64 Bibliographical Notices. 



learnt to love the ocean as the Swiss mountaineer loves his native 

 Alps, or the Highlander the heath-covered hills of Caledonia." 

 Under these circumstances he would seem to be the right man to 

 undertake the task of describing the sea and its living wonders, — 

 always provided that his scientific knowledge and literary powers 

 be equal to his fondness for his subject. In these respects we have 

 little to complain of. As Dr. Hartwig's plan was to furnish his 

 readers with an account of the physical geography of the sea, and of 

 its principal inhabitants, together with what seems to us a somewhat 

 imnecessary history of maritime discovery, within the compass of an 

 octavo volume of some four hundred pages, it will be easily under- 

 stood that he can at best pass but superficially over so vast a range 

 of subjects : we look for nothing original in such a work ; and if the 

 author be careful in the collection of his facts, and show sound 

 judgment in their selection, we have every reason to be satisfied. In 

 these respects the reader of Dr. Hartwig's book will have no cause 

 for complaint. Our author has evidently got together his materials 

 with a vast amount of labour and study ; and, with the exception of 

 a few minor errors, to which we may have occasion to advert, the 

 compilation of the book has been most creditably executed. 



With regard to the literary performance of the work, we must also 

 speak in terms of high commendation. Looking at it as a translation 

 by a German author from a German original, the language employed 

 is wonderfully good. It is only here and there that we meet with 

 slight traces of German modes of expression, or literal translations 

 of German terms which may perhaps be puzzling to the young na- 

 turalist. An example of this, which leads the author into a confu- 

 sion of terms, is to be found at pp. 2U3 and 204, where he translates 

 the German word " Fiihler " by its English equivalent, "feelers," 

 applying it in the first place to the antennae, of Insects and Crustacea, 

 and in the second to the claw-like falpi of the Scorpion. At p. 23.5 

 we also meet with a term which will seem curious to English readers 

 — " Snail-house," a translation of " Schneckenhaus," applied to the 

 spiral shells of the Gasteropoda. And there are numerous examples 

 of the same sort of thing, which might easily have been got rid of by 

 the employment of an English editor to look through the proof- 

 sheets. These, however, are minor defects, and detract but little 

 from the exceedingly pleasing style in which the author has commu- 

 nicated his information — a style which will render his book a most 

 agreeable companion to the general reader, and especially a source of 

 great pleasure and improvement to the young. 



Dr. Hartwig divides his book into three parts, of which the first 

 treats of the physical geography of the sea, the second of its inha- 

 bitants, and the third of the progress of maritime discovery. 



In the first chapter our author dwells upon the magnitude of the 

 sea ; but notwithstanding the warm and somewhat poetical feelings 

 which he attributes to himself in his preface, as above quoted, this 

 portion does not strike us as particularly happy. In succeeding 

 chapters he explains the mode of formation and propagation of 

 waves, the origin and course of the tides and currents of the ocean, 



