31 
be sure that the elephant and lion when really extinct will not 
reappear even if all Africa be left a desert, nor, I think, any really 
extinct vertebrates, even fish or reptiles. 
What, then, should be done on the question of restocking ? 
Is it advisable to select places apparently suitable, especially 
places where species have been killed off, and judiciously leave 
individuals to establish themselves and multiply? I think it is 
advisable ; though the facts I have given show we must not be too 
hopeful. The problem is not the same as that of introducing 
species into a new country, which has had such grevious results in 
Australia and elsewhere. The task should be undertaken in a 
scientific spirit and with practical management, whether by 
societies or by individual naturalists. Exact records should be 
kept and observations noted, for guidance in the future. Nature 
is immeasurably stronger than our schemes can be to produce : 
we are strong only to destroy. If Nature helps our restocking it 
will be successful, otherwise a failure ; and the lower forms of life 
multiply so prodigiously that the least encouragement from Nature 
makes them swarm in countless multitudes. You are all familiar 
with the Darwinian arguments on this subject. The one hundred 
eggs which a butterfly lays are not numerous in comparison with 
the eggs of a codfish or a herring ; yet if they multiplied without 
check there would in a few years be no food to supply the cater- 
pillars. Restocking should therefore be tried, but not with 
overmuch confidence, as the result depends on a stronger power 
than our own. 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6TH, 1907. 
Antochrame Plates, 
BY 
pew. A. POWELL, M.R.CS., L.RB.C.B. 
Illustrated with Lantern Slides. 

OSSIBLY a few notes on the latest process in Colour Photo- 
graphy might be interesting to you, as with this new photo- 
graphic plate known as the autochrome plate, one is able to 
record almost all objects as they appear in nature and in their 
natural colours. As far back as 1869 M. Louis Ducos du Hauron 
originated a method of colour photography by means of a screen 
