bloodshed, perhaps, than the latter volume, and containing more of interest to the naturalist and ethnologist, but at the same time possibly not devoid of fiction, or at least of fact and fiction commingled. Some of the articles seem familiar to us; one at least, upon Birgus latro, has appeared in the columns of the Field.

The volume is one which will appeal especially to the sea-fisherman who has tasted of the delights of reeffishing in Pacific waters, for half a dozen or more of the articles are devoted to this sport in one shape or another. The abundance of fish is not less remarkable than their variety. Mr. Becke tells us that in the Ellice group he has seen as many as twenty canoes loaded to sinking point in less than an hour; while, as for size, the takuo, a large species of albacore, reaches the weight of 120 lb. and more. Shark-fishing is no very novel amusement, perhaps, but catching flying-fish is a sport not so widely practised, and Mr. Becke's description of it is a vivid one. He has also done well in putting together his sketch of the history of whaling in the South Seas.

No new light is thrown upon the curious stone buildings and fortifications which exist over the length and breadth of the South Pacific, and have for so long puzzled archæologists, though Mr. Becke speaks of what are probably the most extensive of all-those on Espiritu Santo. Some interesting facts concerning population are given. It has now been known for some time that the extinction of these island peoples in consequence of the advent of the whites, formerly regarded as an immediate certainty, is not only not impending, but is never likely to occur, except by the process of fusion-that the census minimum has been reached, and that steady increase is the rule rather than the exception. Funafuti, the island lately visited by the coral-boring expedition, is a good

and crystallographic relationships, in place of the notes appended to each group in the earlier editions; and the crystal class to which each mineral belongs is defined. Thus the book, while preserving the form which is now so familiar to every student of mineralogy, is in reality much more of a treatise on mineral chemistry than it was before. In fact, it may be regarded as the most useful text-book on this subject available for a student. The researches of Penfield and of Clarke have thrown a flood of new light upon the chemistry of minerals, and Prof. Groth is, as is well known, never slow to incorporate the latest results of science in his books.

:

These tables are indispensable to the student, and of immense use to the systematic mineralogist to the latter especially in those passages which express the critical views of an author of unrivalled experience and judgment upon minerals of obscure composition.

The following examples, chosen almost at random, will suffice to illustrate the modifications which have been introduced into the old classification. Pyrrhotite is now FeS, and is placed in the Wurtzite group; Lorandite, the new sulpharsenite of thallium, is placed with Miargyrite; Ilmenite has been removed from the Hæmatite group of oxides, and is classed with Pyrophanite as a titanate of iron, in consequence of recent observations by Penfield.

But it is needless to multiply examples. The book should be the handy companion of every mineralogist. It is only necessary that in this, as in former editions, the reader should bear in mind that rational formulæ in mineralogy are never free from the taint of speculation.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Sub-Oceanic Terraces and River Valleys of the Bay of Biscay.

WILL you allow me to add to my communication, which appeared in NATURE of March 24, regarding the results of investigations carried out by means of the Admiralty charts beyond the coast of the British Isles, a still further statement regarding the Bay of Biscay? The results are not less remarkable and suggestive of great changes of level than are those indicated by the soundings to the west of the British Isles, which I hope to describe in full at the meeting of the Victoria Institute on May 2. We have the same general physical contours: first, the Continental shelf, or platform, stretching out for a distance of over 100 miles along the northern edge of the bay, but narrowing southwards till along the coast of Spain it contracts to an average breadth of twenty to thirty miles. its outer margin the shelf breaks off at the 200-fathom line in a grand escarpment, continuous with that of the British platform, and descending with a more or less steep descent to somewhat over the 1200-fathom line. Off Cape Ortegal the escarpment is almost precipitous, for the total descent of 7000-8000 feet is effected within a horizontal space of about four miles; from the base of the escarpment the ocean-floor, formed of calcareous ooze, stretches gradually away to depths of 2600 fathoms and upwards. The escarpment forms the natural boundary between the region of Globigerina ooze and the Continental platform of sand, mud and gravel with shells.

At

Lastly, the old channels of several of the river valleys can be distinctly traced when they approach and intersect the grand escarpment. This is remarkably so in the case of the Loire, the Adour, the Las Cubas and Caneiro rivers. The Adour passes out to the deep ocean through a continuous deep cañon or gorge of 100 miles in length-marked on the Admiralty chart at its upper end as "Fosse de Cap Breton." At a distance of thirty miles from the coast the bed of the cañon is about 3174 feet below the general level of the Continental shelf, and at a distance of sixty-two miles it descends to a depth of about 5442 feet below the same level. The cañon itself can be distinctly

traced to the depth of 9000 feet (1500 fathoms), where it opens out on the oceanic floor, representing the feature known by "the base level of erosion "-in other American geologists as words the limiting depth of river-erosion at the time when the land was elevated, and indicating the extent of the elevation as compared with the ocean level of the present day. The "embayments" of the other rivers mentioned can be traced to about the 1200-fathom contour. Such concurrence of evidence as regards the great up-lift, presumably reaching its maximum at the commencement of the Glacial Epoch, is conclusive in its testimony. The British and Continental platform was probably referable to the Mio-pliocene period. EDWARD HULL. April 19.

Instituto Central Meteorológico, Madrid, April 14.

From the first hours of the evening of February 15, there was observed a sensible but light fog; neither the strength of the wind (E. gentle breeze) nor any other phenomenon indicated that the supposed condensed vapours could be African dust transported by the air. As the night advanced, the force of the wind increased, until it reached the value of a moderate gale. At about 5 a.m. on the 16th, some large drops of rain fell, but were inappreciable in the rain gauge. For a very short time the wind subsided, by and by becoming again a gentle breeze during the day and blowing due E. The fog became more dense, causing depression and a disagreeable feeling produced by its dryness. The sun, on account of its light being pale and feeble without the usual rays, was confounded with the moon; and it reminded one of the light of a voltaic arc seen through a frosted glass. The flame of a match appeared with a very marked violet hue. The drinking waters became salty and coloured as by oxide of iron. The dust was grey and extremely fine, and deposited itself on every object.

On February 19, from the early morning the sky was again clear and transparent, and the wind was blowing from the N. and N. W.

Meteorological Observations taken at Laguna (Teneriffe), during the Dust Fog, in February 1898.