710 
quality. The printers perhaps share with the 
author a certain disregard for system in the spell- 
ing of place-names; some signs lie outside their 
view, even one so necessary as the Swedish a, 
which is a different letter, with a totally different 
sound, from a in that language; the translitera- 
tions adopted for Balkan names are not always 
beyond criticism, 
(2) Prof. Russell Smith’s “Industrial and Com- 
mercial Geography” is laid out on no actually 
original lines, though they are in some respects 
unusual. He wholly omits the discussion of the 
general industry and commerce of countries indi- 
vidually. Ina first part, which is headed “ Indus- 
trial Geography,” he deals with agriculture gener- 
ally, and its departments—grains, domestic 
animals, fruit, sugar, and the like—with fisheries, 
with manufactures (forest industries, metal indus- 
tries, and the rest), and with mineral industries. 
His second part, “Commercial Geography,” deals 
with trade routes principally, and here perhaps, 
in comparison with other commercial geographies, 
this book has its chief value. The material for the 
analysis of trade routes has to be gathered from 
many sources, and is not easy to digest and adapt 
to geographical methods when gathered, and 
geographers owe Prof. Smith gratitude for his 
chapters on this subject. He deals successively 
with the trade routes of North America and 
Europe, with the North Atlantic route, with the 
routes of Asia, the North Pacific route, South 
American routes, African routes, and that of the 
Cape of Good Hope, those of Australasia and the 
South Pacific—a logical geographical sequence, 
occupying nine illuminating chapters. 
There is the inevitable prophetic chapter on 
the Panama Canal; it is more acceptable than 
others of its kind, inasmuch as it refrains from 
conveying any expectation of instantaneous world- 
wide revolution in ocean-traffic when the canal is 
opened. There are numerous black-and-white 
maps and diagrams, and they reach a _ high 
standard of excellence in both style and reproduc- 
tion—and this is a comment which it is not often 
possible to make upon American cartography. 
There are also a number of appropriate photo- 
graphs. 
This volume, like others before it, very clearly 
illustrates the difference of outlook upon com- 
mercial geography and geographical methods 
generally, as between American and British 
writers. There are not only many facts, but also 
whole chapters, in Prof. Russell Smith’s work, 
which, so far from dealing with commercial geo- 
graphy as we understand it, are not even founded 
on a geographical basis. The British student is 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 26, 1914 
any lessons in the balance of trade, or in specific 
methods of manufacture, except in so far as 
these may be dictated by geographical conditions. 
It may be that there is a mean to be struck 
between the two systems; if there is, it may lie 
in the direction of a more complete endeavour to 
describe the effects of industry on the surface of 
the earth—the appearance of the standing crop, 
the infinite variety in the aspect of manufacturing 
or other industrial centres or districts in different — 
parts of the world. The connection of financial 
or other such industrial problems with geography 
is not apparent. 
OUR BOOKSHELF. 
The Animal Kingdom illustrated in twenty-seven 
coloured plates, containing several hundreds of 
species. The letterpress by Dr. Zwanziger, 
translated from the original German text by 
Gerard K. Gude. Pp. vi+g92. (London: 
Society for Promoting Christian nee 
1914.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 
In the matter of illustrations, this volume is’ 
above the majority of works of a similar type 
published in this country. Indeed, it may be said 
that it is excellent in this respect, notwithstanding 
that a few animals, such as the zebu and the 
buffalo, are drawn from immature or poor repre- 
sentatives. 
In general style the text is well suited to readers 
for whom it is intended, being clear, simple, and 
not encumbered with technicalities. The trans- 
lator, however, has in places followed the German 
text a little too literally, as in the use of “East 
India” and “Further India.” It would, more- 
over, have been better if the author, instead of 
confining his remarks to particular species, had 
given some information with regard to the dis- 
tribution of the genera to whch they belong in 
cases where this presents any special feature. 
It is, for example, throwing away an opportunity 
merely to state that one species of tapir inhabits 
South America, without a word as to the remark- 
able range of the group; this omission being still 
more marked in the case of the penguins, where 
it is stated that one selected species hails 
from the Antarctic. There is, however, a more 
serious matter connected with distribution, for 
we are informed on page 10 that rodents “are 
distributed over the whole globe, except—Aus- 
tralia, where they are replaced by placental 
mammals.” Whether, in this statement, “pla- 
cental” is a slip of the translator for “im- 
placental,” we are unaware. Again, in the para- 
graph (p. 25) relating to marsupials, there is 
not a word with regard to their distribution; while 
on the following page it is stated that the opossum 
is a native of North America, when the reader 
should have been informed that it is an immigrant 
from South America, the home of the family. 
Whether it was advisable to introduce scientific 
“ 
not led to expect in his geographical text-book ; names may be a matter of opinion, but as this 
NO. 2313; VOL. 92] 
