March 1, 1895.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



63 



to the bodily size and shape of their guests, but ai-e also 

 specialized in relation to their habits and degrees of 

 intelligence. 



One or two considerations may be mentioned to show in 

 what way the social habit must aii'ect the value of insects 

 as fertilizing agents. Since the concerted action of an 

 organized community involves division of labour, those 

 individuals on whom the duty of collecting honey falls will 

 .visit a larger number of flowers than they would if every 

 duty were shared alike, and in consequence of this increased 

 industry the value of the workers' visits will be enhanced. 

 As a second effect, bees scatter to their task, members of 

 the same hive tending to spread rather than to hunt in 

 packs. On one occasion I noted three butterflies and one 

 bee on the same thistle-head ; but butterflies are not 

 socialists like the bees, whose interest it is to keep out of 

 each other's way as much as possible, and avoid competing 

 keenly with one another. Hence the ascending habit is 

 of special importance to social insects. 



Two summers ago I had a good opportunity of 

 observing how bees go about their work on a rich bed 

 of white clover. On chilly days, when few insects were at 

 work, they did not visit systematically, but only entered 

 a few flowers on each head of clover. It seemed as 

 though, revelling in abundance, they had relaxed their 

 methods, and were acting on the generous principle of not 

 reaping the corners of their fields ; but perhaps the scanty 

 secretion of the nectar, in consequence of the cold, might 

 have something to do with it. Be this as it may, on 

 sunny days, when many insects were at work, the bees 

 behaved quite differently, seldom leaving a clover-head 

 untQ they had exhausted every one of its numerous florets. 

 The intense activity and the careful, systematic procedure 

 of the little toilers suggested the idea that possibly the 

 hum of neighbouring workers exercised some influence 

 upon their actions. Everyone knows the kind of inspira- 

 tion for work which one experiences when the sights and 

 sounds of industry are all around. Music is known to 

 possess a remarkable charm for spiders, and there is not a 

 httle fascination about the notion that bees somehow 

 stimulate and encourage each other by humming. In 

 studying the organization of flowers, too, one is deeply 

 impressed by the thoroughness with which Nature does 

 her work ; nothing is left to chance, no stone is unturned, 

 no precaution omitted that can conduce to the end in view. 

 Flowers, we might almost say, have honey for the diligent, 

 the intelligent, the systematic worker ; none for the 

 careless, the capricious, or the idle. Nor is it otherwise in 

 human experience, for nothing can be less remunerative 

 than desultory work. 



Science Notes. 



South Australian papers to hand bring details of the 

 tremendous upheaval on the island of Ambrym, one of 

 the New Hebrides, in the Pacific Ocean, nearly one 

 thousand four hundred miles north-east of Sydney. The 

 region is naturally volcanic, and more or less in a chronic 

 state of disturbance, but the last upheaval seems to have 

 been the greatest in historic times. The island was 

 partially explored a few weeks after the subsidence of the 

 upheaval by Captain Gust, of Her Majesty's ship " Dart," 

 and he reports that the centre is a perfect " sea of lava, 

 with the hills sticking up through its surface like islets." 

 The surrounding country is covered with ashes, and all 

 vegetation is temporarily destroyed. The crater is roughly 

 estimated to be three miles in circumference, and " the 

 wall is from eight hmidred to one thousand seven hundred 

 feet above the level of the floor." The last census taken 



of the population of this island, mostly savages, speaking 

 various and very primitive dialects, put the figures at 

 " about eight thousand," but Captain Cust reports that 

 " few seem now to be found "—probably most of them 



having perished. ..,_ 



At the last meeting of the Anthropological Institute a 

 most interesting paper on the Samoyads was read by Mr. 

 Arthur Montefiore. Up to the present very little has been 

 known about the history or even ordinary life customs of 

 this people, and about ten years ago it was feared that a 

 terrible outbreak of small-pox would have cleared them ofi' 

 the face of the inhospitable bit of the globe they inhabit, 

 namely, the Arctic coast of the Russian Empire, west of 

 the great river Yenisei. Their religion has been described 

 as a mixture of northern paganism and fetichism, and 

 their morals peculiar — even to the point of being scru- 

 pulously honest in all their trading transactions. In his 

 paper, Mr. Montefiore, after deahng with the geographical 

 distribution of the various branches of the Samoyads, 

 proceeded to treat of their affinity with the Finns, placing 

 them in the Ural-Altaic group, thus following the theories 

 of Castren. This inference appears to have been largely 

 based on a study of their language, customs, folk-lore, 



." religious " beliefs, or myths, and physical characteristics. 

 — I-*-, — 

 A remarkable vUlage of cliS'-dwellers, perhaps the most 

 wonderful of the kind ever discovered, has just been 

 found in an almost inaccessible canon in the Bradshaw 

 mountains, in Arizona. The canon was discovered by 

 accident by two prospectors, who did not attempt a 

 thorough exploration, owing to the great size of the 

 ancient settlement. From the description given by them 

 there is no doubt that this is the largest village of the 

 kind ever discovered. It is located along the high banks 

 of Willow Canon, and the houses are estimated to number 

 two hundred and sixty. It is a difficult matter to reach 

 the canon even with pack animals, which accounts for its 

 having been so long undiscovered. There are three 

 natural terraces in the caiion wall, the dwellings opening 

 back from them, and a flight of narrow steps in the rock — • 

 now almost worn away — seems to indicate that this was 

 the method employed in ascent and descent. Several of 

 the houses were explored, and large quantities of pottery 

 and some instruments, evidently used for cultivating the 

 soil, were found. In one house a skeleton of a man was 

 discovered, not over four feet eight inches in height. A 

 party is being organized to explore the newly-found village, 

 and it is hoped that interesting discoveries will be made to 

 throw further light on the history of these remarkable 

 people. 



Notices of Boofts. 



A Handbook to the Primates. By Henry C . Forbes, 

 LL.D., F.Z.S., &c. Vol. I., pp. 283. Vol. II., pp. 257. 

 (London : W. H. Allen & Co., Limited, 1894.) " The 

 Naturalist's Library," to which this pair of volumes 

 belongs, promises to contain by far the best collection of 

 works on natural history. Sixty years ago the volume on 

 monkeys was published in Jardine's archaic " Naturalist's 

 Library," but it would be kinder, perhaps, not to dwell upon 

 the caricatures which illustrated that work. We cannot 

 help thinking of them, however, as we look at and admire 

 the fine plates in the volumes under review. In the first 

 volume. Dr. Forbes gives an account of the lemur- 

 hke animals (Lemiu-oidea), and the man-like animals 

 (Anthropedia) so far as the baboons and mangabeys, while 

 the second is devoted to the remainder of the monkeys, 

 and the apes, and to a set of tables and maps showing the 



