AUGUST 27, 
NATURE 
is Startling. It almost shakes one’s confidence 
in the author to learn that he cannot go into camp 
with a friend for two months without a dozen 
tins each of lobster and salmon, two dozen tins 
of sausages, and three dozen tins of fruits in 
syrup. 
The book is well printed and beautifully illus- 
trated. 
(3) The third book on the list reveals Science in 
her severest mood. The aim of this conscientious 
piece of work is to elevate the outdoor pursuit of 
natural history into a serious academic study em- 
bracing each and every species of animal in rela- 
tion to its environment, particularly to its organic 
environment, and still more particularly in its 
relations of interdependence with other species of 
animals. It may almost be regarded as embody- 
ing a formulary or ritual of the precepts and prin- 
ciples shown forth in the third chapter of that 
immortal book, “The Origin of Species.” 
The author adheres firmly and steadily to the 
great truth that all the animals of a given habitat 
form a definite interdependent association ; but his 
application of the term “community” to an 
assemblage bound by ties so non-moral implies a 
cynical view of the ethics of communal life in this 
twentieth century. He sets out to determine by a 
prolonged and detailed study of a given territory 
—its streams, ponds, lakes, swamps, prairie, 
thickets, forests, etc.—-the salient impressive 
features of its different kinds of habitat, and the 
character and exact specific composition of the 
animal-associations appertaining to each. An in- 
cidental end is to teach the sentimental person 
“sanity towards nature,” and to show the prac- 
tical man that he himself has much to find out 
before he can learn any animal to be a toad. 
So far so good; but the esoteric terminology of 
it all is wondrous pitiful, and there is much 
dressing up of old plain truths in confusing folds 
of majestic language—such as the following :— 
“The breeding instincts are the centre about 
which all other activities of the organism rotate, 
and the breeding-place is the axis of the environ- 
mental relations of the organism.” 
Pip eenO iA: - SOLARA GLIPSE ;-OF 
AUGUS Iz sear 
nite a number of expeditions were or- 
ganised, and some were dispatched, to 
‘observe the total solar eclipse on Friday last, 
August 21, many were unable to take up their sta- 
tions owing to the upheaval now taking place in 
Europe. It is, therefore, with the greatest satis- 
faction that we learn of at least two expeditions 
which successfully reached their destinations and 
observed the eclipse under most favourable weather 
conditions. The two parties were the observers from 
the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, consisting of 
Messrs. Jones and Davidson, and the expedition 
sent out by the Joint Permanent Eclipse Com- 
mittee of the Royal and Royal Astronomical 
Societies, composed of Fathers Cortie and 
O’Connor and Messrs. Atkinson and Gibbs. 
According to a telegram to the Daily Mail of 
NO. 2339, VOL. 93] 
667 
August 24, the Greenwich party, stationed at 
Minsk (Russia), observed the eclipse under good 
conditions in a clear sky, and photographs of both 
the corona and chromosphere were secured. It 
is stated that the form of the corona was of the 
intermediate type, i.e. of the square type, there 
being no large equatorial streamers or streamers 
in the regions of the solar poles. The corona is 
also stated to have been very bright. The party 
under Father Cortie, S.J., took up their position at 
Hernoesand in Sweden, and his telegram to the 
Royal Astronomical Society says, “ Weather per- 
fect. All operations successful. Intermediate 
corona.” 
It is interesting to mention that the Greenwich 
party was specially equipped for recording the 
ultra-violet spectrum of the chromosphere, while 
Father Cortie’s instruments were more restricted 
to the yellow and red regions of the spectrum. 
Should the photographs turn out successful after 
development a wide range of the chromospheric 
spectrum will have been secured. 
It is a great pity that Prof. Fowler was pre- 
vented from making any observations, for the in- 
teresting method of photographing the spectrum 
of the chromosphere for a long interval of time 
both before and after the total phase had every 
chance of being successfully tried. 
ALFRED JOHN JUKES-BROWNE, F-.R.S. 
epee: has the triumph of force of will over 
the most serious disabilities been more strik- 
ingly illustrated than in the case of the .subject 
of this notice. To most geologists engaged in 
field-work the loss of the full use of the limbs 
would seem to be fatal, but Jukes-Browne, in spite 
of all difficulties, continued his work as a geo- 
logical surveyor for twenty years after the almost 
complete loss of his powers of locomotion. 
Alfred John Browne was born near Wolver- 
hampton in 1851; his mother was a sister of the 
distinguished geologist, J.. Beete Jukes, whose 
work on the English and Irish geological surveys, 
and whose fame as a teacher in Dublin, are so 
well known; and young Browne, probably fired by 
his uncle’s example, added the name of Jukes to 
his own as soon as he came of age. 
After receiving his early education at Highgate, 
Jukes-Browne entered St. John’s College, Cam- 
bridge, and, under the inspiring teaching and 
influence of Prof. T. G. Bonney, was able to add 
his name to the group of distinguished geologists 
who made that college famous during the last half 
of the nineteenth century. After a successful 
university career, Jukes-Browne joined the geo- 
logical survey in 1874, and during the next nine 
years did good work in parts of East Anglia and 
Lincolnshire. But never, probably, a very strong 
man, the strenuous labours of a geological sur- 
veyor began to tell upon his health, enforcing 
retirement for a time. 
Just at this period, however, a new and promis- 
ing field of work opened out for the young geo- 
logist. The famous French paleontologist Hébert 
