1868. | Reviews. 493 
and umbrella-form—lay in wondrous confusion; and these painted 
with every shade of delicate and brilliant colouring—grass-green, 
deep blue, bright yellow, pure white, rich buff, and more sober 
brown—altogether forming a kaleidoscopic effect of form and colour 
unequalled by anything I had ever beheld. Here and there was a 
large clam shell (Chama) wedged in between masses of coral, the 
gaping, zigzag mouth covered with the projecting mantle of the 
deepest Prussian blue; beds of dark purple, long-spined Echini, 
and the thick black bodies of sea-cucumbers (Holothuriz) varied 
the aspect of the sea bottom. In and out of these coral groves, 
like gorgeous birds in a forest of trees, swarm the most beautifully- 
coloured and grotesque fishes, some of intense blue, others bright 
red, others yellow, black, salmon-coloured, and every other colour of 
the rainbow, curiously barred and banded and bearded, swarming 
everywhere in little shoals which usually included the same species, 
though every moment new species, more striking than the last, 
came into view.”* 
But it is now necessary to explain the disappointment spoken of 
in the commencement of our remarks. We are surprised at the 
following passage in the chapter on the “ Luminosity of the Sea:”— 
“ Phosphorescence is here a misnomer, and an even greater misuse 
of terms it is to speak of phosphorescent matter. There is no phos- 
phorus in the case, nor anything allied to it, except in the abstract 
meaning of the word.”{ ‘This is likely to mislead. The term phos- 
phorescence is constantly recognized by scientific men as applying 
to a large number of phenomena haying nothing to do with the 
substance called phosphorus. 
There is moreover a want of precision in the information sup- 
plied on some points of acknowledged interest in biology, treated of 
in the ‘ Rambles of a Naturalist.’ For example, the performances 
of the so-called flying animals, Galeopithecus, Pteromys, &c., have 
been often described by observers whose accounts have tended only 
to increase the desire for more trustworthy details. The habits of 
Galeopithecus, witnessed in Borneo, are mentioned in the ‘Rambles.’ 
The account is too long for insertion, but the animal is said to have 
come “streaming through the air from a distant clump of trees,’ } 
to have sailed from the top of one tree, and to have alighted on the 
lower third of the trunk of another tree, distant about 150 yards. 
Now the best authorities on the subject agree in representing the 
Galeopithecus as using its extended flank membranes only as a 
parachute ; and the anatomical structure of the creature makes this 
more than probable. Its progress therefore from tree to tree, is 
simply by a leap, the duration of which is increased by the para- 
chute action of the membranes; but by the laws of motion and 
7 altG: pelewode. ap Leo MALO) 
