Bibliographical Notices. 279 



ment of the punctiform ornamentation of the derm ; magn. 



500 diams. 

 Fig. 6. The process of self-division, just half an hour before separation ; 



ventral view ; magn. 200 diams. 

 Fig. 7- Profile of i. fig. 6, just at the moment of separation ; magn. 



200 diams. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Travels and Researches in Crete. By Captain T. A. B.Spratt, R.N. , 

 C.B., F.R.S. &c. In two vols. 8vo. London: Van Voorst, 

 1865. 



In carrying out the Mediterranean Survey, the Island of Crete 

 came under examination by Capt. Spratt, whose acquaintance with 

 the recpiirements of his own profession, with the ancient and mo- 

 dern history of the Greeks, their early works of art, coins, monu- 

 ments, and buildings, with the natural history of land and sea in 

 the Mediterranean area, and with the geological structure of every 

 mountain, coast, and islet he visited, render him peculiarly capable 

 of doing justice to so interesting a region as Crete. The form and 

 character of that island, from mountain to plain, the sites of its cities, 

 its ravines, caves, and water-courses, are so visibly explicable by 

 their rocky structure, that to shut one's eyes to their geological is 

 to misinterpret their topographical relations. Its highlands and 

 valleys, as well as the coast and the deep sea, are strikingly remarkable 

 in their natural products. Its old forgotten cities rise up to intelli- 

 gent research, and the ancient ruins take definite form and their true 

 place in history, when learning and sagacity unravel the half-true 

 legends of the place. In Crete are found statuary and coins of the 

 finest style, and of a school dating from an earlier time than Athenian 

 art could boast of ; for it was the cradle of Greek learning and much 

 of Greek mythology. Lastly, there still exist genuine Cretan Greeks, 

 whose ancestors (under the Roman sway) heard Paul preach at Fair 

 Havens, — under the Byzantines, Saracens, Franks, and Venetians, 

 played their mediaeval part in quarrels, bigotry, and trade, and, well 

 versed in war, withstood the Turk for more than twenty years, — 

 and under the Turk have suffered all that brings out the debasing 

 vices and exceptional virtues of a conquered race. 



Following Capt. Spratt in his account of Crete (the eastern part 

 of which he more particularly treats of, as having been left unde- 

 sctibed by Pashley), we find the natural features of the country, the 

 remnants of Greek buildings and works of art, media;val relics, the 

 peculiarities of the present population — the old highland Sfakiote 

 breed, hardy, unscrupulous, and cruel, and the lowland Candiotes of 

 mixed origin — all carefully noted and elucidated by a scientific 

 acquaintance with nature and by a knowledge of classic literature 

 and history ; whilst an eye for beauty in nature and art — enthusiasm 

 in working out the traces of long-past civilization, the early source, 

 in great part, of our present culture — a warm sympathy with all 



