Bibliographical Notices. 411 



prise we owe the present improved edition, for the truly scientific 

 spirit in which they have performed their task. If it were a ques- 

 tion of utility alone, this Atlas should be in the hands of all who 

 profess to teach geography. 



The execution of the work is quite worthy of the subject. In the 

 five Parts now before us, forming half the work, we have fifteen beau- 

 tiful coloured maps, many of them containing a number of details 

 on an enlarged scale, the size being imperial folio. Each Part con- 

 tains three maps with descriptive text. The work is divided into 

 the two general heads, Inorganic and Organic nature ; the former 

 including, — 1. Meteorology and Magnetism; 2. Hydrology, and 

 3. Geology ; the latter, Phytology and Zoology ; but the maps are 

 not published in any regular order. 



Part the first contains, — 1. a Physical Chart of the Atlantic Ocean, 

 2. a map of the Mountain Systems of Europe, and 3. a map of 

 the Distribution of Plants in a horizontal and perpendicular direction. 

 The last is based chiefly upon Humboldt's statistics, and exhibits 

 also Schouw's twenty-five phyto-geographic regions, or tracts over 

 which certain families of plants predominate ; this is a very interest- 

 ing map, and is made the more valuable by a quantity of statistical 

 information ; while the description contains a clear summary of the 

 principal facts of the geography of plants recorded by various bota- 

 nical travellers. 



Part the second commences with a map of a similar character, ex- 

 hibiting the range of some of the mammiferous families, namely, 

 1. Quadrumana; 2. Marsupialia; 3. Edentata, and 4. Pachydermata. 

 The editors express the difficulties they have met with in this divi- 

 sion of the subject, and account for what may perhaps appear to na- 

 turalists to be a meagreness of its details, by reminding us of the 

 large number of maps which a complete view of the distribution of 

 animals would require. We think they have done wisely in resol- 

 ving to give a moderate amount of information clearly rather than to 

 crowd the map with a greater abundance of minor facts, which 

 would have involved at least the appearance of confusion, without 

 any compensating advantage ; for this map is amply sufficient for the 

 general student, and it is obviously beyond the plan of this work to 

 furnish all the facts which would be required by a naturalist pursuing 

 a special inquiry. 



Next comes a Hyetographic map of the world, exhibiting the sta- 

 tistics of the amount and periods of the fall of rain over the globe. 

 The relative quantities of rain are indicated by depth of shading, 

 while coloured lines mark the limits of the zones within which preci- 

 pitation is periodical or constant. It is accompanied by tables of the 

 annual amount of rain over the globe as ascertained at a great 

 number of points in the old and new world, both in the tropics and 

 the temperate zones. 



The River systems of Europe and Asia, displays the boundaries 

 and comparative extent of the river basins and the seas to which 

 they contribute their waters ; with hydrographic tables, &c. 



Part the third presents us with, — 1. a map of Glaciers and glacial 



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