i86 



NA TURE 



[August 22, 1S95 



one who was well trained in habits of obsen-ation, and 

 accustomed to the dnidgen- of making daily notes of 

 what he saw. The remarks on the peculiarities of the 

 Samoyedes are \aluable from their originality, and are 

 an important contribution to the ethnology of Siberia in 

 Europe. The value of the ornithological appendix is in 

 strong contrast to that in Mr. Jackson's book ; but it 

 must always be remembered that Mr. Trevor- Batty e is 

 h mself an ornithologist, and travelled at a time of year 

 when the countr)' was full of birds. Mr. Jackson makes 

 no pretension to any knowledge of ornithology', he 

 travelled at a season when birds were very scarce, his 

 mind was occupied with other thoughts, and he had the 

 misfortune to entrust the few skins he brought home to 

 hands as inexperienced as his own. 



Mr. Trevor- Batlye's account of the way in which the 

 Samoyedes surround the geese when most of them are 

 unable to fly, because they are moulting their quills before 

 migrating to the coasts of Western Europe to winter, is 

 most graphic. 



On the south-east coast of Kolgucf the sea is shallow, 

 and at low tide there is much sand exposed within the 

 line of the outer barrier of pilcd-up ice, which lies some 

 three miles out to sea. In this lagoon thousands of geese 

 retire towards the end of July to moult their flight 

 feathers. When they are in this more or less helpless 

 state, the Samoyedes slip down in their boats through 

 the fog and get behind them, and gradually drive them 

 on shore, where a decoy net has been staked out to receive 

 them. Once inside this trap they arc slaughtered with- 

 out mercy to provide food for the winter. The day's bag 

 was 3300 brent geese, 13 bean geese, and 12 white- 

 fronted geese. Fortunately for the two species of 

 grey geese, they moult a little later than the black geese, 

 so that most of them were able to fly. The Samoyedes 

 told our travellers that the bernacle goose nested at the 

 north of the island. 



Mr. Trevor-Battye was fortunate enough to obtain 

 eggs both of the grey plover and little stint. Mention 

 is made on page 209 of the capture of two examples of 

 the curlew sandpiper, but curiously enough this bird does 

 not appear in the ornithological appendix. 



There is an interesting appendix on the flora of 

 Kolguef. The cloudberry, one of the most delicious 

 of fruits, which is found on the highest summits of the 

 Peak of Derbyshire, and on the Craven .Mountains in 

 ^'orkshire, was in flower by the second week of June, 

 but the fruit did not ripen before August 25. 



Both Kolguef and Waigatz have an island climate, 

 very different from that of continental .Siberia ; and it 

 might be said of both of them, as is frequently said of 

 Lapland, that they have eight months winter, and four 

 months no summer. The frequent rains arc no doubt 

 vcr>' favourable to the growth of many species of plants, 

 but they sadly interfere with the pleasures of camp-life. 

 When the north wind brings down fogs from the Arctic 

 ice in June, and snow followed by rain in July, varied 

 with thunder in August, and frosts in September, it 

 requires some enthusiasm for birds or flowers to enjoy 

 the fight with the storms. There arc, however, some 

 compensations, if there be little sunshine there is no 

 ni^ht, and when the north wind blows the plague of 

 mosquitoes is stayed. Hknkv .Skicisohm. 



NO. 1347. VOL. 52] 



ANOTHER BOOK ON SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 

 The Evolution of Industry. By Henry Dyer, C.E., M..A , 

 D.Sc, &c. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1S95.) 



THIS work contains much valuable suggestion, many 

 admirable sentiments, and a selection of choice 

 extracts from the best writers on social philosophy ; but 

 it is hardly what one would expect from its title. The 

 idea of evolution is, no doubt, more or less present to the 

 author throughout his work, and some of its main 

 characteristics are referred to and illustrated by the 

 phenomena of industrial progress ; but there is a want 

 of system and of logical connection in the treatment of 

 the subject, and an entire absence of the unity of design, 

 forcible reasoning, and original theoiy which were such 

 prominent features in Mr. Kidd's work. 



Ur. Dyer's book is an eclectic one, inasmuch as it 

 adopts from previous writers such ideas and principles as 

 commend themselves to the author. His frequent quota- 

 tions are often followed by the remark — " there is much 

 truth in this'' — and it is sometimes rather difficult to deter- 

 mine what are his own conclusions. It would not be 

 difficult for both individualists and socialists to find sup- 

 port here to their own views ; but the general impression 

 made by the volume is, that the author is profoundly 

 dissatisfied with the present state of society, and is 

 inclined to some form of socialism as the only effective 

 renied)'. 



In the introductory cha|)ter we find many of the objec- 

 tions to socialism very strongly put, though most of these 

 are objections to particular details rather than to essential 

 principles ; yet in the same chapter we find statements 

 of fact which answer many of these objections. Thus 

 we are told (p. 21) : "Among the co-operators, for instance, 

 we find men managing, with the highest efficiency, con- 

 cerns of great extent and importance for salaries smaller 

 than those of bank clerks. They find their real salaries 

 in the success of their work, and in the knowledge that it 

 will lead, not simply to individual riches, but to the wel- 

 fare of the community, and especially of the workers." 



.•\fter quoting from the late Prof. Cairnes to the effect 

 that no public benefit of any kind arises from the exist- 

 ence of an idle rich class, he adds : " From a scientific 

 point of \iew, and therefore from a moral |5oiiu of \ icw, 

 no man or woman, unless physically or mentally disabled, 

 has any right to remain a member of a community unless 

 he or she is labouring in some way or other for the common 

 good. In every organised society, therefore, there can 

 be no rights apart from duties " (p. 37). This principle 

 is thoroughly socialistic, and would lead us very far 

 indeed ; but here, as elsewhere, the author seems afraid 

 to carry out his own principles to their logical con- 

 clusions. Further on, he tells us that -" In some parts of 

 the country as much as between 40 and 50 per cent, of all 

 the deaths that occur are those of children under five 

 years of age, a state of matters which is a disgrace to 

 our civilisation" ; and, after quoting some forcible vvords 

 of Lady Uiike as to much of England's industrial great- 

 ness being due to her practically unlimited supply of the 

 cheap labour of her women and girls, he concludes : " ll 

 is therefore evident, both from an economic and a nioral 

 point of view, that the individualist system of industry, 

 by itself is not sufficient to bring about a stable social 



