6/8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Author." There is a chapter on " Durchsichtigmachen," which is now so 

 popular among anatomists and embryologists. The volume will be useful 

 for the following persons — zoologists interested in museum preparations, 

 anatomists, and embryologists who work especially on vertebrate material, 

 and for laboratory technicians who can read German. 



J. Bronte Gatenby. 



The Wonderland of the Eastern Congo. By T. Alexander Barns, F.R.G.S., 

 F.Z.S. [Pp. XXXV + 288, with a map and 108 Illustrations from 

 photographs by the author.] (London : and New York G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons. Price 31s. td. net.) 



The Wonderland of the Eastern Congo is a delightful book. The author is 

 not only a mighty hunter but a sound field-naturalist and a keen explorer, 

 who tells his tale with a sincerity and modesty which in these days of self- 

 advertisement is quite charming. The book has something for everyone 

 interested in Africa, be they administrators, travellers, prospectors, sportsmen, 

 or naturalists. To our greatest living African administrator and scholar. 

 Sir Harry Johnston, who has honoured this book with a learned introduction, 

 chapter xiv must bring back many happy memories of the past and tell 

 what giant strides these regions of the Eastern Congo have made during 

 the last two decades since he himself first helped to open them up. 



The author gives the Belgians every credit for the part they are playing 

 in the opening up and development of the natural resources of their vast 

 dependency, which surely must in the near future become the richest colony 

 in the African Continent. Mr. Barns gives us a very good account of the 

 mineral resources of the regions he passed through. Katanga, with its 

 untold wealth of copper, tin, gold, cobalt, uranium, and platinum, is daily 

 drawing Europeans in ever-increasing numbers to the very heart of Africa. 



To the general reader the chapters on the Virunga Volcanoes and the 

 Gorilla-hunting will probably appeal the most, but the whole of this de- 

 lightful book is interesting. 



Mr. Barns's picturesque style is at its best when he takes us into the 

 haunts of the okapi and introduces us to the pygmies in the Semliki forest. 

 The author was fortunate in obtaining such a fine specimen of the Kivu 

 Gorilla, but, expert hunter though he is, the elusive okapi, that rarest and 

 quaintest of African mammals, was to evade him as it has evaded all other 

 European sportsmen. 



That the dense forests of Congoland still hold a fauna only the fringe 

 of which has been touched there can be little doubt, and reports true and 

 untrue will continue to be brought to travellers and sportsmen of wonderful 

 beasts to be found in the forest, rivers, and swamps of this wonderful 

 country. 



The chapter on elephants will interest all sportsmen. The author is 

 probably correct in his suggestion that the blackness of the ivory of the 

 forest elephant is due to the juices of some favourite food of theirs. This 

 juice mixing with the saliva probably acts on the growing ivory, rendering 

 it black. The black colour of the dung of these elephants confirms this view. 



Those who have hunted the wild beasts and followed the native tracks 

 of unknown tropical Africa and who in all human probability wiU never 

 go on " safari " again, this book will fill with delight. Would that more 

 of the books on sport and travel that yearly attempt to describe Africa 

 could come up to the standard of this charming and handsome volume. 

 We congratulate the author and his courageous wife who shared with him 

 the delights and dangers of a wonderful journey. 



R. E. Drake-Brockman. 



