7/6 



NATURE 



[August i8, 192 i 



talion. Unquestionably the best of topographical 

 educations is surveying on the ground, which 

 should form part of the instruction of all candi- 

 dates for commissions in the Regular Army. Un- 

 fortunately such instruction has not always been 

 given, and is, perhaps, out of the question for 

 Territorials. Even so, instruction in map read- 

 ing should be given mainly on the ground. There 

 are, however, examinations to be passed in which 

 questions are based mainly upon certain specified 

 maps and conventional signs. Mr. Dale's book 

 will be found of great assistance in this matter. 

 It is clear and practical, and accompanied by good 

 examples and questions. 



The sequence of the book would have been 

 improved by combining parts of chaps, i. and vi. 

 in a separate chapter on finding position. A com- 

 pass is rarely used for this purpose by an experi- 

 enced map reader if the map in question shows 

 much detail. This chapter might also have in- 

 cluded grids, margins, and co-ordinates both geo- 

 graphical and rectangular. Such information as 

 is given on these points is not very enlightening. 

 For example, the position of the origin of co- 

 ordinates and the direction and order in which 

 they are given may, and doubtless will, vary 

 according to circumstances. 



The Brjtish soldier may have to accustom him- 

 self to many different styles of cartography. He 

 should not be asked to memorise any particular 

 conventional signs, but to study such different 

 maps as he may have to use, and, above all, to 

 educate his eye for country. Artificial and 

 arbitrary differences such as those made in 

 chap. iii. between " hills " and " knolls " would 

 then be unnecessary. 



Faune de France. No. i. Echinodermes. By 

 Prof. R. Koehler. Pp. 210. (Paris: Paul 

 Lechevalier, 192 1.) 



With the aid of a subvention from the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, a new fauna of 

 France, of which the first part has been issued, 

 has been prepared by the Federation Fran^aise 

 des Societes de Sciences Naturelles. Its object 

 is to furnish naturalists with a handy means of 

 identifying their captures. To this end each group 

 is preceded by a key to the species, and the 

 descriptions which follow are just enough "to en- 

 able the first result to be verified. The fauna 

 comprises land and fresh-water forms from France 

 (including Corsica), Belgium, the Rhine province, 

 and Western Switzerland, and marine forms 

 within the limits of the continental plateau to a 

 depth of about 300 metres and the corresponding 

 pelagic region from the Sound to the Straits of 

 Gibraltar, including the British Isles and the 

 Western Mediterranean. The work, therefore, 

 should be found useful by British naturalists. 



For the Echinoderms no better authority could 



be desired than Prof. Koehler, of Lyons. His 



nomenclature is up to date, his descriptions are 



to the point, and his illustrations, being, as a 



NO. 2703, VOL. 107] 



rule, from photographs of the actual specimens^ 

 are sufficiently indicative for a work within these 

 limits. Some of the half-tone blocks are, it must 

 be confessed, not very clear, and some of the 

 borrowed diagrams are credited to wrong 

 sources ; thus Fig. 10, of a starfish, is not from 

 Goodrich, but from the British Museum Guide; 

 Fig. 68, showing the fascioles of a sea-urchin, 

 is one of the numerous figures taken by Delage 

 and Hc^rouard from the Echinoderm volume in 

 the " Treatise " edited by Lankester. At the 

 special request of the editors, Dr. Koehler has 

 gallicised the ordinal names. The historical con- 

 fusion that has arisen from this common French 

 custom is w'ell known, and we have never grasped 

 why such a name as " Les Forcipulosees " is any 

 more intelligible than " Forcipulata " ; it is not 

 even French. 



The Place-Names of Northumberland and Dur- 

 ham. By Prof. Allen Mawer. (Cambridge 

 Archaeological and Ethnological Series.) Pp. 

 xxxviii-h 271. (Cambridge: At the University 

 Press, 1920.) 20s. net. 



Prof. Mawer 's work on the place-names of 

 Northumberland and Durham has an interest 

 which transcends its geographical limitations. 

 Unlike most workers on this subject, he does not 

 confine himself entirely to the linguistic side of 

 the evidence. He is prepared to turn to topo- 

 graphy, ethnology, or history for assistance or 

 confirmation. For instance, he has tested, by a 

 careful examination of topographical conditions, 

 the theory that names ending in ington occur on 

 high ground where the geological formation 

 favours the finding of springs. As a result, he finds 

 that the theory holds good in East Northumber- 

 land only, but that in the west of the county the 

 water supply is dependent upon other factors. 

 The tendency of the lines of investigation followed 

 by Prof. Mawer will inevitably be to bring the 

 study, of place-names into closer relation with 

 cognate problems in ethnology and history, and 

 to break down the isolation which has character- 

 ised even some of the best work on the subject 

 in this country. 



As a result of Prof. Mawer 's very careful sur- 

 vey of the evidence for names recorded before the 

 year 1500, and identifiable on the map, it would 

 appear that the vast majority are Anglian. River 

 names are Celtic, but " Cheviot " is the only re- 

 corded Celtic hill-name of note. Prof. Mawer 

 concludes that the Anglian conquest was com- 

 plete. The distribution of names with a Scan- 

 dinavian element does not afford strong evidence 

 of settlement except in two, or possibly three, 

 cases. It suggests rather a movement from the 

 sea up the great river valleys or from the more 

 distinctively Scandinavian areas which lie to the 

 south. Prof. Mawer 's book lends added force 

 to the plea for an organised survey of English 

 place-names as a whole which he has made else- 

 where. 



