484 



NATURE 



[April i^, 1878 



these islands are noted, yet partaking largely of the 

 Madagascar or parent types. 



These gigantic land-tortoises which appear to have 

 formerly occupied or inhabited the Mascarene Islands, 

 are now only found at Aldabra, one of the Seychelles 1,000 

 miles further north. This isolation of Madagascar with 

 its surrounding northern and eastern scattered islands 

 and coral reefs alone indicate one continuous and extensive 

 equatorial land. . According to Wallace the Mascarene 

 Islands were probably "earliest separated from Mada- 

 gascar and before any carnivora had reached the country, 

 hence the secure abode of groups of birds incapable of 

 flight"; also to the same causes may be attributed in these 

 islands the development of these gigantic land-tortoises, 

 security, food, and time being three at least important 

 factors for continuity of life ; and surpassing as they did 

 all others in size now living on the globe. 



Dr. Giinther formulates the races of tortoises indi- 

 genous to the Galapagos by the want of the nuchal plate, 

 by the long neck and legs, and black shell, flatness of the 

 crown of the skull, and thinness of the osseous carapace. 



This diagnosis of the Galapagos races of, tortoises 

 shows them to be differentiated from the Aldabra races 

 by the same structural characters as the Mascarene 

 races — to which, however, they are closely allied — but 

 differing in not possessing the double gular plate. 



Dr. Giinther in his elaborate notice of the extinct 

 races of the Mascarene turtles, speaks of their being 

 "sharply and structurally differentiated from the tortoises 

 of the Aldabra group;" he has now ascertained through 

 the possession of complete carapaces from Mauritius and 

 Rodriguez, that there is an " absence of the suture which 

 divides in most land-tortoises the gular plate of the 

 sternum into two longitudinal halves." Again, he has 

 proved that the Mascarene tortoises possess no nuchaj 

 plate. The solution of these structural differences of 

 the races is due to recent researches and exploration in 

 the Mauritius and Rodriguez, and they have resulted 

 under Giinther' s determination in the three following 

 deductions : — 



1. That the specimens with a nuchal plate (andj with 

 double gulars) come from Aldabra. 



2. That the specimens with simple gular (andvvithout 

 nuchal) come from the Mascarenes. 



3. That the specimens without nuchal, and with double 

 gular, are Galapagos tortoises. 



Dr. Giinther' s researches conclusively show that the 

 living gigantic tortoise's of the Galapagos are more nearly 

 allied or related to the extinct tortoises of the Mauritius^ 

 than those living in Aldabra. This generalisation of 

 Dr. Giinther's tends to show that there must have been 

 several distinct groups and centres of Testudo ranging 

 widely over the globe, and that some of each still survive 

 in localities widely removed from each other; such being 

 the Mascarene, Seychelles, and Galapagos, with remains 

 found at Malta. 



> Elaborate osteological details accompany the descrip- 

 tions of the species in the races of the Aldabra tortoises, 

 the extinct races of the Mascarenes, and the Galapagos 

 species. No less than fifty plates illustrate and accom- 

 pany the letter-press to this learned memoir or monograph 

 upon the gigantic land-tortoises (living and extinct) now 

 in the collection of the British Museum. R. E. 



OUR BOOK SHELF J 



Treatise on Modern Horology in Theory and Practice.' \ 

 By M. Claudius Saunier, Ex-Director of the School of 

 Horology at Magon, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, 

 Honorary Secretary to the Paris Society of Horologers, 

 &c. Translated by Julien Tripplin, Besanqon, Watch 

 Manufacturer, and Edward Rigg, M.A., Assayer in the 

 Royal Mint. (London : J. TrippHn.) 



M. Claudius Saunikr's treatise, though mainly intended 

 for technical readers, contains a vast quantity of useful 

 and instructive information, likely to be quite as interest- 

 ing to amateur as to professional horologists. The work, 

 moreover, is largely illustrated by beautiful coloured 

 copperplate engravings, which, as models of accuracy 

 and elegance, cannot be too highly praised. If in any- 

 thing the book is perhaps scarcely up to the mark, as 

 regards recent improvements in English clockwork ; but 

 no doubt such will be fully discussed in the appendix we 

 understand M. Saunier has in hand, and which we hope 

 will be published before the conclusion of the English 

 series. So far as can be judged from the first number, 

 the work of translation is being performed efficiently. 



China. A History of the Laws, Manners, and Cnsioms 

 of the People. By John Henry Gray, M.A., LL.D., 

 Archdeacon of Hongkong. Edited by W. G. Gregor. 

 2 vols. 140 Illustrations. (London: Macmillan and 

 Co., 1878.) 

 Many books have been written on China and its puzzling 

 people, and many attempts made to describe and account 

 for the mode of life, the manners, and customs— to 

 Europeans seemingly half-childish — of the latter. Hither- 

 to, however, it is safe to say, the Chinese have not been 

 understood. Their jealousy of foreigners, their un- 

 willingness to admit the outside barbarian into the sanc- 

 tity of their inner .life is proverbial, so that the vaguest 

 and most erroneous notions prevail concerning this 

 remarkable people, combined with a sort of tacit 

 conviction that their life in its various aspects is 

 too trivial to be worth inquiring into. A perusal 

 of Dr. Gray's work, we are sure, will greatly tend 

 to dispel these mistaken notions. ' Dr. Gray evi- 

 dently possesses an unusual power of winning his way 

 into the friendship of all classes of Chinese, and this, 

 combined with a liberal and tolerant mind and a faculty 

 of careful observation, has enabled him to learn more 

 about the everyday life and thoughts and motives of the 

 people than almost any European has done before him. 

 The work is certainly one of the most instructive that has 

 ever been written on China, and every page is interesting. 

 Family life in all its varied relationships is illustrated by 

 pen arid pencil, as is also official life, commercial life, 

 professional or literary life, lifd in hotels, and life in the 

 street, pawnshops, pagodas, agriculture, fortune-telling, 

 religion, amusements ; in short, it would be difficult to 

 point out in what respect the book is defective. The 

 illustrations are very interesting, and have mostly, we 

 believe, been drawn by native artists. The work ought, 

 we should think, to become a permanent] standard work 

 on China. 



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. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

 [ 7 he Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters a f 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible othenvise to ensure the appearance even of corn- 

 munications containing interesting and novel factsi\ 

 The Arrangement of Museums 

 The subject brought forward by Lord Wharncliffe a few- 

 days ago in the IloubC of Lords forms part of a much larger 



