i895- SOME NEW BOOKS. 131 



home, are apparently almost as void of living creatures as the great 

 depths of the ocean were once supposed to be. The collections of gaudy 

 butterflies and brilliantly painted birds which we see in museums give 

 an idea of wealth and beauty in the manifestations of life which is 

 far from being the truth. " To the stranger," remarks Mr. Rodway, 

 " the forest appears almost deserted. Hardly the sign of an animal 

 is to be seen by any but a skilled huntsman, and by him only after a 

 most careful search." To the new-comer the forest suggests rather an 

 African desert than a home of abundant animal life. Even to the 

 dullest observer, however, the sandflies and ants are plainly sensible ; so 

 too is the moist and steamy atmosphere of this tract of the world, which 

 Mr. Sclater so aptly termed "Dendrogaea." Apart from these insects, 

 it is sounds rather than sights which obtrude themselves upon the 

 wanderer. "The red howling monkey, hidden in the foliage over- 

 head, keeps up his reverberating notes at intervals for hours, and 

 makes the stranger exclaim almost in a fright, ' Whatever can that 

 be ? ' Then come the tree-frogs which astonish us with their loud 

 whistling or booming, while the buzzing of the cicada or razor- 

 grinder is even more startling." 



To Mr. Rodway, however, the forest is all alive, and he gives a 

 most real picture of what he has seen in a fashion which has been 

 but little done for this part of the world, and never done precisely in 

 the author's way. Mr. Grant Allen calls him the "Jeffries of the 

 Tropics." He is not, however, troubled, like the late Richard 

 Jeffries, the " Son of the Marshes," and others of the present 

 numerous race of " scientifico-literary " writers, with the deeply 

 uninteresting yokel and gamekeeper, who taint the freshness of the 

 descriptions with dull remarks phonetically transliterated. 



F. E. B. 



Speleology. 



Les Abimes, les Eaux Souterraines, les Cavernes, les Sources, la 

 SpeL/£Ologie. Explorations souterraines effectuees de 1888 a 1893 en France, 

 Belgique, Autriche et Grece avec le concours de MM. G. Gaupillat, N. A. 

 Siderides, W. Putick, E. Rupin, Ph. Lalande, R. Pons, L. de Launay, 

 F. Mazauric, P. Arnal, J. Bourguet, etc. By E. A. Martel. 8vo (12^ by 9 

 inches). Pp. 580, 320 maps, sections, photogravures, and other illustrations, 

 Paris : Delagrave, 1894. Price 20 frs. 



This is an exceedingly interesting book and a valuable addition to our 

 knowledge of caverns and underground watercourses. The volume 

 opens with a chapter on cave-hunting, treating of methods of explora- 

 tion, classification of subterranean excavations, tools required in work- 

 ing, explosives, dangers to be encountered, photography, etc. The 

 author-editor then proceeds to describe in detail the caverns of the dis- 

 tricts of Vaucluse, Ardeche, Le Gard, L'Herault, Larzac, Bramabiau, 

 Causse Noir, Dourbie, Jonte, Causse Mejean, Florae and Rodez, 

 Tindoul de la Vayssiere, Causse de Villefranche, Causse de Gramat, 

 Badirac, Causse de Martel, Miremont, La Dordogne, Puy de Dome, 

 Dourgogne, the Seine basin, and others in France. Then follow 

 three chapters on the caverns of Belgium, Austria, and Greece, and 

 the work concludes with observations on caves in general, springs and 

 underground rivers, theories of the formation of such phenomena, and 

 general notes on objects found in caverns, and their bearings and 

 interests. 



The volume is profusely illustrated with valuable and interesting 

 pictures, mostly reproductions of photographs, some of which form 

 full-page plates done by heliogravure ; carefully executed ground- 



