1893. 



SOME NEW BOOKS. 



221 



and Papers " from Paradise Lost, where the great leviathan is 

 mentioned as being the special dread of the Norwegians (the coast 

 of Norway being the favourite haunt of the monster according to the 

 most reliable eye-witnesses). But why is Coleridge left out ? 



" Beyond the shadow of the ship, 

 I watched the water snakes. 

 They moved in tracks of shining white, 

 And when they reared the elfish hght 

 Fell off in hoary flakes." 



Later on, we come upon another picture of a sailor being cut off 

 in his prime by the wily monster, and we pass on with considerable 

 rehef to Dr. Oudemans' "Conclusions," where, under the headings of 

 " Harmlessness, Timidity, and Playfulness," we learn that the great 

 sea-serpent is, after all, a mild creature, a conviction probably deduced 

 from the fact that, if the great sea snake has ever shown his animosity 

 to the unwary invaders of his haunts, no victim has, so far, survived 

 to tell the tale. 



It is sad, however, to find that Dr. Oudemans' great sea-serpent 

 is, after all, only a monster sea-lion, and we don't know of his having 

 done anything to justify Dr. Oudemans' calling him Megophias 

 megophias (Raf.), Oud. 



L. B. P. 



Handbuch der PAL.EONTOLOGIE. — Palaeozoologic, vol. iv., pt. i. Edited by K. A. 

 Zittel. 8vo. Pp. 304. Illustrated. Munich and Leipsic : R. Oldenbourg, 1892. 



We are glad to congratulate Professor Von Zittel on the untiring 

 energy which has enabled him to get well into the Mammals in the 

 present fasciculus of this magnificent and invaluable work. It need 

 hardly be mentioned that the whole of the Vertebrate portion of the 

 work has been written by the Editor himself; and the present 

 fasciculus is fully equal to its predecessors in the care and attention 



'-^-P^^^. 



Fig. I. — Palatal view of the skull of Mylodon. 



which has been bestowed upon it, and in the excellence of the illus- 

 trations. Three of the latter we are enabled to reproduce as samples. 

 We are especially glad to notice that the author has devoted par- 

 ticular attention to the recent important discoveries which have been 

 made among the fossil mammals of South America, and that a host 

 of new forms have been assigned to their proper serial positions. 

 This is the more creditable to the author, seeing that owing to unfor- 

 tunate circumstances the vertebrate palaeontology of that country 



