472 
routes. Human antiquities, from Roman times 
back to the cave-dwellers, are also noticed. It 
is impossible to give a fair idea of the personal 
observation and literary research that have re- 
sulted in these crowded pages. Two examples 
may be suggestive; but we must select from small 
places to keep the quotations within bounds. 
Here (p. 218) is Sillian, one of the delightful 
villages in the valley of the Drau :-— 
“t101 m. at the mouth of the Villgratental: 
quartz-phyllite and mica-schist. Minerals: Mis- 
pickel on the Davinealp. Folklore: MHard- 
hearted peasants: black biting dragons ate up 
everything, until in the end they were exorcised; 
still called “Bannhof” to this day. Gunshots 
from a ghost, who had sworn falsely. Earth- 
quakes: 1827, 2, IV., 1 o’clock” (followed by a 
list of seven others). 
Our second example has also some human 
interest (p. 191) :-— 
“St. Valentin auf der Haid, 1470 m., surrounded 
by dense woods; founded 1140 as a_ hospice. 
Geology: huge detrital cone of verrucano and 
gneissic phyllite from the Endkopf. Fauna: 
Osprey, 1896. Anthropology: 21-1 per cent. 
brachy-, 78°9 per cent. hyperbrachy-cephals.” 
The following “modern instance” does not 
seem strictly natural; but its anthropological 
bearing may excuse it (p. 161) :— 
“Tn the Post Hotel stands the famous Schrofen- 
stein vat; more than 4oo years old, which held 
the wine, 400 years old, that once became re- 
nowned. The contents disappeared during the 
Bavarian occupation.” 
No intelligent visitor to Tyrol will grudge the 
moderate price of this new encyclopzdic pocket- 
book. 
(2) Dr. Rithl’s edition of Fischer’s ‘‘ Mittelmeer- 
bilder” renders this series of essays available for 
every traveller. We can imagine no more interest- 
ing companion during a sea-voyage in the Medi- 
terranean. The original dates are assigned to the 
descriptions in all cases. In 1886, Fischer was 
somewhat doubtful about the power of the French 
to pacify Tunisia; but surely the indifference of 
the Mohammedans to the advantages of foreign 
rule lies in the simplicity of their aspirations in 
this world, and not in any special antipathy in- 
spired by the French. The military domination 
to which Fischer refers is at the present time very 
gracefully concealed, and he gives every credit 
to the protectors in a later essay (p. 404). His 
ride through Feriana to the great oasis of Gafsa 
on the desert edge, undertaken in a critical year, 
must have helped to direct attention to a 
country of extraordinary interest. The return 
of Latin influences to North Africa is one of the 
most fascinating themes for a geographer, and 
Hilaire Belloc, in his “Esto perpetua,” has gone 
NO. 2304, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[DECEMBER 25, 1913 
shortly to the heart of ‘it. Fischer, of course, 
gives us much more, and in so lucid and balanced 
a style that we read with equal pleasure of the 
olive trade and the folding of the Atlas. Curiously 
enough, it is Belloc that produces the most vivid 
impression of the structure of the country. 
Fischer also penetrated Morocco; he supplies 
good general surveys of Palestine, Italy, Corsica, 
and of Spain, with its contrasts between life on the 
marginal lands and the interior; and he every- 
where lays stress on human interests, to which his 
studies in natural history are subordinate. 
(3) M. Monchicourt’s monograph on a special 
district of Tunisia is an example of the thorough- 
ness brought by French scientific men into the 
study of the protectorate. The Haut Tell is the 
region south-west of Tunis, which stretches from 
Testour to the Algerian frontier, including 
Teboursouk and El Kef as its important towns. 
The word tell is used in Tunisia, not for a geo- 
graphical feature, but for a black or yellow clay- 
land, which maintains a reserve of water for 
cereals, even in dry seasons. The author’s Tell 
country is that in which fell is the common 
soil (p. 13), and it can be fairly limited as a 
northern region, while the Steppe, and finally the 
Sahara, succeed it as we travel south. The 
open and mostly lowland country that one finds 
so freely described as Sahel is attached partly 
to the Tell and partly to the Steppe. 
The railway from Algeria enters the Haut Tell 
along the grand valley of the Medjerda, emerging 
on arich alluvial plain. The beauty of the Roman 
remains at Dougga also attracts visitors from 
Tunis. But the southern area is far less known, 
though one sees brown mule-roads leading into it 
across the hills from Kairouan. The author indi- 
cates (p. 122) how it may be developed by using 
an old trade route. His photographic illustrations 
are excellent, and one feels that the surface- 
features which he so well describes are funda- 
mentally connected with the structure and climate 
of the district. The ethnographic considerations 
bring us to the most important problem of ethno- 
logy, the maintenance of the population in 
harmony with the natural conditions of their 
fatherland. Fa 
(4) Dr. M. Newbigin-has produced another book 
that can be read from cover to cover with grate- 
ful appreciation. The field is a very wide one; 
but the facts and observations are fitted into one 
another so as to produce a broad geographical 
impression. Even children will be attracted by 
the comparison between the jerboa and the horse, 
as animals requiring speed (p. 65), or between 
the birds and mammals of forest regions (p. 115), 
which select either an arboreal or a shelter-taking 
