, 
Fan. 4, 1883] 
NATURE 
221 
accomplish ; especially as, for comparison’s sake, he ex- 
tended his researches to the fauna of the neighbouring 
countries. His descriptions are well elaborated and com- 
piled from numerous observations ; they include all the 
variations of age, sex, season, locality, &c., and particular 
notice is taken of those modifications, by which Swiss | 
examples seem to be distinguished from those of Germany, | 
France, Italy, &c. Thus, this work rises far above the 
level of a local publication, and is of as great a value to 
the student of European freshwater fishes, as to the Swiss | 
naturalist. 
The present volume treats of the Acanthopterygians 
and Cyprinoids only, 5 species of the former and 21 of 
the latter being admitted as permanent inhabitants of the 
country. Besides, the author distinguishes 3 sub-species, 
many varieties, and 3 hybrids ; he also refers in shorter 
chapters to 13 other species and 6 hybrids, which are 
extra-limital, or may sooner or later be found straying 
into Switzerland.*. This number of the freshwater fishes 
of Switzerland must appear small, when we consider that 
it comprises representatives of four of the principal river- 
systems of Europe, viz. the Rhine, Rhone, Po, and 
Danube ; and there is no doubt that this comparative 
poverty is due to the altitude of the country, freshwater 
Acanthopterygians and Cyprinoids being generally more 
developed in the less rapid waters of warmer low-lying 
countries. The Rhine contributes the majority ; 20 out 
of the 24 species® which inhabit the middle and lower 
sections of the river, ascending beyond the Falls of Schaff- 
hausen. The Rhone is inhabited by 24 species, but, 
singularly, of these 11 only have been able to establish 
themselves above the Perte du Rhone, although the 
others freely enter the Saone or penetrate even into the 
upper Doubs, a river not included in Swiss territory. Of 
the 23 species found in the lower part of the Po, 15 reach 
the Swiss frontier ; and this southern portion of the fauna 
is in its character so distinct from the northern, that 9 
only of these 15 species are identical with Rhine fishes- 
Finally the fish-fauna of the Danube, which is stated to 
consist of 30 species, is represented in Switzerland by 3 
only, the great altitude of the river Inn proving a most 
effectual barrier to the dispersal of the remainder. More- 
over, these three species are common Central European 
types, and not peculiar to the Danube. 
The author has taken great pains to ascertain the 
extreme limits of altitude, to which the several species 
can attain in the Alps. Two only go beyond the height 
of 2000 metres, viz. the minnow and miller's thumb, 
which are still found at respectively 2400 and 2200m. 
The perch, the next in order, reaches an altitude of 2000 
m., all the remainder living at, or below, 800m. How- 
ever, several have been successfully imported to altitudes 
varying between 1000 and 1700 m., thus the carp, tench, 
rudd, roach, and chub. 
Of the fishes described in this volume, we wish to draw 
particular attention to two which, belonging to marine 
genera, and evidently being of marine origin, have 
acclimatised themselves in the fresh waters of Southern 
Europe, and penetrated into, or close to, the confines of 
Switzerland, viz. a goby (Gobius fluviatilis or martensit), 
The second part of the Ichthyology is estimated to contain about 21 
species. 
* These and the following numbers refer to the Acanthopterygians and 
Cyprinoids only. 
which has ascended the Po, and a blenny (Blenniz 
cagnata), which occurs in abundance in Lago Maggiore 
as well as in the lake of Bourget in Savoy. 
Hybrids are comparatively scarce in Switzerland. The 
author justly accounts for their scarcity by the physical 
peculiarities of his country; snow-fed, rapid rivers are 
less adapted for their production, than the slower and 
warmer waters of low countries, where a greater variety 
of species and a larger number of individuals are mixed 
together, sometimes within very narrow limits. 
The volume is illustrated by five well executed plates, 
three of which are devoted to osteological, dental, and 
dermal details. 
The author of a thoroughly original work like the 
present, cannot fail to differ from his predecessors in 
questions of specific distinctions and numerous other 
points of detail, but it is our duty to testify to the fair and 
calm spirit, in which such questions are discussed and 
treated by him; and we hope that, before many years, 
we shall have the pleasure of announcing to our readers 
the completion of so valuable a work as Dr. Fatio’s 
Ichthyology of Switzerland. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
By Robert K. Douglas. (Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge, 1882.) 
IT may be said at once respecting this book that it is 
without exception the very best elementary work on 
China with which we are acquainted in any European 
language. The author has resided for many years in 
China, and is in the forefront of the Chinese scholarship. 
of our time; his work is, therefore, not only accurate, 
but it places the reader abreast of the latest researches. 
One of the most remarkable of these is fully explained at 
pp- 359-60. The Yzh King, or Book of Changes, is the 
work for which the greatest antiquity is claimed by the 
Chinese. Some writers have placed it as far back as 
between 300 and 4oo B.c. However this may be, the key 
to its interpretation has been entirely lost, although the 
best native scholars of all ages, including Confucius him- 
self, have attempted to explain it. M. Terrien de la 
Couperie (assisted, we believe, by Prof. Douglas himself, 
though this fact is not mentioned), has succeeded within 
the last few years in showing that “instead of being a 
mysterious depository of deep divinatory lore, it turns out 
to be a collection of syllabaries such as are common in 
Accadian literature interspersed with chapters of astro- 
logical formula, ephemerides, and others dealing with 
ethnological facts relating to the Aboriginal tribes of the 
country; but all taking the form of vocabularies, and 
therefore as impossible to be translated in the sense in 
which every commentator, from Confucius downwards, 
has attempted to translate them as ‘Johnson’s Diction- 
ary’ would be.” Although we possess innumerable volumes 
on subjects connected with China, we have not until 
now a thoroughly trustworthy book covering the whole 
ground ina simple elementary manner. Some volumes re- 
cently published for popular reading on the countries of the 
East exhibit such lamentable ignorance, that we can only 
“gasp and stare’ at their contents. Notwithstanding 
his own intimate knowledge of the subject, Prof. Douglas 
has consulted almost all that we have in our literature 
relating in any way to China, from Davis’s Chinese poetry 
and Oppert’s Susian texts, down to recent numbers of 
the English journals published in China. ‘The two last 
chapters—that on “ Language’? and “ Literature ”—are 
models of clear and simple exposition of complicated 
subjects. Another excellence of the book is what we may 
call its perspective. The writer does not thrust any par- 
ticular branch of his subject into undue prominence, to 
China. 
