90 REVIEWS. 



Tenby : a Sea-side Holiday : 8vo. With coloured Plates. 1856. 

 London : J. Van Voorst. Price, 21s. 



Manual of Marine Zoology for the British Isles. Fscap. 8vo. Part 

 II. 1856. Price, 7s. 6d. With numerous Woodcuts. London: J. 

 V. Voorst. 



Life in its Lower, Intermediate, and Higher Forms. With Plates and 

 Woodcuts. 8vo. 1857. Price, 7s. 6d. London : James Nesbit and 

 Co. All by Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S., &c, &c. 



The first volume in the above list contains a detailed record of a summer 

 holiday spent in the lovely watering-place of Tenby, situated at the entrance 

 of Carmarthen Bay, South Wales. The information given is necessarily of 

 a varied character, and we find ourselves at one moment invading 

 Penally Bog in company with the fair botanists of Gumfreston, picking 

 our steps between masses of the panicled sedge and beside tufts of the 

 Osmund Royal. Next we enter upon a chapter that discusses a subject 

 not more interesting, perhaps, than a botanical excursion with ladies, but 

 still deeply fascinating as being one of those realms of cloud land that stud 

 the horizon of the Naturalist — we refer to the chapter on the Pedicellariae. 

 Here, amid the opinions of Sharpey, of Forbes, Agassiz, Valentin, Sars, 

 and many others, we fairly fear to form an opinion of our own ; or if we 

 do, we but throw a little more mist around the subject. 



Such, too, is the chapter that treats about Sagitta bipunctata. Will a 

 master-mind ever arise that can grapple with all the difficulties of natural 

 science ? or must these gordian knots be untied by the slow, persevering 

 work of ages. 



A striking feature in "Tenby" is the account of various microscopic 

 objects. We have a whole chapter on the Rotifera, another on dipping 

 for animalcules in Knightson Pond, and several devoted to the examination 

 of the various animals whose united brilliancies anon cause the very sea to 

 flash and sparkle like a lightning-lit sky. 



While there is abundance of information in this volume to make it a 

 most desirable acquisition to the library of every lover of nature — some of 

 the chapters bearing evidence of the most painstaking research, others 

 adding a great deal to our knowledge of the metamorphosis of marine 

 animals — yet to the visitor to Tenby, or a naturalist living within or near 

 this wall-girt town, it must present most peculiar charms. Hardly a cave 

 or a fountain, not a pleasant walk or delightful old ruin, but is photo- 

 graphed in this volume ; pleasant memories revived within as we read the 

 pages ; there, as we looked towards the Bristol Channel, lay the mighty 



