1893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 243 



The Great Barrier Reef of Australia. 

 In our issue for November, we called attention to the work of 

 Mr. Saville Kent on the Great Barrier Reef, and were enabled, 

 through the courtesy of Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., to give a speci- 

 men plate from his remarkably interesting book. We have now 

 received from the publishers a set of twelve beautiful enlargements 

 in permanent photography that have been prepared for the use of 

 Museums and Natural History Societies. These pictures, which 

 measure 15 ins, by 11 ins., show, in a striking manner, the appearance 

 of a coral reef at low water, and, in many instances, even the generic 

 relation of the coral masses can be determined. From a geological 

 or zoological point of view, these photographs will be invaluable. 

 They are published, ready mounted for framing, at half-a-guinea 

 each, or four guineas for the twelve. 



Dredging ox Rocky Ground. 



So much has been written about our knowledge of the deep-sea 

 and its inhabitants, that it is scarcely realised how little we do know. 

 We let down a dredge or trawl at haphazard into the dark, and scrape 

 off certain of the creatures that are to be found on the surface of the 

 muddy bottom ; but of those that bore deeply we have no knowledge. 

 On rocky or stony ground we have not even these small opportunities 

 for learning what creatures live there, except the few that may be 

 brought up by the hempen tangles ; yet in all probability it is on the 

 irregular rocky bottom, rather than on the monotonous mud flats, 

 that life is the most varied. 



If we want to obtain some measure of the extent of our ignorance, 

 we must put ourselves in the place of the inhabitants of the deep-sea. 

 Let us imagine some dwellers in upper air to be anxious to learn 

 what sort of creatures are to be found in its lower strata, or crawl 

 about on the earth's surface, beneath the mantle of cloud and fog. 

 An exploring balloon is sent out, with instructions to dredge carefully. 

 The first haul is made in the dark on rocky ground — say among the 

 houses of London. What would be the result ? The dredge would 

 leap from roof to roof, missing the varied life of the streets below. 

 It would bring up some slime out of the gutters, a tangled mass of 

 telegraph wires, some weather-cocks and ventilators, broken chimney 

 pots, a stray cat or two, and perhaps a casual burglar with his lumi- 

 nous apparatus. 



The scientific men of upper air, asked to report on the haul, 

 would remark on the wonderful advance that had been made in the 

 knowledge of the deeper air, and of the customs of its inhabitants. 

 They would reconstruct in imagination the world below, and would 

 probably suggest that telegraph wires and chimney-pots are the 

 snares and traps used by burglars for the capture of cats. 



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