March 9, 1876] 



NATURE 



363 



labour should have been expended upon a material so 

 little capable of doing it justice, when the employment of 

 silvered glass would have given entire permanency to the 

 beautiful curves which Herschel knew how to bestow. 

 But that invention was reserved for Foucault at a later 

 day. Had Sir W. Herschel known of it, the 4-foot mirror 

 would not only have been of far easier workmanship, but 

 would still be ready for a comparison of its merits, as to 

 which there has been much discussion, with the produc- 

 tions of modem days. This, however, is rather matter 

 of curiosity than of real use. It is no detraction from 

 Herschel's well-deserved deputation to suppose that the 

 four MS. volumes which he left behind, containing all the 

 details of his experiments and processes, would be found 

 to add little to the knowledge now possessed by our most 

 successful reflector makers. As to metal-working, diffi- 

 culties equal, and greater, have been encountered and 

 vanquished by Lassell and the Earl of Rosse : as to 

 silvered glass, Steinheil indeed has abandoned the under- 

 taking, and of the quality of the great French reflectors 

 we know little on this side of the Channel ; but the near 

 approach to perfection in the hands of English artificers, 

 and especially of With (who, we are glad to hear, is con- 

 templating an increase in his apertures), leaves no room 

 for regret on that score. Never, probably, were reflecting 

 telescopes more faultless than now ; never could they 

 challenge so fearlessly a comparison with the great achro- 

 matics of the day. May astronomers be found who 

 shaU be capable of working them to their fullest 

 capacity and for their noblest end. But whatever 

 future advances may be in store for us, whether in the 

 optician's or the observer's hands, nothing in either re- 

 spect will ever detract from the honour of Sir William 

 Herschel, or of her whose memoirs we have nowbeen perus- 

 ing with so much interest. Her brother's place indeed 

 might m.ore easily be supplied : one equal to herself, as 

 the most efficient, unwearied, self-denying, devoted of 

 assistants we can scarcely expect to see again. 



T. W. Webb 



MORESBY'S ''NEW GUINEA AND POLY- 

 NESIA " 

 Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea and the U Entre- 

 casteaux Islands. A Cruise in Polynesia and Visits to 

 the Pearl-shelling Stations in Torres Straits by H.M.S. 

 Basilisk. By Capt. John Moresby, R,N. With Maps 

 and Illustrations. (London : John Murray, 1876.) 



^J EW Guinea has been much before the public re- 

 *l cently. As our readers know it has been the field 

 of a number of small exploring expeditions, the somewhat 

 fragmentary results of which have only served to whet 

 our appetite for more information. Most of these expe- 

 ditions, under such men as Meyer, Beccari, D'Albertis, 

 and Miklucho Maclay, have been occupied with the 

 western part of the island, our knowledge of the eastern 

 and larger half having been practically almost a blank. 

 Capt. Lawson's wonderful work (Nature, vol. xii. p. 83) 

 with its abundance of astounding statements can scarcely 

 be regarded as a contribution to our knowledge of the 

 island, though it has made us still more anxious to know 

 the truth about a land which, even in the present ad- 

 vanced state of geographical knowledge, seems to have 



unknown wonders to reveaL Quite recently we heard of 

 the discovery of a large river debouching on the south 

 coast, and of a gigantic bird, and the signs of an equally 

 gigantic quadruped having been seen. Only last week 

 we were able to give some news of the indefatigable 

 D'Albertis. Then the Australian colonists are casting 

 longing eyes on the fertile island, and a proposed colonis- 

 ing expedition recently made a considerable stir in this 

 country. All these circumstances have made us anxious 

 to obtain trustworthy information concerning a country 

 of three times the area of England, Wales, and Scotland 

 combined. 



Capt. Moresby's work is one of the most important 

 contributions which have been made to our knowledge of 

 the geography of New Guinea. It records in a simple 

 and direct manner the results of four years of tho- 

 roughly painstaking and careful work, and, as far as it 

 goes, may be relied on as perfectly trustworthy and 

 accurate. Capt. Moresby does not pretend to give any 

 information as to the natural history of the islands 

 visited, his attention having been directed to their geo- 

 graphical and physical features, their industrial products, 

 and the characteristics of the natives. On all these 

 points valuable and substantial information will be found 

 in the extremely interesting work before us. The time 

 during which the Basilisk was at work in Polynesia 

 and New Guinea was between the beginning of 1871 

 and the end of 1874. 



The part of New Guinea to which Capt Moresby mainly 

 devoted his attention was the coast of that south-eastern 

 projection, about most of which absolutely nothing certain 

 was known, and the islands lying off it. Com^mencing at 

 the bay shut in by Yule Island, some careful survey work 

 was done, and two considerable rivers explored as far as 

 obstructions would permit. From this point south-east- 

 ward the coast was diligently examined, and its main 

 features will be found plotted in the map which accom- 

 panies the volume. The greater part of the length of the 

 coast is fringed with reefs, which are the great obstruction 

 to navigation in that part of the world. At several points 

 along the coast more minute explorations were made of 

 various inlets, and one or two other rivers were opened 

 out leading into the interior. Coming to the south-east 

 coast, Capt. Moresby definitely solved the problem as to 

 its shape. The island ends in a wide fork, from which the 

 north coast sweeps in a series of magnificent bays in a 

 north-west direction, the outline of which, to a distance 

 of between three and four hundred miles, Capt. Moresby 

 has had the honour of laying down for the first time. 

 Around the south-east termination of the island are clus- 

 tered hundreds of beautiful islands ranging in size from a 

 tiny speck up to the three considerable islands which are 

 named after D'Entrecasteaux, and which until Capt. 

 Moresby's visit were vaguely and inaccurately located ; 

 indeed it was not certainly known that they were islands 

 at all. The south-eastern prong of the terminating fork 

 is continued in three islands — Hayter, BasUisk, and 

 Moresby — and all the islands of any size seem to support 

 a large population of tractable and intelligent savages. 

 While part of the south coast surveyed by the Basilisk is 

 covered with unhealthy mangrove swamp, a large portion 

 of it is a healthy and beautiful coral beach backed by 

 tree-covered hills. Towards the south-east the coast gets 



