42 



NATURE 



[March 9, 191 1 



inadequate descriptions of certain animal types. The 

 geolof»ical liistory of the vegetable khigdoin is dealt 

 with in about half a pag^e of text, but an entire page 

 is devoted to " Lamarckismus und Darwinisnius." 

 This being so, it seems a piece of reckless extrava- 

 gance to have devoted several pages of the section on 

 movement to organisms which do not move. The 

 appetite of the German public for small doses of ex- 

 tremely condensed elementary biology seems to be 

 insatiable. We should like to know to what extent 

 infonration conveyed in this way is capable of assimi- 

 lation. It seems as if a considerable amount of pre- 

 vious biological training would be necessary, even for 

 the intelligent reading of such a book as this. It 

 may perhaps be of some use in supplying new points 

 of view to those to whom the actual facts are already 

 more or less familiar. 



Heaton's Annual. The Commercial Handbook of 

 Canada and Boards of Trade Ref^ister, 191 1. 

 Edited by E. Heaton and J. B. Robinson. Pp. 540. 

 (Toronto: Heaton's Aj^fcncy ; London: Simpkin, 

 Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., Ltd.) Price 5s. 

 The information about Canada which a business-man 

 requires is here arranged in logical sequence. All 

 matter under the head of g^eneral information is 

 official, having been collected from the latest Blue 

 Books. The Boards of Trade Register contains de- 

 scriptions of towns, with notes of opportunities offer- 

 ing for manufacturers, investors, and individuals. 

 Altogether this is a useful work of reference. 



Flowers of the Field. By the late Rev. C. A. Johns. 



Thirty-third edition, entirely revised by G. S. 



Boulger. Pp. 611 + 64 coloured plates. (London: 



Society for Promotinj:;^ Christian Knowledge, 191 1.) 



Price 75, 6d. 

 Nothing need be said about the interest and useful- 

 ness of a book which has reached its thirty-third 

 edition. In its revised form this popular manual will 

 probably enter on a new lease of life, for it would be 

 difficult to find a more convenient volume for the 

 student of field botany. 



The British Isles: Geographical Diagrams and Land 

 Forms, with Questions, Statistics, and Tables. By 

 H. J. Snape. Pp. 64. (London : A. and C. Black, 

 191 1.) Price IS. 6d. 

 Most teachers expect to find in the text-book of geo- 

 g'raphy they place in the hands of their pupils maps, 

 pictures, and statistics of the kind Mr. Snape has 

 brought together here. In schools where it is diffi- 

 cult to use a magic-lantern, the pictures especially 

 should prove useful. The book is likely to save 

 teachers time and trouble. 



Familiar Wild Flowers. Figured and described by 

 F. Edward Hulme. Pp. xviii+184. (London: 

 Cassell and Co., Ltd., 19 10.) Price 3s. 6d. 

 This series of volumes — of which the present is the 

 ninth — with their striking coloured plates, are already 

 widely known and deservedly popular. It is easv 

 with the aid of these books to decide the species and 

 genus of common wild flowers, and to discover the 

 part thev may have taken in folk-lore and other litera- 

 ture. We understand this is the concluding volume 

 of the series. 



Junior Experimental Science. By W. M. Hooton. 



Pp. Iviii4-277. (London : W." B. Clive, 1910.) 



Price 25. 6d. 

 This is the second edition of a book which on its first 

 appearance was reviewed in Nature for May 16, 1907 

 (vol. xxvi., p. 51). There do not appear to be any 

 important changes in the volume. 



NO. 2158, VOL. 861 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Extinct Buffalo of Alg^eria as Drawn by Pre- 

 historic Man. 



One of my objects in making a tour recently into sonih- 

 western Algeria and the adjoining region of the Mon 

 Sahara was to see the engravings on the rock surf;i ■ . 

 which have lately attracted much attention amongst Frentii 

 men of science, especially those who are more or U's- 

 connected with the University of Algiers. Quite a nu:! 

 of the sites of these remarkable rock drawings (sut 

 Tiout and Zenaga) can be reached by the long rai! 

 which the State has constructed from Oran on the i' ;'i 

 to Figuig and the Wed Gir in the extreme soutli <j\ 

 Morocco. 



These pictures on the rocks have been mainly studie<! 

 and illustrated by M. Gautier (Mission Sahara : Le 



I 



Prehistoric drawings of Bos (J'ubalus) antiquus in South-western Algedai 



I, On rock-surface at Ennfous in the Aflou cistrict, east of G^ryviljti 



II. At Ksar al Ahmar, near Giryville. 



Sahara Alg^rien), and by M. G. B. Flamand, through the 

 Lyons Societ}' of .Anthropology. M. Flamand's great 

 work on the subject, however, is not yet completed foe 

 publication. 



The chief features of interest in these prehistoric dra^ 

 ings will certainly be to zoologists the huge buffalo with 

 enormous horns, which is perhaps the animal most fffr 

 quently illustrated. I have copied a number of these 

 either from the stones or the photographs of the stones, 

 which may be seen at the University of .\lgiers or in the 

 Algiers ArchaHilogical Museum, and give two of them 

 here. 



Of course, the great interest of these drawings is thai 

 they come as a valuable supplement to the pala?ontok)gica' 

 discoveries made in the Quaternary and late Tertiarj 

 deposits of -Algeria. The principal person connected with 

 the discovery and illustraticMi <A the vanished fauna ol 

 .Algeria was the late Prof. A. Pomel, whose works wer< 

 mostly published between 1893 and 1908. Amongst th* 

 discoveries of himself or his predecessors were the rem.-um 

 of a gigantic buffalo — Bos (bubalus) antiquus — a creaturt 



