Feb. 8, 1883] 
NATURE 
335 
of his other observations, we should have expected him 
in this case to have procured some of this scarlet fluid for 
examination, and also to have obtained permission to place 
both birds in the same pen; but we have said enough to 
show that his book seldom lays itself open to criticism of 
this kind, and we sincerely hope that it will, in the words 
of its concluding sentence, “ find favour with the public,” 
not only because it well deserves to do so, but also because 
the author promises that if it does, other Series of similar 
Zoological Notes will be issued by him from time to time. 
Lastly, we must not take leave of this, the First Series, 
without noticing the life-like drawings of the illustrations 
—particularly that of the cobra—and also the novel and 
effective character of the binding, the boards being 
covered with thin but continuous plates or shavings of 
wood, which, without at all adding to their stiffness, 
give so strikingly pretty a finish that we should like to 
see this new idea in book-binding largely adopted by 
other publishers. GEORGE J. ROMANES 
THE GOLD COAST 
To the Gold Coast for Gold. By Richard F. Burton and 
Verney Lovett Cameron. Two Vols. Maps and IIlus- 
trations. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1883.) 
pee exploration undertaken by Captains Burton and 
Cameron was for the purpose of examining and re- 
porting upon the condition and prospects of certain gold- 
mining properties in Western Africa, for which early in 
1882 upwards of seventy distinct concessions had already 
been obtained from various native owners. Five only 
out of these concessions are reported on as having upon 
them mines actually in operation, while it is more than 
probable that of the remaining sixty-five a large propor- 
tion might be acquired by the British public for a valuable 
consideration. 
It had originally been intended to explore the so-called 
Kong Mountains, relative to which no additional infor- 
mation has for many years been acquired; but so much 
work had to be accomplished on the Ancobra river that 
the latter portion of the programme had of necessity to 
be relinquished ; under this disappointment Capt. Burton 
philosophically consoles himself with the reflection that 
“ Geography is good but Gold is better.’ 
Capt. Burton left Trieste on November 18, 1881, for 
Gibraltar, and thence proceeded to Madeira, about which 
he very pleasantly gossips through some sixty pages, and 
where he is joined, on January 8, 1882, by his travelling 
companion, Capt. Cameron. From Madeira they pro- 
ceed together to Teneriffe, @ Aropos of which place we are 
given the translation of a Spanish account of the repulse 
of Lord Nelson from Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, which 
extends through at least another fifty pages. 
From Teneriffe the travellers continued their voyage, 
touching at Bathurst, Sierra Leone, Cape Palmas, &c., 
eventually landing at Axim on January 24, 1882. Of 
Axim Capt. Burton says :— 
“ There is no better landing-place than Axim upon this 
part of the African coast. The surf renders it impracti- 
cable only on the few days of the worst weather. We 
hugged the north of the Bobowustia rock-islet. When 
the water here breaks there is a clear way further north; 
the southern passage, paved with rocks and shoals, can 
be used only when the seas are at their smoothest. A 
regular and well-defined channel placed us on the shingly 
and sandy beach. We had a succulent breakfast with 
Messrs. Gillet and Selby (Linott and Spink), to whose 
unceasing kindness and hospitality we afterwards ran 
heavily in debt. There we bade adieu to our genial 
captain and our jovial fellow-travellers.” 
From Axim the travellers visited a stretch of country 
in the vicinity of the coast, extending some distance west 
of that town, and Prince’s River to the east of it; and 
then ascended the Ancobra as far as Tumentu, situated 
about twenty-two miles from its mouth. After inspecting 
this last locality Capt. Burton returned to Madeira, 
leaving Capt. Cameron to continue his surveys inland as 
far as Crockerville, a mining settlement about forty-five 
miles north-east of Axim. Capt. Cameron left the 
African coast on March 28, 1882, and having picked up 
Capt. Burton at Madeira they proceeded together to 
Liverpool. 
Rich alluvial deposits as well as auriferous quartz reefs 
are described as occurring abundantly, but the hydrau- 
licing of the former is strongly recommended in prefer- 
ence to the mining and crushing of the latter. This 
opinion is so constantly reiterated that the explorers 
would appear to believe that a large portion of the 
“Dark Continent’? would pay for washing. Water is 
stated to be plentiful, and facilities for hydraulic mining 
are represented as being very general. 
“Wherever catas or ‘women’s washings’ are found 
we can profitably apply the hydraulic system of sluicing 
and fluming, not by an upper reservoir only, but also 
from below, by a force pump. Water is procurable at 
all seasons by means of Norton’s Abyssinian tubes, and 
the brook-beds dammed above and below will form 
perennial tanks.” 
In California as much as fifteen hundred and seventy 
cubic feet, or forty-three tons of water, under a pressure 
of four hundred feet, are sometimes discharged per minute 
from a single nozzle; it is therefore evident that any 
supply to be obtained from Abyssinian tubes, and pumped 
against an auriferous bank, would, in comparison with 
such a power as that described, possess only the force 
of an ordinary garden squirt. 
About five-sixths of the letterpress are from the facile 
pen of Capt. Burton, the remainder being contributed by 
his companion, who appears to have done good work by 
determining the position of various places, of which the 
exact situation was previously unknown. Collections of 
plants and birds were also made. 
Although somewhat diffuse, these volumes contain much 
information very pleasantly conveyed, but even in the case 
of gold-mining, caution is often to be recommended. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
4 Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection. By H. Newell 
Martin, D.Sc., M.D., M.A., and William A. Moule, 
M.D. Part I. How to Dissect a Chelonian, (New 
York : Macmillan and Co., 1881.) 
SINCE the publication of Huxley and Martin’s ‘ Ele- 
mentary Biology,’’ there has been a growing want of 
more books constructed on the same model. Without 
such books it is exceedingly difficult for a student to dis- 
sect and thoroughly understand the anatomy of an animal 
which he has never examined before; and though many 
of the large teaching centres have their own laboratory 
directions,-which, with the help of demonstrators, fulfil 
all requirements, there are few reliable practical books 
which can be bought by the private student. 
