Nov. 5, 1 8 74 J 



NA TURE 



elaboration of detail. We could have wished, indeed, 

 that details had been inserted somewhat less profusely. 

 It can never be possible in maps of the scale of this one 

 (about one-quarter of an inch to a mile) to render, with 

 a sufficient degree of clearness, all the minutia; which are 

 inserted in the great Government Surveys of civilised 

 countries ; nor can it ever have been supposed that this 

 map would do away with the necessity of smaller maps 

 of separate districts on a larger scale. Yet we find, in the 

 map under review, in innumerable places, a mass of 

 details which would have been amply sufficient had it 

 been four times its dimensions, and a consequent want of 

 clearness which is not a little perplexing. In some 

 places, even the fantastic passes made in late years by 

 the followers of the high art of mountaineering have been 

 inserted, whilst in others (in the chain of Mont Blanc, for 

 example) they have been almost entirely omitted, simply 

 from want of space. Thus it appears, to those who are 

 not informed, that in some places there are a great num- 

 ber of such passes, and in others scarcely any, when the 

 reverse is perhaps the case. We should have advocated, 

 both for the sake of consistency and of clearness, the 

 omission of all passes except those of distinct utiHty. 



In point of clearness it must be admitted that the 

 English Alpine Club Map is scarcely equal to the reduc- 

 tion of the Carte Dufour which was published last year 

 in Switzerland,* and this is not surprising. The authori- 

 ties at Bern had to produce a simple reduction of the 

 twenty-five sheet map of Switzerland, which was intended 

 to be useful for general purposes, and to be issued at a 

 low price so that it might be within the reach of everyone, 

 and in this they have succeeded admirably. They had at 

 their command most of the members of the staff who had 

 been employed upon the survey, and thus had little or no 

 difficulty in determining what to omit. This was a great 

 advantage ; for it must be obvious to all that, in reducing 

 a map to a much smaller scale, it is more easy to deter- 

 mine what should be inserted than it is to know what 

 should be left out. This simple fact, no doubt, accounts 

 to some extejit for the over-elaboration of the Alpine 

 Club Map to which we just now referred. Its projectors 

 also adopted the Carte Dufour as the basis of their map 

 so far as Switzerland was concerned, but they had not 

 the command of the \'ery exact and minute topographical 

 information which was possessed at Bern. 



The reduced Swiss map, like the Carte Dufour, is a 

 map of Switzerland, and for the most part stops abruptly 

 at the frontier. The English map, however, is a map of 

 Switzerland ivUli parts of the lu-igliboiiying countries. It 

 extends everywhere sixteen miler, more to the south than 

 the most southern point of the Swiss boundaries, and in 

 some places the country which it embraces (which is r,ot 

 included in the Swiss map) is as much as sixty-five to 

 seventy miles from north to south. In the north and in 

 the west the limits of the two maps are nearly the same, 

 but in the east the English one includes the Orteler and 

 several other important groups of mountains, which are 

 not given in the Swiss one. The superficial area of the 

 Alpine portion of the English map is altogether about 

 one-half greater than that of the other, and the chief value 

 of the map will be found to be in the part of it that 

 represents this land beyond, but bordering the Swiss 

 frontiers. 



It was a comparatively easy task, notwithstanding the 

 complicated and exceedingly elaborate nature of the 

 engraving, to render Switzerland after the Carte Dufour. 

 The chief difficulty in the production of the map has lain 

 in obtaining the material necessary for its completion 

 towards the south. When it was commenced — now nearly 

 ten years ago — there was no map, even respectably accu- 

 rate, of the chain of Mont Blanc in existence ; and thence, 

 right away to the furthest land in the east which is 



educiert unterder Direction desHerrn 

 ,■„,,. (Bern, 1873.) 



included, scarcely a square league could be adopted with 

 confidence from any published sur\ey. Hence it was 

 necessary not only to examine every individual mountain 

 and valley, but absolutely to re-survey several large 

 districts. The chain of Mont Blanc, as it appears in the 

 Alpine Club Map, is mainly taken from the special 

 survey of Mr. Adams Reilly ; * and so, too, is the 

 whole of the southern side of Monte Rosa, as well as 

 the large district bounded on the east by the Val 

 d'Ayas, on the south by the valley of Aosta, and on the 

 west by the valley of Valpelline.f This last-named 

 district alone includes more than 1 50 square miles. The 

 Graian Alps were in a state of hopeless confusion when 

 Mr. R. C. Nichols took them in hand, and anyone who 

 compares the map under notice with the best which were 

 published previously will see what radical changes and 

 corrections have been effected. Altogether, there is in the 

 Alpine Club Map not less than a thousand square miles 

 which have been entirely renrodelled, and, for the most 

 part, re-surveyed ; this, moreover, being some of the most 

 rugged and difficult country in Europe, containing 

 numerous peaks from 12,000 ft. to 13,000 ft. elevation. 



Those who have been concerned in the production of 

 the Alpine Club Map of Switzerland have a right to be 

 proud of their work. We have tested it in the Alps, and 

 it has stood the scrutiny extremely well. We cordially 

 hope, though scarcely expect, that it will prove remune- 

 rative to its publisher, and that he will be induced to com- 

 plete it by adding sheets to the east and to the west, so that 

 at length there may be at least ojik map of the grandest 

 and most picturesque chain of mountains in the world. 

 In conclusion, a word is due to the engravers. The work 

 was commenced by the late Dr. Keith Johnston, but the 

 greater and the most difficult portions have been exe- 

 cuted by Mr. John Addison. We have rarely seen better 

 hill- engraving ; and the wonder is, not that the appear- 

 ance of the map has been delayed so long, but that a 

 work of such magnitude and extraordinary minuteness 

 should have been completed so soon. E. W 



REPORT OF PROF. PARKER'S HUNTERIAN 

 LECTURES "ON THE STRUCTURE AND 

 DEVELOPMENT OF THE VERTEBRATE 

 SKULL" I 



VIII. — Skull 0/ the Common i^i!>a// (Gallus domesticus). 



THE skull of birds is remarkable for the great amount 

 of anchylosis which takes place between its various 

 constituents long before the period of adult life. So 

 complete is this union, that the determination of the sepa- 

 rate bones in a full-grown bird is a perfectly hopeless 

 task, without first studying their relation at a period when 

 they retain their original distinctness. It will therefore be 

 convenient to describe the fowl's skull, in the first instance, 

 at the period of hatching, when the chief ossific centres 

 are still separate, although most of the distinctive cha- 

 racters of the adult are already assumed. 



In this stage the foramen magnum is surrounded by 

 the four perfectly distinct elements of the occipital seg- 

 ment, between which extensive tracts of cartilage still 

 exist. The basi-occipital is comparatively small, and 

 forms almost exclusively the rounded condyle (Fig. 27 

 O.C) ; the ex-occipital and supra-occipital are large and 

 expanded, and into the latter extends the anterior semi- 

 circular canal (Fig. 26, a.s.c), so largely developed in 

 birds. The prootic (Fig. 26, Pr.O) is well seen on the 

 inner side of the cranial cavity, but outside is completely 

 hidden by the great development of the squamosal, which 

 takes a very considerable share in the formation of the 

 side wall of the skull. Two other auditory bones have 



» This has also hcen published separately on a scale of in J.io- 

 f This has been published separately on a scale of tirn'r^on- 

 i Continued froin vol- x. p. 44G. 



