pical fishes published by the Godeffroy Mu- 

 seum. 



Mr. Kout has, nevertheless, douo more for 

 those who have never had the good fortune to 

 visit a reef than all the descriptions of former 

 writers. He is not only an excellent naturalist, 

 but also a most skilful photographer. The 

 forty-eight photo- mezzo type plates give us pic- 

 tures of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia of 

 the greatest beauty. It is difficult to imagine 

 that any illustrations could convey to one who 

 has not seen a coral reef so admirable an idea 

 of its structure and appearance. The greater 

 number of the reefs which have been described 

 are found in districts where the tide has but lit- 

 tle rise and fall, so that naturalists have usual- 

 ly limited their accounts of a growing reef to 

 what could be seen through a water-glass, and 

 from a boat floating over the submerged reef. 

 Mr. Kent worked in a region where the tide 

 has, in some cases, a range of eighteen feet, 

 and was thus able to photograph extensive 

 tracts or detailed portions left bare at very 

 low tides. In some cases his camera has even 

 repro<luced patches of corals below the sur- 

 face, so that it becomes an easy matter to 

 imagine these vast fields of corals as they 

 would appear when covered by the rising 

 tide. The great rise and fall of the tides, 

 subjecting parts of the reef to extreme at- 

 mospheric influences, naturally explains the 

 existence of extensive tracts of dead corals 

 between the living banks and high-water 

 mark. 



As Fish Commissioner, our author naturally 

 devotes a good part of his volume to the practi- 

 cal side of bis subject. He has interesting 

 chapters on the pearl and the oyster-flsheries, 

 and deals also in a very interesting manner 

 with the holothurian fishery, which is the most 

 important of the Queensland marine industries, 

 yielding about .£23,000 a year. The beche-de- 

 mer are collected by hand at low water and 

 are prepared entirely for the Chinese market. 

 As theii' food consists mainly of foraminiferal 

 sand, they can hardly be called succulent. As 

 soon as collected the hdothurians are boiled 

 for a short time, split open, gutted and smoked, 

 and are shipped when dry and crisp. To a 

 Eiu'opean they are not attractive, looking like 

 ■J so many charred sausages; as eaten in Japan, 



properly seasoned. ; 



While we owe to Mr. Kent so valuable ai f 

 account of the appearance of the Great Bar 

 rier Reef, he has added comparatively little t< 

 the description given by Jukes, between 184; 

 and 1846, so far as it relates to the genera 

 theory of the formation of coral reefs. Thi 

 discussion by Mr. Kent of the coral-reef theor 

 is limited to a reproduction of its essentid 

 points as given by Darwin, to a short stat' 

 ment of its acceptance by Dana, and furtht 

 to the practical adoption of Bouney's objec 

 tions to the attacks on the Darwinian ree 

 theory by Murray and others. Even grantin 

 that subsidence has been in many districts tb 

 principal factor in the formation of coral reef 

 it by no means follows that subsidence is tl 

 only explanation for the formation of cor 

 reefs in an equal number of other district 

 Many of those who oppose the Dai'winif 

 theory merely state that it is not sufficient 

 explain the simultaneous existence of fringiL-, 

 reefs, of barrier reefs, and of atolls in cer 

 tain areas, and they look for simpler natural 

 causes to explain their growth. It is no an- 

 swer to their arguments to call the atolls 

 those recions psei»(l(>ati2JiSv2E,i2.e5£i] 



altogether, as is frequently done, from the dis- 

 cussion. 



The bases for the growth of corals may as 

 well have been formed by elevation as by sub- 

 sidence; there is no great-er improbability in the 

 one than in the other theory. In fact, many of 

 the observations made by Mr. Kent fully sup- 

 port the objections to the theory of subsidence 

 as explaining the formation of all coral reefs; 

 and were he more familiar with the recent lite- 

 rature on the subject, he would have learned 

 that the coral-reef theory is not quite as simple 

 as he gives his readers to understand. It is be- 

 coming more and more apparent that nothing 

 short of a renewed study of the elevated reefs 

 of some favorable locaUty, coupled with borings 

 carried to great depths through an atoll in a re- 

 gion of subsidence as well as through the outer 

 edge of a barrier reef, will once for all settle 

 questions which are now answered by more oi 

 less lucky guesses. 



Mr. Kent looks for the conditions of subsi- 

 dence which have made the formation of the 

 Great Barrier Reef possible in the former un- 

 doubted connection of Australia with Tasma- 

 nia and New Guinea; and if that is not satis- 

 factory, he is quite ready to call upon a still 

 greater subsidence of the Australian Conti- 

 nent as shown by its presumed connection with 

 New Zealand. If, as is probable, and as Mr. 

 Kent suggests, the Great Barrier Reef existed 

 as a narrow fringing reef in the late Ter- 

 tiary, there has elapsed more than ample 

 time also for its transformation into the 

 Great Barrier Reef of to-day from other 

 causes than those called upon by him. The 

 Great Barrier Reef has entirely obliterated the 

 Australian coast-shelf itself, and it may have 

 found upon that all the conditions of depth ne^ 

 cessary for the vigorous growth, both vertical- 

 ly and latei'ally, of the original insignificant 

 fringing reef of the northeastern coast of Aus- 

 tralia. 



The Government of Queensland is to be con- 

 gratulated upon having placed so competent a 

 naturalist as Mr. Kent in charge of the ex- 

 ploration of the Great Barrier Reef, and also 

 upon having published so valuable a contribu- 

 tion to marine zo<)logy. Nothing would do 

 more for the practical objects which the Gov- 

 ernment has in view than the establishment in 

 Torres Strait of the Biological Station suggests 

 ed by Mr. Kent. The problems which the 

 fisherman wishes to have solved can be attack- 

 ed by naturalists only when working con- 

 tinuously at a spot so admii'ably located for all 

 marine investigations as Thursday Island, and 

 within easy reach of the rich fauna of the 

 Great Barrier Reef. 



We may state for the benefit of instructors 

 and others that twelve of the characteristic 

 reef views have been enlarged for use as illus- 

 trations, and are to be obtained separately 

 from the publishers. Lantern slides of any of 

 the photographs can also be purchased. 



