Bibliographical Notices. 65 



the influence of winds, and the meteorological points connected with 

 the ocean. Although of course these chapters contain nothing new, 

 and only give a slight sketch of the multifarious and important phe- 

 nomena of the physical geography of the sea, they are agreeably and 

 clearly written, and will give the unlearned reader an excellent notion 

 of the subjects treated of. 



The chapters on the inhabitants of the sea commence with the 

 gigantic and highly organized Cetaceans, of which and of their mode 

 of capture we find a good account. In the second chapter of this 

 part the author seems to have fallen into a singular error in stating 

 that the Dugongs " form the connecting link between the real Whales 

 and the Seals and Walruses." If not true Cetacea, these curious 

 animals are intermediate between the Cetacea and Pachydermata ; 

 but they certainly have nothing whatever to do with the Seals. 

 From these mammals the work follows a descending scale through 

 the different groups of the animal kingdom, treating briefly of a few 

 of the most remarkable members of each class, but devoting far more 

 space to the higher than to the lower forms. Indeed, although we 

 are far from looking for much philosophical zoology in a work of this 

 class, the author does not appear to us to have judged rightly in 

 omitting or passing very lightly over many things which in the hands 

 of some English writers have made up the romance of marine zoo- 

 logy. The metamorphoses of the higher Crustacea are, indeed, 

 briefly described ; but the parasitic Crustaceans are scarcely men- 

 tioned, and their transformations, with the still more wonderful his- 

 tory of the Cirripedes, are passed in silence. The remarkable de- 

 velopment of the Echinoderms is not so much as alluded to, except 

 as regards Comatida ; and the mode of reproduction of the Medusce, 

 the discovery of which led directly to the establishment of the law 

 of the Alternation of Generations by Steenstrnp, is referred to (at 

 p. 278) in a style which makes one feel that it had been better let 

 alone altogether. Our author, indeed, does not appear to have any 

 comprehension of the importance in modern zoology of the pheno- 

 mena to which the name of "alternation of generations" has been 

 given ; nor, if we may judge from his only references to them (at 

 pp. 256, 278), can he understand their nature very clearly : and it 

 will easily be understood that those chapters of his book which have 

 reference to the lower Invertebrata would have been all the better 

 had his knowledge been a little further extended in this direction. 

 Our author places the Diatomaceae amongst microscopic animals, 

 and describes the Sponges as members of the vegetable kingdom in 

 his chapter on sea-weeds : ' but in respect of this chapter we have a 

 heavier charge to make against him ; for he has revived the long- 

 exploded notion that the edible birds'-nests of Java are composed of 

 sea-weeds collected on the shore and macerated in the stomach of the 

 Swift, and actually devotes about three pages of his book to the 

 full development of this subject, which has no business in his pages 

 at all. 



The concluding chapters of the second part are devoted to the 

 geographical distribution of marine life, the phosphorescence of the 

 Ann. S^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. vii. 5 



