3i8 



NA TURE 



[August 6, i! 



be described in a few sentences extracted from the 

 preface : — 



" This Society exists to teach the elements of Physical 

 Geography and Geology direct from Nature without pre- 

 liminary study from books. . . . The field work has been 

 led up to by short courses of winter lectures given in 

 London, designed to connect together the observations 

 to be made in the succeeding summer, and to connect 

 the geology of the district to be examined with that of 

 other areas." 



The excursions are described in the notes written by 

 students in the field ; the lectures are reported (from 

 shorthand notes) by Mr. White, one of the class. As 

 regards the former. Prof Seeley states that " students 

 have been free to report what they saw and what they 

 heard, and they have severally written in their own ways 

 both as to length and language used." The lectures also 

 "were not constructed with a view to being reported, nor were 

 the reports written out with a view to being printed." Prof. 

 Seeley has, however, " read the proof to remove serious in- 

 accuracies." The lectures need no apology, for they are 

 excellent examples of that clear and suggestive method 

 of teaching of which Prof. Seeley is a master. The 

 reports of the excursions also acquire a certain freshness 

 as recording the impressions of novices, and may on that 

 account be even more helpful to beginners than if they 

 had been written by more experienced observers. One 

 or two inaccuracies, however, appear to have escaped the 

 Professor's watchful eye. Is not the statement on p. 

 18, relating to the presence of Paluditta and Unio in such 

 Wealden Limestones as the Petworth Marble, a little mis- 

 leading ? for it implies that the latter genus is common in 

 these deposits, which, we believe, is not the case. A 

 sentence on p. 29 suggests that "enormous pressure" 

 is requisite to convert a sandstone into a quartzite. 

 Very probably this would be the result, but there 

 are not a few quartzites which show no signs of having 

 been specially subjected to pressure. Also, it is hardly 

 correct to call Lydian stone an altered sandstone. 

 Again, more than once it is intimated that gneiss and 

 crystalline schists occur in Belgium, This, if the terms 

 be used in their ordinary sense, is incorrect ; and even 

 the porphyroids and amphibolites, and the abnormal 

 rocks of the Bastogne district, the vague descriptions of 

 which may have given rise to this misconception, are 

 of extremely limited extent. But these are very trifling 

 blemishes, which can be readily removed in a second 

 edition. The book will be of great use to all students, 

 living in or about London, in helping them to use their 

 eyes ; and most of all because, to quote Prof. Seeley's 

 words, " It here and there touches upon problems which 

 are not usually presented to beginners." But, as he 

 rightly urges, these problems — namely, the application 

 of stratigraphy to the elucidation of the physical geo- 

 logy of past epochs — " should never be absent from the 

 mind of anyone who considers geological facts in the 

 field." T. G. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Katalog der Bibliothek der Deutschen Seewarte zu 



Hamburg. (Hamburg, 1890.) 

 Various notices have from time to time appeared in 

 Nature relating to the German Naval Observatory at 

 NO. I 136, VOL. 44] 



Hamburg, describing the building, its equipment of 

 instruments, and the important work which is carried on 

 there chiefly in the interests of the German Imperial and 

 mercantile navies. 



As this institution is possessed of a library containing 

 some 10,660 works, it has for some time past been a 

 matter of urgent necessity that an accurate and well- 

 considered form of Catalogue should be printed and 

 published. The required book was completed last year, 

 and is now available. 



This Catalogue shows that the library contains a large 

 proportion of works either directly of a naval character, 

 or bearing upon naval matters, whilst several other 

 branches of science are fairly represented. 



As might be expected, meteorology holds the first place 

 of importance, and amongst the 2769 works on this subject 

 are a large proportion of Dove's writings. Indeed, it 

 seems worthy of note that Dove's library, which occupied 

 him many years in collecting, may now be found at the 

 German Naval Observatory. Turning to the division of 

 the Catalogue on physics, 16 17 works will be found ; on 

 magnetism and electricity, 974 ; whilst other subjects, such 

 as navigation, hydrography, and construction of ships 

 are well cared for. 



Although the books and papers mentioned in this Cata- 

 logue are generally printed in the language adopted by 

 their authors, a translation into German of several 

 works of interest is also placed side by side with the 

 original. 



In conclusion it may be remarked that although there 

 is nothing specially new in the arrangement of this book, 

 it is well worthy of the time and energy which have 

 evidently been spent in bringing the work to its present 

 state. 



Scientific Results of the Second Yarkmtd Mission; based 

 upon the Collections and Notes of the late Ferdinand 

 Stoliczka, /'^.A— Coleoptera. By H. W. Bates, F.R.S., 

 J. B. Baly, D. Sharp, F.R.S., O. Janson, and F. Bates. 

 Pp. 1-79 and 2 Plates. (Calcutta : Published by order 

 of the Government of India, 1890.) 

 This, the twelfth part issued, all but one of which deal 

 with zoology, contains an enumeration of 207 species of 

 Coleoptera. These species belong to the following 

 families :— Cicindelidae (4), Carabidae (60), Longicornia 

 (5), Phytophaga (25), Hahplidze (i), Dytiscidse (8), 

 Gyrinidas (i), Hydrophilidas (3), Staphylinids (9), Scara- 

 basidas (38), Cetoniidas (3), and Heteromera (50). 

 Diagnoses or descriptions of all the new genera 

 and species were published more than ten years 

 ago, and the only additional information contained 

 in this part is a list of species, in addition to, in some 

 cases, fuller descriptions of the novelties. In the portions 

 contributed by Mr. H. W. Bates and Dr. Baly, both of 

 whom, however, give some particulars regarding geo- 

 graphical distribution, the references to the published 

 diagnoses are given ; but in Dr. Sharp's and Mr. F. 

 Bates's contributions, many of the genera and species are 

 mentioned as new, though diagnoses of the whole of them 

 were published in 1878 or 1879— the former in the Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, xlvii. Part 2 (1878), the 

 latter in Cistula Entoinologica, ii. (February 1879). The 

 two plates include 44 figures — Carabids (17), Longicornia 

 (5), and Heteromera (22). On the cover, and also on 

 p. 37, the name '• Hydrophilida^" is misprinted " Hydro- 

 ptilidas." The Hydroptilidas do not belong to the order 

 Coleoptera at all, but to the Neuroptera ! It is to be 

 regretted that a delay, the cause of which is not ex- 

 plained, of more than ten years, has occurred in the 

 publication of the "Part " dealing with the Coleoptera, as 

 works of this kind upon the beetle fauna of little-known 

 districts are always of the highest value, more particu- 

 larly in the matter of geographical distribution. No sys- 

 tematic work upon the Coleopterous fauna of India has 



