202 



NATURE 



\yan. 2, i8(,o 



prevail among the inhabitants of the Soudan and the 

 White Nile district. 



A kind of sign language is occasionally used by the 

 Australians. It consists of figures scratched on " a 

 message stick " made of wood, about four to seven inches 

 long, and one inch wide. Fig. 4 represents one of these 

 sticks. It conveys a message from a black woman named 

 Nowwanjung to her husband Carralinga, of the Woongo 

 tribe. " Other message sticks," says Mr, Lumholtz, "are 



engraved with straight or circular lines in regular patterns 

 as in embroidery ; this has caused an entirely diiTerent 

 view of their significance, which supposes them to be 

 merely cards to identify the messenger. This view may 

 be correct, but it is not corroborated by my experience on 

 Herbert River." 



Mr. Lumholtz secured a valuable collection of zoological 

 specimens, and some of the best passages in his book are 

 those relating to this part of his work. Fig. 5 represents 



Fig. 5. — Young Cassowary. 



a young cassowary, which the natives one day brought 

 to him, with two eggs. He at once asked the natives to 

 guide him to the nest, near which, in a bed of loose 

 leaves, he placed the young bird, hoping to attract the old 

 one. After the lapse of about ten minutes they suddenly 

 heard the voice of the cassowary. This usually sounds 

 like thunder, " but now, when calling its young, it re- 

 minded us of the lowing of a cow to its calf." Soon the 

 beautiful blue and red neck of the bird became visible 



among the trees. The creature " stopped and scanned 

 its surroundings carefully in the dense scrub, but a charge 

 of No. 3 shot, fired from a distance of fifteen paces, laid 

 it low." Six natives carried home the prize, which proved 

 to be an unusually fine specimen of a male. 



We cordially recommend this book to all who take an 

 interest in anthropology and zoology, or in incidents 

 of travel through unfamilar scenes. They will find in it 

 much that cannot fail to give them genuine pleasure. 



BRITISH EARTHQUAKES. 



TT is somewhat remarkable that the ordinary notion 

 ^ that Great Britain has a special immunity from serious 

 earthquake phenomena, still very generally obtains credit. 

 An explanation of this popular fallacy may perhaps be 

 found in the simple fact that, on the average, few people 

 living at any one time chance to have experienced any 

 considerable shock ; whilst in the case of those few — we 

 except the many who were aiTected by the disastrous Essex 

 earthquake five years ago — who have felt the sensation, 

 as a momentary mental impression it has been soon for- 



gotten. It should, however, by this time be more gener- 

 ally known and accepted that no part of the habitable 

 globe is entirely exempt from seismic action, and that 

 earth-tremors of considerable amplitude and intensity are 

 by no means necessarily connected with volcanic disturb- 

 ances, as was formerly supposed. When it is duly 

 recognized that, at the lowest computation, 600 dis- 

 connected shocks are known to have taken place in 

 this country during the present era, the popular belief 

 respecting " our tight little island'' may well be entirely 

 shaken. This number includes many earthquakes of con- 

 siderable magnitude, and the additional seismological 



