136 
Webiewos. 
The Natural Mistory Review. No. VII. July, 1855. Published 
Quarterly. Including the Transactions of all the Irish Natural 
History Societies. London: Samuel Highley, Fleet Street. 
This number contains reviews of recent works on the Diptera 
of Northern Europe, a History of British Butterflies, Contribu- 
tions to British Paleontology, Entomologist’s Annual, a geolo- 
gical paper by Miller, and a list of British species of Geodephaga, 
etc.; but as these subjects are not with the sphere of our 
Journal, we must refrain from any further notice of them. Some 
account of the Marine Botany of the colony of Western Aus- 
tralia comes within our scope, and we have much pleasure in pre- 
senting our readers with an extract descriptive of the shore of. 
Rottnest Island, which is about twelve miles west by north from 
Freemantle :— 
Almost the whole island is surrounded by limestone reefs, at greater 
or less distances from the shore. The limestone seems of very recent for- 
mation, and is of similar character to that at Arthur’s Head, and in other 
localities, near Freemantle, already described by several geologists. It is 
remarkable for very fantastic and diversified forms. The reefs are generally 
flat-topped, but the surface is very rough, either thickly bristling with sharp 
points, a few inches high, or broken into miniature mountains and valleys 
—strongly recalling to mind the raised map of Switzerland. Other reefs 
are ridged ; the ridges parallel to each other, but variously directed towards 
the shore. The outer face of the bordering reef is generally very steep, 
often perpendicular or overhanging; and frequently it goes down, like a 
quay-wall, into two or three fathoms of water. At the north-east angle 
of the island, a very remarkable quay-like reef, called the ‘ Natural Jetty,’ 
runs out many hundred yards into the sea. Its surface is laid bare, at 
low water of spring tides, which rise and fall from two to three and a half 
feet. Many of the detached reefs are shaped liked round tables, or mush- 
rooms, being fixed on a slender central stalk, often only a few feet in dia- 
meter; the horizontal ledge, or table, spreading out to many yards on all 
sides. Sometimes two or three of these tables are joined together by 
narrow stone bridges; and sometimes large holes, through which you can 
look down two or three fathoms into the clearest water, are found in the 
table; and the swells rise through them and flow over. I often wondered 
how these filigree reefs could so long withstand the beating of the waves 
in winter storms. Almost all of them offer good harvests for the algolo- 
gist, and beautiful pictures to any one who can appreciate the loveliness 
of living vegetable forms. The surfaces of most are well clothed with 
the smaller Rhodospermee (Laurencie, Hypnee, Acanthophora, etc.), and 
