98 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 



Those areas of the earth's surface 

 outside of the Polar regions which re- 

 tain their original fauna and flora un- 

 modified by the action of man and the 

 organisms which accompany him in his 

 migrations are very few and are rap- 

 idly passing away. It is obvious that 

 it is of great importance that we should 

 know something of the conditions, ani- 

 mals and plants which exist under such 

 circumstances, in order that the effects 

 of the influx of human beings into a 

 virgin wilderness may be determined 

 and recorded. 



Opportunities for such researches 

 are very rare and in a few years will 

 be non-existent. A settlement has re- 

 cently been made upon the isolated bit 

 of land known as Christmas Island, 

 which lies some two hundred miles 

 southwest of the western part of Java 

 and is separated from it by sea which 

 reaches a depth of three thousand 

 fathoms. At the initiative and expense 

 of Sir John Murray, known from his 

 connection with the Challenger expe- 

 dition, Mr. C. W. Andrews, of the Brit- 

 ish Museum, was granted leave of ab- 

 sence for the purpose of making a thor- 

 ough biological survey of this island, 

 and the report which is the result of 

 his observations and collections, assisted 

 by a number of expert naturalists in 

 working up the material, has just been 

 issued by the Museum. It is believed 

 to be the most elaborate account of the 

 animal and plant life of an oceanic 

 island ever published. 



The island is of volcanic origin and 

 comprises, beside igneous rocks, a va- 

 riety of tertiary and recent limestones. 

 Most of the life upon it is of the Malay- 

 sian type, the prevalent winds being 

 from that quarter. However, there is 

 a recognizable portion of it which is 



related to that of Ceylon and another to 

 that of Australia, though the latter 

 country is nine hundred miles away. 

 About ten per cent, of the plants and 

 forty-five per cent, of the three hundred 

 and nineteen species of animal or- 

 ganisms are regarded as peculiar to the 

 island. There are thirty-one species of 

 birds, five of mammals and six of rep- 

 tiles, of which sixteen are known only 

 from this island. These figures, of course, 

 exclude all pelagic forms. Altogether, 

 many interesting facts have been 

 brought out and several puzzling ques- 

 tions raised in the discussion of the 

 data which form the basis of this val- 

 uable report. 



PALEONTOLOGY. 



The absence of a text-book on pale- 

 ontology in English which in any ade- 

 quate measure reflected the philosophic 

 illumination of modern zoology has long 

 been a subject of regret. The only man- 

 ual worthy of the name which has en- 

 joyed any wide reputation among scien- 

 tific paleontologists has been that of von 

 Zittel, published originally in German, 

 but since well rendered into French 

 with some additions. Dr. C. R. East- 

 man, of Harvard University, having in 

 view a translation of von Zittel's 'Grund- 

 ziige,' with the permission of the au- 

 thor, submitted the different sections 

 of the work to various American spe- 

 cialists for revision. The original work 

 was lavishly illustrated with excellent, 

 mostly original figures, which have been 

 utilized in the present translation. The 

 task of revision was undertaken by a 

 number of experts as a labor of love, in 

 the desire that the deficiency in our 

 text-book literature, above referred to, 

 might be done away with and that Eng- 

 lish-speaking students might possess a 

 work of reference in which modern ideas 



