No. 107 1, Vol. 42] 



NA TURE 



27 



dense— often almost impenetrable ; the traveller often 

 has to force every step of his way among great trees, 

 upright and prostrate, hampered by a frequent under- 

 growth, till the forest at last gives place to alder scrub 

 which seems to possess all the offensive properties of 

 the dwarf pine in the Eastern Alps, and to be a yet 

 greater obstacle to the mountaineer. Even hunting- 

 parties of Indians but rarely visit the Selkirks. 



Mr, Green left England in the summer of 1888, with 

 the intention of exploring and making a rough survey of 

 the chief peaks and glaciers in the Selkirk Mountains. 

 He was accompanied by a relative, the Rev. H. Swanzy, 

 and took with him a mountain outfit and the requisite 

 scientific instruments, lent by the Royal Geographical 

 Society, who had made a grant in aid of the expense of 

 the expedition. Convenient head-quarters were found 

 at Glacier Hotel (4122 feet), where the trains, as at 

 Goschenen on the St. Gothard, halt for meals ; but 

 many nights of the six weeks passed in this region were 

 necessarily spent under canvas. 



The portion of the Selkirk Range explored by Mr. 

 Green lies mainly to the south of Rogers Pass (where the 

 railway crosses the watershed of that range at a height 

 of 4275 feet). It is bounded on the east by Beaver Creek, 

 a tributary of the Columbia, and on the north by the 

 Illecellewaet River, by which the railway descends. 

 Many of the peaks rise above 10,000 feet ; few, if any, 

 surpass 11,000; Mount Sir Donald, which is possibly the 

 highest, being 10,645. But the average elevation of the 

 range is considerable, and as the peaks rise precipitously 

 some 6000 feet above the valleys, the scenery is very fine. 

 Though not comparable with that of the Pennine Alps, 

 the mountain outlines are not inferior to those in some 

 districts of the Tyrol ; and the forests, where spared by 

 the frequent fires, are far more grand. The snow-line is 

 at about 7000 feet, the forests ending at about 6000 feet ; 

 the glaciers are numerous, and sometimes large, the most 

 important, named the Geikie Glacier, being about 4 miles 

 long and 1000 yards wide. As usual, old moraines and 

 huge erratics indicate that they formerly extended far 

 below their present limit. The Selkirk Mountains, it 

 may be observed, correspond in latitude with the Mendip 

 Hills. 



The dominant rocks are rather fine-grained micaceous 

 schists, the structure of which has evidently been much 

 modified by pressure, so that it is difficult to say whether 

 this has produced crystallization of the constituents or 

 modified a rock once more coarsely crystalline. A snow- 

 white quartzite or quartz-schist is also very conspicuous, 

 and not seldom caps, and no doubt has helped to deter- 

 mine, the higher peaks. In one part the rocks have a yet 

 more ancient aspect, while to the north of the railway, near 

 some lead-mines, a bl.ack slate exhibits certain markings 

 which may possibly be the remains of graptolites. So 

 far as can be inferred from the specimens brought back 

 by Mr. Green, the Selkirks are composed of either later 

 Archxan or earlier Palaeozoic rocks— probably, in great 

 part, of the former. 



That Mr. Green can use the pen as well as the pencil 

 was proved by his former book, on "The High Alps of 

 New Zealand." The present one deals with a more limited 

 district, and does not include any climb equal in difficulty 

 to that of Mount Cook ; but the ascent of Mount Bonney, 



the second, if not the highest, peak in the Selkirks, 

 offered more than one " bad place," and the difficulties of 

 these excursions were enhanced by being made without 

 guides, and in many cases only by the two travellers. 

 Thus they not only had to be their own porters, and 

 often carry a load of forty pounds over rough ground and 

 up steep ascents, but also were only " two on the rope," a 

 phrase which is significant to mountaineers. Their toils 

 and hardships — and these were many— the physical fea- 

 tures and natural history of the country, are all graphically 

 described : in short, Mr. Green has written a book which 

 not only is a record of a mountain survey carried out 

 under exceptional difficulties, but also indicates that he 

 possesses in an exceptional degree the qualifications for 

 a scientific traveller, and that he can write as well as he 

 can climb. T. G. B. 



THE ANATOMY OF THE FROG. 

 The Anatomy of the Frog. By Dr. Alexander Ecker, 

 Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy in the 

 University of Freiburg. Translated, with numerous 

 Annotations and Additions, by George Haslam, M.D., 

 Scientific Assistant in the Medical Department in the 

 University of Ziirich ; formerly Assistant-Lecturer in 

 Physiology in the Owens College, Victoria University, 

 Manchester. Illustrated with many Wood Engravings 

 and Two Coloured Plates, executed by Hofmann, Wiirz- 

 burg, Bavaria. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889.) 



THE rapid advance of physiology and morphology 

 since the completion of Profs. Ecker's and Wieders- 

 heim's " Anatomie des Frosches" has intensified the 

 desire for a text-book which should deal in the most ex- 

 haustive manner with the anatomy of the frog, " the 

 physiological domestic animal." Dr. Haslam remarks in 

 his preface that he has done his best to bring the original 

 of "Ecker's Frog" up to date, and in this task he has 

 thoroughly succeeded. More than one hundred new 

 figures, of which one-third are original, have been added, 

 and copious lists of references to frog literature have been 

 drawn up. He has restricted himself to the most careful 

 and concise description of the various organs, and has 

 abstained from entering into the discussion of such mor- 

 phological questions as bear upon the comparison of the 

 Anura with other Vertebrata. It would therefore be out 

 of place to criticize the retention of names which — like 

 atlas for the first free vertebra — if applied to the frog 

 alone, are perfectly clear in their meaning, although their 

 true morphological value, and therefore true denomination, 

 may possibly be different. Every anatomist knows the 

 difficulties connected with the frog's first spinal or hypo- 

 glossal nerve ; its description on p. 182 will enable the 

 reader to form his own opinion as to which of the three 

 or four names he may adopt. 



The first section of the book, dealing with the bones 

 and joints, has remained unaltered, but the nomenclature 

 generally used by English anatomists has been adopted 

 throughout. The different nature of the clavicles and 

 the precoracoid elements has been correctly described 

 according to investigations made since the appearance of 

 the German original in 1864. Howes's researches on the 

 composition of the carpus and tarsus came too late to be 

 embodied in the English edition, but the occipito-cervical 

 region might have been more extensively treated. 



