power is available, electric lighting is in a position of still greater advantage, and, in point of cost, altogether beyond comparison with other means of producing light.

To complete the comparison between the cost of electric light and gas light, we must consider not only the amount of coal required to yield a certain product of light in the one case and in the other, but also the cost of converting the coal into electric current and into gas; that is to say, the cost of manufacture of electricity and the cost of manufacture of gas. I cannot speak with the same exactness of detail on this point as I did on the comparative cost of the raw material. But if you consider the nature of the process of gas manufacture, and that it is a process, in so far as the lifting of coal by manual labour is concerned, not very unlike the stoking of a steam boiler, and if electricity is generated by means of steam, then the manual labour chiefly involved in both processes is not unlike. It is evident that in gas manufacture it would be necessary to shovel into the furnaces and retorts five or six times as much coal to yield the same light product as would be obtainable through the steam engine and incandescent lamps. But here again it is necessary to allow for the value of the labour in connection with the products other than gas, and hence it is right to cut down the difference I have mentioned to half-i.e, debit gas with only half the cost of manufacture, in the same way as in our calculation we have charged gas with only one-half the coal actually used. But when that is done there is still a difference of probably three to one in respect of labour in favour of electric lighting.

I have made these large allowances of material and labour in favour of the cost of gas, but it is well known that the bye products are but rarely of the value I have assumed. I desire, however, to allow all that can be claimed for gas.

With regard to the COST OF PLANT, I think there will be a more even balance in the two cases. In a gasworks you have retorts and furnaces, purifying chambers and gasometers, engines, boilers, and appliances for distributing the gas and regulating its pressure. Plant for generating electricity on a large scale would consist principally of boilers, steam-engines, dynamoelectric machines, and batteries for storage.

No such electrical station, on the scale and in the complete form I am supposing, has yet been put into actual operation; but several small stations for the manufacture of electricity already exist in England, and a large station designed by Mr. Edison is, if I am rightly informed, almost completed in America. We are therefore on the point of ascertaining by actual experience, what the cost of the works for generating electricity will be. Meanwhile, we know precisely the cost of boilers and engines, and we know approximately what ought to be the cost of dynamo-electric machines of suitably large size. We have, therefore, sufficient grounds for concluding that to produce a given quantity of light electrically the cost of plant would not exceed greatly, if at all, the cost of equivalent gasplant.

There remains to be considered, in connection with this part of the subject, the cost of distribution. Can electricity be distributed as widely and cheaply as gas? On one condition, which I fully hope can be complied with, this may be answered in the affirmative. The condition is that it may be found practicable and safe to distribute electricity of comparatively high tension.

The importance of this condition will be understood when it is remembered that to effectively utilise electricity in the production of light in the manner I have been explaining, it is necessary that the resistance in the carbon of the lamps should be relatively great to the resistance in the wires which convey the current to them. When lamps are so united with the conducting wire, that the current which it conveys is divided amongst them, you have a condition of things in which the aggregate resistance of the lamps will be very small, and the conducting wire, to have a relatively small resistance, must either be very short, or, if it be long, it must be very thick, otherwise there will be excessive waste of energy; in fact, it will not be a practical condition of things.

In order to supply the current to the lamps economically, there should be comparatively little resistance in the line. A waste of energy through the resistance of the wire of 10 or perhaps 20 per cent. might be allowable, but if the current is supplied to the lamps in the manner I have described-that of multiple arc, each lamp being as it were a crossing between two main wires, then-and even if the individual lamps offered a somewhat higher degree of resistance than the lamps now in

actual use the thickness of the conductor would become excessive if the line was far extended. In a line of half a mile, for instance, the weight of copper in the conductor would become so great, in proportion to the number of lamps supplied through it, as to be a serious charge on the light. On the other hand, if a smaller conducting wire were used, the waste of energy and consequent cost would greatly exceed that I have mentioned as the permissive limit.

Distribution in this manner has the merit of simplicity, it involves no danger to life from accidental shock; and it does not demand great care in the insulation of the conductor. But it has the great defect of limiting within comparatively small bounds the area over which the power for lighting could be distributed from one centre. In order to light a large town electrically on this system, it would be necessary to have a number of supply stations, perhaps half a mile or a mile apart. It is evidently desirable to be able to effect a wider distribution than this, and I hope that either by arranging the lamps in series, so that the same current passes through several lamps in succession, or by means of secondary voltaic cells, placed as electric reservoirs in each house, it may be possible to economically obtain a much wider distribution.

Whether by the method of multiple arc (illustrated by Diagram I.) which necessitates the multiplication of electrical stations; or by means of the simple series (illustrated by Diagram II.), or by means of secondary batteries connected with each other from house to house in single series, the lamps being fed from these in multiple arc (as illustrated by Diagram III.), I am quite satisfied that comparatively with the distribution of gas, the distribution of electricity is sufficiently economical to permit of its practical application on a large scale.

As to the cost of laying wires in a house, I have it on the authority of Sir Wm. Thomson, who has just had his house completely fitted with incandescent lamps from attics to cellars-to the entire banishment of gas-that the cost of internal wires for the electric lamps is less than the cost of plumbing in connection with gas-pipes.

I have expended an amount of time on the question of cost which I fear must have been tedious; but I have done so from the conviction that the practical interest of the matter depends on this point. If electric lighting by incandescence is not an economical process, it is unimportant; but if it can be established--and I have no doubt that it can-that this mode of producing light is economical, the subject assumes an aspect of the greatest importance.

Although at the present moment there may be deficiencies in the apparatus for generating and storing electricity on a very large scale, and but little experience in distributing it for lighting purposes over wide areas, and consequently much yet to be learnt in these respects; yet, if once it can be clearly established that, light for light, electricity is as cheap as gas, and that it can be made applicable to all the purposes for which artificial light is required, electric light possesses such marked advantages in connection with health, with the preservation of property, and in respect of safety, as to leave it as nearly certain as anything in this world can be, that the wide substitution of the one form of light for the other is only a question of time.

SCIENTIFIC SERIALS

Bulletin de l'Academie Royale des Sciences de Belgique, No. 6. -Resistance of the air in guns; letter by M. Colladon.-Note on experimental ballistics, by M. Melsens.-Experimental rerearches on the respiratory movements of insects, by M. Plateau. - Existence and amount of diurnal precession and nutation, on the hypothesis of a solid earth, by M. Folie.-Fundamental principle relative to contact of two surfaces having a common generatrix, by M. Mansion.-On a geometrical representation of two uniform transformations, by M. Le Paige.-On bibrominated camphor, by M. Swarts.-Action of trichloride and tribromide of phosphorus on gaseous phosphuretted hydrogen, by M. de Wilde. Action of trichloride of phosphorus on iodide of phosphonium, by the same.-Researches on the structure and signification of the respiratory apparatus of Arachnida, by Mr. MacLeod.

Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 8.-On development of electricity as equivalent of chemical processes, by F. Braun.The theory of the micro-telephone, by V. Wietlisbach.-On prism-observation with obliquely-incident light, and on a modi.

fication of the Wollaston method of determination for relations of light-refraction, by F. Kohlrausch.-On the setting of an object in the total-reflectometer, by the same.-On the tensions of saturated mercury-vapour at low temperatures, by E. B. Hagen.-On determination of the constants of internal friction of gases and liquids, by means of oscillating discs, by L. Grossmann.-Determination of the friction of liquids by Maxwell's method, by Th. S. Schmidt.-Researches on the volume-constitution of liquid compounds, by H. Schröder.-On the phosphates of thallium and lithium, by C. Rammelsberg.-On potassiumdithallium-chloride, by the same.-On the electricity of flames (corrections), by J. Elster and H. Geitel.

Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei. Transunti, vol. vi. fasc. 13.-On Italian emigration in 1881 compared with that of the five previous years, and with the emigration from other States of Europe, by S. Bodie.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

LONDON

Royal Horticultural Society, July 25.-Sir J. D. Hooker in the chair.- Hybrid Tacsonia: Dr Masters exhibited a blossom of a hybrid between T. exoniensis (itself a hybrid) and Vochsiemi. -Rhododendron camellii florum: Mr. Mangles exhibited a spray of this late-flowering species, which resembled a tea in flower. It bore only one flower instead of two together, as described by Hooker; and he suggested it might be identical with R. sparsiflorum, Booth, of Bhotan. In foliage it agrees with R. Maddeni. -Hollyhock disease: Mr. W. G. Smith gave an account of his Flanting healthy seeds of the hollyhock and others affected with Puccinia. He planted twenty tainted seeds, one of two only which germinated, survived. This one appears to be quite unaffected. Of fifty healthy seeds, all germinated. After the third week, leaves of common mallow diseased with Puccinia were scattered amongst them. In less than a week forty-six of the seedlings died of the disease.-Rhododendron hybrids: Mr. Veitch sent blossoms of seedlings of a hybrid, to show interesting deviations, a slightly double flower having been artificially "selffertilised," twenty seedlings were raised from it. Of these five have blossomed, as follows: a deep rose, a double white, a semidouble yellow, a salmon, and a semi double rose. The remarkable features about them are that white cro-sed by orange gives pink, the yellow being eliminated, and that a rudimentary calyx appears on these seedlings, R. Jasminiflorum, one of the original parents, having none.-Mr. Henslow remarked on the general tendency to suppress a calyx in flowers, which are small and massed together, as in Rubiaceæ, Caprifoliacea, Umbelliferæ, &c., and suggested that its re-appearance was correlated to the enlarged corolla, and less "massing " of the truss than occurs in R. Jasminiflorum.

PARIS

Academy of Sciences, July 31.-M. Jamin in the chair.— The following papers were read :-On the period of variable state which precedes the régime of detonation, and on the conditions of establishment of the explosive wave, by MM. Berthelot and Vieille. They recorded on a rotating cylinder, the spark causing the initial inflammation at the entrance of the tube, and the displacement of a very light piston moving freely in the tube at the other end. They study the velocities, the corresponding pressures, and the limits of detonati n.-Additional note on the rapid solution of the problem of Kepler, by M. Zenger. Auxiliary tables for calculating the true anomaly of planets, by the same.-On some theorems of electricity, demonstrated in an inexact way in didactic works, by M. Machai. On the longitudinal vibrations of elastic wires whose ends are submitted to any strains, by MM. Sebert and Hugoniot. -On the electric resistance of glass at low temperatures, by M. Foussereau. Using ordinary glass with base of soda and lime, Bohemian glass and crystal, the electric conductivity was found to rise rapidly with the temperature. The method is described, and formulæ are given.-On the flow of sound in pipes, by M. Neyreneuf. With a sensitive flame, from a burner like the Bunsen, but having, instead of the lower air holes, one small lateral orifice at about two-thirds of the height, he uneasured the intensity of a sound (from strokes of a bell) that had traversed tubes of different length and diameter, watching at what distance from the mouth of the tube the flame became insensible. He obtains a formula representing the law.-On the heat of dissolution of some mixtures, by M. Chroustchoff.Action of ammonia on oxide of copper, by M. Maumené.-On

the composition of vins de marc, by M. Girard. This name he applies to wines from fermentation of sugar in presence of the residua of vintage. He says they have a pretty regular composition, and have alimentary and hygienic qualities equivalent to two-thirds to half those of ordinary wines.-On the ethers of glycol, CH140g, by M. Rousseau.-Preparations of acetylcyanacetic ether and some of its metallic derivatives, by MM. Haller and Held. On the conditions of formation of rosanilines, by MM. Rosenstiehl and Gerber.-On a new use of electrolysis in dyeing and printing, by M. Goppelsræder. For example, he impregnates tissues or paper with an aqueous solution of chlorhydrate of aniline, puts it on a non-attackable metal plate, which he connects with one pole of a battery or small dynamo. On the tissue or paper is placed a second metal plate having a design in relief and joined to the other pole; on pressure and passage of the current the design is reproduced. A modification of the method gives chemical discharge of colour. The current, again, is used to prepare vats of indigo, aniline black, &c.; the hydrogen which arises at the negative pole being utilised. It is also used to prevent oxidation of colours in printing.-On the formation and decomposition of acetanilide, by M. Menschutkin.-On the products of distillation of colophany, by M. Renard.-On Crenothrix Kühniana (Rabenhorst), cause of infection of the waters of Lille, by M. Giard. This gives an iron red scum in the water of the Emmerin springs supplying the town. The evil has these small organisms, that quickly develop in the moist earth prebeen very pronounced this spring. Rains bring it on; engaging pared by dejections from distilleries, &c.-Structure of the nervous systems of molluscs, by M. Viguel.—On the male sexual organs and the Cuvier organs of Holothurians, by M. Jourdain.-Researches on the production of monstres, in the hen's egg, by means of slow incubation, by M. Dareste.-On sexuality in the ordinary system (0. Edulis), and in the Portuguese system (0. Angulata); Artificial fecundation of the latter, by M. BouchonBrandely.--On the properties of antiseptics, and volatile product of putrefaction, by M. Le Bon. The disinfectant power of any antiseptic is weaker the older the putrefaction. The strongest disinfectants are permanganate of potash, chloride of lime, sulphate of iron acidified with acetic acid, carbolic acid, and the glyceroborates of sodium and potassium. There is no parallelism between disinfectant action of an antiseptic and its action on microbes; nor between the power of preventing putrefaction and that of stopping it when it has begun. Except a very few substances, strongly poisonous (such as bichloride of mercury), most antiseptics, and notably carbolic acid, have very little action on bacteria. There is no parallelism between the virulent power of a substance in putrefaction and the toxical power of volatile compounds liberated from it. The volatile alkaloids from advanced putrefaction are very poisonous. The air of cemeteries may be very dangerous.-On an observation of diffuse lightning, by M. Rousseau.

Speechless Man.-A. H. KEANE

The Chemistry of the Planté and Faure Batteries.-Dr. J. H.
GLADSTONE, F.R.S..
The Late Prof. Balfour.-Prof. ALFRED NEWTON
M. Raoul Pictet's Corpuscular Theory of Gravitation.
HERSCHEL

-Prof. A. S.
M Cailletet's Pump for Condensing Gas.-ROBT. J. LECKY
Spectrum of the Light of the Glow-worm.-JOHN SPILLER
White Ants' Nests.-S. E. PEAL (With Illustrations)
Voice in Lizards.-SURGEON.
Halo.-Prof. J. P. O'REILLY
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN:-
The Spectrum of Wells' Comet
Occultation of a Star by Jupiter.
Nova Ophiuchi, 1848

Schroeter's Observations of Mars
KOREAN ETHNOLOGY. By A. H. KEANE

THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS, AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE BRITISH
FLORA, III. (With Iliustrations). By GRANT ALLEN
NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF OPTICAL GLASS.
NOTES.

THE EXCITABILITY OF PLANTS. By Prof. BURDON SANDERSON,
F.R.S. With Illustrations)

ELECTRIC LIGHTING BY INCANDESCENCE. BY JOSEPH W. SWAN
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 1882

THE LIFE OF IMMANUEL KANT

The Life of Immanuel Kant. By J. H. W. Stuckenberg, D.D., late Professor in Wittenberg College, Ohio. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1882.)

But

"Kritik der reinen Vernunft "-to examine at some length the position of Kant's theory of experience in relation to scientific method.

Dr. Stuckenberg's book is of an order different from that of Prof. Max Müller's book. It has no pretensions to brilliance, nor does it attempt to reproduce the system of the thinker whose life forms its subject. It is a plain book, written for such plain people as are content to hear what sort of man Kant was without learning much of his teaching. But its plainness notwithstanding, it is a very useful work, abounding as it does in facts and common

sense.

No one can read it and continue to go about his business with the old impression that Kant was a metaphysical dreamer of that a priori school which found its apotheosis in Hegel as popularly conceived. We learn from Dr. Stuckenberg's pages, what ought to be much better understood than is currently the case, that Kant was an inquirer into the facts of nature, who was forced by the difficulties which presented themselves in his generalisations to investigate the constitution of experience itself. And we have material sufficient to enable us to gather that Kant's method in his criticism of knowledge was precisely the same as his method in his earlier criticism of nature. It is perhaps not to be wondered at that philosophy should since 1848 have fallen into bad repute. But it is to be wondered at, that with two or three exceptions, the English exponents of the sort of philosophy which is most in favour among educated men in this country, should know so little about the teaching of the great successor of Hume, a teacher whose criticisms have a greater and more important bearing upon the question of method than have those of Hume himself.

Apart from his work in philosophy and in mathematical physics and astronomy, the life of Kant is of peculiar interest in itself. He contributed largely to the bringing about of that revolution in literature which was carried to its consequences by Herder and Lessing, and which culminated in Goethe. He probably did more than any other man-even than Goethe-to give to Germany the intellectual position which she held in the early years of this century. But just because Kant's work was never of an order readily intelligible to ordinarily educated men, he remains to this day for the most part merely a great personality about whose thoughts little is known. What Kant was, as distinguished from what he did, will at least be collected from the pages of Dr. Stuckenberg.

It is open to doubt whether there is any idea about which educated people deceive themselves more than the supposed distinction between the "high a priori” method of philosophy and the experimental method of science. The methods of science and philosophy are really indistinguishable. They consist simply in the application of a previously conceived hypothesis to a given state of facts VOL. XXVI.-No. 668

of the conceptions of such branches of knowledge as philology or political economy can be so verified. If with Kant we look on philosophy as the science of knowledge itself as distinguished from its objects, and in this light examine the history of modern thought since his time, we find a conception of the nature of experience gradually evolved and developed by precisely the same process as in the case of the sciences-exact and otherwise. To understand how the idea of a difference in method sprang up it is necessary to go back to the pre-Kantian philosophers. Then there certainly did exist (just as there have existed in recent times) an almost universal belief (dissented from by Locke and his successors in England) that it was possible to deduce the nature of things by a priori reasoning from principles. And this belief was entertained by men of science almost as widely as by metaphysicians. Kant finally did for philosophy what Bacon did for science, and a careful consideration of the aberrations of some of his true successors show that however much they may have drifted into eccentricities they never lost sight of the new departure. No one for example who has given attention to the "Naturphilosophie" of Hegel supposes that Hegel meant to "deduce” Nature, or that he is dealing with anything else than the application of his fundamental conceptions to a certain phase of the problem of the constitution of knowledge. And yet not a few eminent critics have mistaken Hegelian irony for serious earnest. The time has come for recognising the fact that the rejection of the philosophical method, if it means anything at all, means the rejection of all that in science is not capable of reduction to space measurement, and men of science would do well to try to find out how much is implied in such a rejection. For such a purpose nothing is so well adapted as the study of Kant's works. Kant was a man of science who came ultimately to philosophy as a form of science. And for him the main feature of philosophy was that it purged the special sciences of a vast quantity of bad metaphysics, of unconscious assumptions which have been the real reason of those ultimate contradictions in their conceptions, which in modern times have proved so great a difficulty to the most acute investigators. It was not until middle age that he turned his attention to difficulties which had been forced upon his notice in the course of his researches in mathematical physics and biology.

One of the main lessons to be learned from Kant is the necessity of extreme caution in the formulation of the terms of all general problems. No one who has carefully studied Kant is likely to speak of the transition from the region of mechanism into that of organisation, or of the physical atom as conceivable objects of experience. Still less is he likely to reason about mind as though it were a form of energy, a substance or a thing. He will find himself

R

approaching the consideration of all such problems with a new light and an increasing disposition to limit the field of inquiry. He will also see that much that he took to relate to problems of the nature of objects within experience, really relates to the problem of experience itself. And he will probably agree with Kant in thinking that the difficulty of investigating this special problem is a difficulty not of kind but of degree, and this whether his conclusions are those of Kant or none at all. Just at present, when the tendencies of science are increasingly in the direction of general conceptions, it is difficult to avoid feeling that some knowledge of what Kant really taught ought to be far more widely diffused among scientific men than is actually the case.

R. B. HALDANE

RECENT ORNITHOLOGICAL LITERATURE The Coues Check List of North American Birds. Second Edition, Revised to Date, and entirely Rewritten, under direction of the Author, with a Dictionary of the Etymology, Orthography, and Crthoepy of the Scientific Names, the Concordance of Previous Lists, and a Catalogue of his Ornithological Publications. 8vo, pp. 1-165. (Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1882.)

Beiträge zur Ornithologie Südafrikas. Von Dr. Emil Holub and Aug. von Pelzeln. (Wien: Hölder, 1882.)

DR. ELLIOTT COUES is well known for the labo

flowed from his pen during the last ten years. No fact seems too trivial for record, no labour too great for this author when once he sets his mind to exhaust the literary history of any group of birds, or the ornithological fauna of a country. We have just received a copy of his second Check List of North American Birds, which appears to us to be much the most complete work of its kind which has yet appeared. An entire list of the Birds of North America, as politically defined, is here given, and we perceive that the number of recorded species has increased from 283 in 1814 (Wilson) to 888 in the present volume. Mr. Ridgway's estimate in 1880 was 924, but this total is reached by including in the North American List several species which are found in Mexico, as well as in the islands of Socorro and Guadeloupe. Dr. Coues considers that there are not more than thirty out of his 888 species "whose claims to be recognised by sub-specific names can be seriously questioned. Pp. 1-22 are occupied with the Introduction, a comparison of the present edition with the former Check List published in 1874, and a very interesting treatise on the "Use of Names." American ornithologists have so long ago adopted the trinomial system of nomenclature that it has become part and parcel of their writings, but so far it has not been adopted by Old World ornithologists, at least in the same sense as that in which the Americans employ the three names. To have to label a specimen Icterus melanocephalus auduboni (Gir.), Coues, is certainly more awkward than simply writing Icterus auduboni, and if the race is not worthy of a separate name it would seem better to suppress it altogether, and to quote the species as Icterus melanocephalus. The system too appears to us likely to bolster up sub-species and races which are not entitled to such recognition, as, for instance, in the case of the com

mon Barn-Owl (Aluco flammeus pratincola), and the Magpie (Pica rustica hudsonica), which are not distinguishable even as sub-species from the European Aluco (potius Strix) flammeus, and Pica rustica, but seem to be retained by American authors under their system of trinomial nomenclature, chiefly because they have been once separated and have been called Aluco pratincola and Pica hudsonica. The Yellow-billed Magpie of California is placed upon the same footing as Pica hudsonica, and receives the trinomial epithet of Pica rustica nuttalli, whereas we have never yet seen proof of any gradation between it and Pica rustica, so that it would appear to be quite a good species, and entitled to full specific rank. These are small points on which European ornithologists are always likely to differ from their American brethren, but there can only be one opinion about the great value of the etymological portion of the present work, which has been most carefully written by Dr. Coues, the classical derivation of every generic and every specific name being most carefully given; and in this portion of his task the author acknowledges the obligations which he is under to Mrs. S. Olivia Weston-Aiken, "who cordially shared with him the labour of the philological investigation."

We are pleased to see that several etymological corrections recently set forward by Mr. Henry Wharton are adopted by Dr. Coues, who handsomely acknowledges the assistance given by Mr. Wharton. The latter gentleman is well-known in this country for his researches into the classical derivation of the names of birds, and he is now Secretary to a Committee of the British Ornithologists' Union, which is shortly about to issue a standard list of British Birds, in which special attention will be paid to the etymology of the names.

We have also on our table an account of the Ornithological Results of Dr. Holub's explorations in Southern Africa, written by the traveller himself, assisted by Herr von Pelzeln, of the Vienna Museum. This book contains a large number of illustrations, representative of bird-life in Southern Africa, the woodcuts being so well executed that we are able to gain a good idea of the nesting, habits, and economy of many South African species in their native haunts. Excellent accounts of the habits, especially of the breeding of a great number of species are given, and ostrich-farmers will find much that will interest them in the account of the South African ostrich. Several anatomical notes are dispersed throughout the volume, and many good figures of skeletons are given, including two plates devoted to the tongues of birds. Of the new species figured Drymoica holubi (Taf. I.) is scarcely likely to be really undescribed amongst the numerous Cisticola of Southern Africa, and Lanius pyrrhostictus (Taf. II.) is certainly only the female of L. collaris. All such works as Dr. Holub's add much to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of birds, especially when, as in the present instance, they are accompanied by a good map showing the country in which the collection was made.

Capt. Blakiston and Mr. H. Pryer have just issued a revised list of the "Birds of Japan," and it forms a most useful epitome of our present knowledge of the ornithology of this interesting country. Three hundred and twenty-six species are enumerated, notes being given on their geographical distribution in the different islands of Japan, and it would appear from the frequent mention of dif

ferent museums that the Japanese have adopted this mode of education along with their other advances in civilisation. One of the most interesting features of the present list is the additional knowledge acquired by Mr. Snow's visit to the Kuril Islands, which locality, however, does not seem to be very rich in land-birds, though many wading-birds-gulls and petrels-appear to have been noticed. The authors have carefully identified all the species which have come under their notice, and in doubtful cases have forwarded specimens to England for comparison, so that little fault can be found with the present list, which seems to be the result of much good sound work, and we congratulate the authors on having placed the ornithology of Japan on such a satisfactory footing. A comparison of some of the smaller owls with the type specimens in the British Museum would appear desirable, and we have no doubt that Mr. Bowdler Sharpe would assist the authors, if specimens were forwarded to him for identification.

ICELAND

Summer Travelling in Iceland. By John Coles, F.R.A.S. (London: Murray, 1882.)

By Fell and Fjord. By E. G. Oswald. (London: Blackwood, 1882.)

THE

HE most prominent-we ought perhaps to say, the one redeeming feature of Mr. Coles's work is the fact that he occupied himself by taking observations of heights, temperatures, distances, and magnetic variations while travelling in Iceland. This is rarely done because of the difficulty of carrying instruments over a very rough, and in some places pathless, country. The result has been that the map appended to "Summer Travelling" is perhaps the most accurate which has yet appeared. Mount Paul, and a few more-familiar names, are strangely enough not inserted, but, on the other hand, the heights of the principal mountains and highlands are given in English feet; the crater of Askja is shown of its proper form; and the details of the Sprengisandr route are mapped. At the same time, the map is not so clear as that of Gunnlaugsson, who was careful to indicate the different surface soils-lava, sand, heath, &c.-by differences both of shading and of colour. If those who travel in a little-known country would provide themselves with a good aneroid, compass, and thermometer, and would learn before starting how to use them, and maintain a habit of using them constantly while on their travels, like Mr. Coles, it would be to the great advantage of science. According to Mr. Coles, the magnetic variation in the extreme west of Iceland is 43° W., while on the east coast it is 34° W., and the compass error in different parts of the islands will thus vary by three-quarters of a point. Thus in the W. of the island the compass box must be turned until the N. end of the magnetic needle is over N.W., while in the E. of the island the N. end would require to be placed over N.W. by N., and then all the points marked on the card would indicate true bearings.

We may mention also a capital plan of the Haukadalr Geysirs, better, we believe, than any one which has appeared since that of Baring Gould.

Apart from the observations, the book contains nothing which is new to Icelandic travellers, or to those acquainted

with the literature relating to travel in that country. The description of the Thingvellir-Geysir-Hekla-Krisuvik route, is as old as the hills, and becomes infinitely wearisome from much repetition. Four chapters out of eleven take us only as far as Hekla, and then the author did not ascend it. The journey across the Sprengisandr was quite uneventful, and the detour to Askja was without interest— that is, it did not bring to light any facts not previously observed by Prof. Johnstrup, Lieut. Maroc, or Mr. W. G. Lock. Also when we read that "Summer Travelling in Iceland" is a "narrative of two journeys across the island by unfrequented routes," we are disappointed to find the less frequented route without any interest, and the other by no means "unfrequented," but in fact the ordinary mail route between Akureyri and Reykjavik.

During the last twenty years books on Iceland have multiplied too rapidly, and there is no need for another work on the subject, unless it deals with some special features of the country scientifically, or unless it is a record of exploration, like plucky Mr. Watts's record of a journey "Across the Vatna Jökull." If somebody will further explore this tract of unknown country larger than Lincolnshire, or ascend and measure virgin peaks, or trace the lava streams of Koëtla to their source, or minutely survey the Krafla district, we shall welcome their records with open arms.

"By Fell and Fjord" is a bright, pleasantly written book, by a lady who has visited Iceland three times has travelled over some of the less frequented paths, and has entered with wonderful spirit into the nature of the weird volcanic surroundings, and the tone and temper of the people, the language, and the literature. Miss Oswald is so fond of everything connected with the island, that she has braved discomforts which few ladies would willingly face. Her bravery impresses us immensely: she never feared to ford the most dangerous glacier river, never quaked while crossing the most treacherous bog, and was never discouraged by misfortunes caused by bad weather or a mistaken route. And then she is genuinely enthusiastic about the scenery, the wild gipsy life, and the cordial kindly people. G. F. RODWELL

OUR BOOK SHELF Madeira: its Scenery, and How to see it. (Londor: Stanford, 1882).

A USEFUL handbook to Madeira has just been published by Messrs. Stanford. It can hardly lay claim to be a scientific work, yet a fair knowledge of botany and kindred subjects is pre-supposed to exist by its author, Miss Ellen Taylor, and much of the interest in the excursions detailed is due to the introduction of this element. It presents, in fact, a very marked improvement over ordinary handbooks, and the treatment of the natural history section is excellent.

There is little of history to relate, and even the discovery of the island, which took place as recently as the early part of the fifteenth century, is involved in some obscurity. The race is mixed, and the aristocracy at least seems to have been recruited from Italy, France, and Flanders. The island is entirely volcanic, and no rocks earlier than Miocene exist in it. When volcanic action ceased is unknown, but even the most recent lavas seem to have suffered great denudation-no vapours are now exhaled-and the island is profoundly quiescent save from occasional earthquakes, as in 1748. The vast