SOME NEW BOOKS. 



THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



In the Australian Bush and on the Coast of the Coral Sea, being the Ex- 

 periences and Observations of a Naturalist in Australia, New Guinea, 

 and the Moluccas. By Dr. Richard Semon. Roy. 8vo, pp. xvi. + 

 552, with 86 figures and 4 maps. London : Macmillan and Co., 1899. 

 Price 21s. net. 



It is right that this book, which was first published in Germany some three 

 years ago (see our previous review of the original edition), should have been 

 translated into English. It is professedly an account of an expedition destined 

 to bring some phylogenetic problems nearer their solution ; and as such it would 

 be welcome to many English readers who are interested in the " living fossils " 

 of the island continent. But it speaks to a wider class than those who trouble 

 themselves with cpiestions of affinities between the various groups of animals : 

 every one Avith even a trace of the feelings of a naturalist and every one who 

 concerns himself with the character and doings of primitive man is appealed to. 

 Semon does not attempt to give details of the scientific results of his expedition, 

 for these are appearing in his "Zoologische Forschungsreisen," but he gives a 

 fascinating account of his observations of the habits of the animals that attracted 

 him to the southern hemisphere, and he adds a lively sketch of the life and 

 character both of the squatter and the " blackfellow." 



The present writer has only recently returned from the region of Australia 

 that is most fully described by Semon, and can heartily testify to the truthful- 

 ness of the book. Semon has succeeded in transferring to his pages much of 

 the spirit of the bush ; he gives no exaggerated account of life in the wilds, but, 

 speaking with full appreciation of his facts, tells simply and happily the story 

 of his adventures. 



Much of the interest of such a work might have been lost in a translation, 

 but such is not the case here ; and the English edition is thoroughly readable. 

 There are, it is true, a few obvious errors in the rendering, and a number of 

 words and phrases with a distinctly foreign colouring ; yet on the whole the 

 version is most satisfactory. 



The translation, as well as the method of the author, may lie illustrated by 

 the account that is given of the Australian opossum (Trichosurus). Semon 

 figures this animal, and tells us about its skill in climbing and its nocturnal 

 wanderings in search of insects, eggs, young birds, eucalyptus buds, and sour 

 grapes. He describes the kind of trap with which he secured many specimens, 

 and in connection with the observation that few of his victims had young in 

 their uteri, he digresses to explain the bushman's belief that the young of 

 marsupials are conceived on the teat. But when he comes to describe his 

 experiences in shooting 'possums, he is even more discursive. Others in like 

 position have felt the weird influence of the moon's rays shilling through the 



33* 



