490 Reviews. [ Oct., 
able portion of this so-called decomposed rock is the equivalent of 
the Northern Drift, presenting, however, in its wider extension and 
in the immensity of the accompanying denudation, features which 
are different from those with which we are so familiar. In short, 
Professor Agassiz refers the most recent deposits of the valley of 
the Amazons and its most recent denudation, resulting in the 
formation of hills of denudation nearly 1000 feet high, to the 
action of an immense glacier which poured down the valley from 
the accumulations of snow in the Cordilleras, flowed in an easterly 
direction, became swollen laterally in its progress by the tributary 
glaciers which descended from the table-lands of Guiana and Brazil, 
and built up an immense sea-wall as a terminal moraine, which 
protected its basin from the action of the sea! 
We have exhausted our space in describing two of the marvels 
we meet with in this book; but neither the book nor its marvels 
are exhausted by us. To the intelligent reader we commend a 
careful perusal of this diary, as containing many new observations 
and much interesting information on the Empire of Brazil, from 
scientific, political, and social points of view. The naturalist and 
the geologist we have already placed on the scent; and the ethno- 
logist will find much food for reflection, and possibly matter for 
dispute, in Professor Agassiz’s conclusions on the characters of the 
mixed races of men, which are met with in such numerous and 
diverse aspects throughout the continent of South America. 
RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST ON THE SHORES AND 
WATERS OF THE CHINA SEA.* 
A Book written by an Oxford M.A., M.B., Naturalist, F.LS., &c., 
describing rambles, in the prosecution of which he was “ actuated 
solely by a desire of increasing his own information, and the hope 
of, in some measure, advancing science,” { naturally raises great 
expectations. Its perusal, in our own instance, was attended by a 
large amount of gratification, not, however, unmingled with dis- 
appointment. 
The author in his preface explains that he has incorporated 
into his work two papers, on the “ Pratas Island” and on ‘The 
Luminosity of the Sea,” taken by permission from this Journal ; 
and other papers from the Proceedings of the Linnzan, Geological, 
Ethnological, and Royal Geographical Societies, and from the 
* ‘Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Sea: being 
Observations in Natural History during a Voyage to China, Formosa, Borneo, Singa- 
pore, &c., made in Her Majesty’s Vessels in 1866 and 1867.’ By Cuthbert Colling- 
wood, M.A., M.B., Oxon., F.L.S., &. John Mwray, London. 
+ Preface. 
