14 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



hidden away in the columns of newspapers, or the 

 pages of extinct magazines. The subjects discussed 

 are astronomical, geological, chemical, physical, and 

 technological. All the papers are short and lively. 

 The reader is plunged into the subject at once, and 

 immediately sees with the author how the case stands. 

 Altogether there are forty-four short chapters. The 

 longest and perhaps the best of them is that which 

 gives us a clear digest of the author's work on " The 

 Fuel of the Sun." 



The Sun, its Planets, and their Satellites, by the 

 Rev. Edmund Ledger, M.A. (London : Edward 

 Stanford). Thanks to several popular and able 

 writers, such as Messrs. Proctor, Williams, and 

 others, astronomy has once more become attractive 

 to general readers, and the present work will main- 

 tain the position thus gained. It is in reality the 

 publication of the course of lectures upon the Solar 

 System read in Gresham College, London. We 

 have often thought it a pity the Gresham lectures had 

 to be got up for so slender an audience, and we are 

 therefore glad to find Mr. Ledger seeking a larger 

 circle of students. We hardly need say these lectures 

 are exceedingly full. The latest information afforded 

 by astronomical observation all over the world is 

 packed away in handy and available compass, and 

 the author skilfully arranges his matter so that it 

 comes in where it is most telling. Two lectures are 

 devoted to the sun, and two to the moon, the planets 

 having a chapter devoted generally to each of them, 

 and one to the minor planets. There are nearly one 

 hundred illustrations, besides coloured plates, photo- 

 graphs and charts, and altogether these lectures make 

 up a very handsome volume which will be found a 

 very useful manual to all students of astronomy. 



Ancient Battle-fields of Lancashire, by Charles 

 Hardwick (Manchester : Abel Heywood & Son). Mr. 

 Hardwick is well known as an ardent and enthusiastic 

 archaeologist, and the subject discussed in this little 

 volume is one he has pre-eminently made his own, so 

 that all he has to say will be listened to attentively 

 by antiquaries all over England. But Mr. Hardwick 

 is no mere local chronicler — he is well read in all 

 the literature of comparative mythology and an- 

 thropology, and he has a keen eye for detecting 

 traditions and local myths which have been separated 

 from the great stream. In consequence, we have a 

 most attractive and delightfully fresh book, in which 

 the author's crisp and natural style is not the least of 

 its claims to public attention. 



Diseases of Memory, by M. Ribot (London : Kegan 

 Paul & Co.). This is one of the latest published 

 volumes of the invaluable "International Scientific 

 Series." The author discusses a subject he has made 

 his own by years of study, and we have in the 

 present volume a psychological monograph upon the 

 diseases of memory. The chief subjects discussed 

 are memory considered as a biological fact, general 

 amnesia, \ partial amnesia, exaltations of memory, 



&c. The student will find in this volume (as in all 

 others of the series) a very helpful book. 



Water and its Teaching, by C. Lloyd Morgan 

 (London : Edward Stanford). Here is a nicely got 

 up and most suggestive little handbook, in which all 

 that relates to water and its work, chemical, physical, 

 geological, and geographical, is tersely arranged 

 under properly classified heads. We have already 

 found it very handy as a reference to the subjects it 

 professes to deal with, and we are pleased to find so 

 useful a little book contributed to English Science 

 from South Africa, where the author resides. 



Footprints, by Sarah Tytler (London : T. Fisher 

 Unwin). Those who are acquainted with this 

 author's style will readily understand that a book by 

 her on Nature, as seen from the human side, must 

 be peculiarly attractive. Such is the present ; natural 

 history objects form the texts from which charming 

 sermons are preached, and about which pleasant 

 anecdotes cluster. It will make a very welcome 

 gift-book to young people. 



A Picture Book of Country Life, by James Western 

 (London : T. Fisher Unwin). Indirectly this work 

 proves how rapidly, natural science is progressing, 

 for it is a book competing as a seasonal volume with 

 ordinary Christmas books. It is beautifully got up, 

 with large type of print, and abundance of wood-cuts, 

 and from the way in which a young lady of the adult 

 age of eight years has been absorbed in it (and we 

 made her its critic) we safely prophesy the book will 

 be generally successful. Boys will be particularly 

 pleased with the fishing, boating, tricycling, and 

 rambling parts of it, and the author will succeed 

 in interesting them in natural history objects before 

 they are aware of it. 



THE DANISH FOREST. 



By John Wager. 



No. I. — The Prehistoric Forest. 



THE Danes, like most other good people, have 

 an affection for their country ; and the affection 

 is well deserved, even though we Englanders may 

 dispute with them the right to consider their country 

 the most beautiful in the world. Nevertheless, after 

 having, as in duty bound, claimed precedence for 

 our own, we will readily admit that we scarcely know 

 where else to find such a concentration of sweet and 

 gentle scenes — so rich and varied a commingling and 

 interchange of wood and water, snug thatched 

 cottages, and quaint tree-embosomed homesteads — 

 as may be seen to nestle among the Danish Isles. 

 Denmark is entirely wanting in the grandeur which 

 characterises the scenery of the other two chief divi- 

 sions of Scandinavia, that of Norway especially ; but 

 it has a compensating beauty of a character which, 

 with peculiarities of its own, often forcibly suggests 



