2 NATURE 
western dialects), but in a thorough-going fashion 
by another Anglican missionary with a German 
name, Schlenker. Mr. Thomas’s work, however, 
in Temne, as in Bulom, is quite original, and is 
most useful in enabling us to understand the struc- 
ture and phonology of these two forms of Semi- 
Bantu speech, and moreover represents them as 
they are spoken to-day. Mr. Thomas will prob- 
ably quarrel with me for the frequent announce- 
ment that Temne and Bulom are “ Semi-Bantu.” 
He does not take up such a decided line himself, 
any more than he has done about some of the 
Semi-Bantu languages he was the first to illus- 
trate in the Cross River basin. But I claim the 
right to be more dogmatic, since I have had of 
late opportunities of dealing somewhat thoroughly 
with the Semi-Bantu languages and their affinities 
with the Bantu, and have come to the conclusion 
(foreshadowed many years ago by the great 
philologist, Bleek) that Temne and Bulom, like 
the languages of Portuguese Guinea, Togoland, 
and Eastern Nigeria, must be classed as Semi- 
Bantu. 
Vol. i. of Mr. Thomas’s work deals with the 
laws and customs of the Mendi, Gola, Kisi, Koné, 
Timne, Loké, Limba, Yalunka, Koranko, Vai, 
and Susu peoples. (I quote his spelling, not 
always mine.) This volume contains excellent 
photographs of ethnic types. Another volume 
deals generally with the languages of Sierra Leone 
(besides Temne and Bulom): the Krim, Kisi, 
Limba dialects, Susu, Koranko, Yalunka, Koné, 
Vai, Mende, Loké, and Fula. This will be par- 
ticularly valuable for its treatment of the little- 
known and unclassified Limba (the speech of an 
interesting cattle-keeping tribe) and Loké. Loké, 
I fancy, has not been written down before. 
I might state, in conclusion, that Mr. Thomas’s 
work requires careful study and digestion before 
one can theorise from it. 
H. H. Jounston. 
AMERICAN NATURE-STUDY. 
(1) The Life of Inland Waters. An elementary 
text-book of freshwater biology for American 
students. By Prof. James G. Needham and 
J. T. Lloyd. Pp. 438. (New York: The Com- 
stock Publishing Co., 1916.) Price 3 dollars. 
(2) Wild Flowers of the North American Moun- 
tains. By Julia W. Henshaw. Pp. 383. (Lon- 
don and New York: McBride, Nast and Co., 
Ltd., 1916.) Price ros. 6d. net. 
(3) Hitting the Dark Trail, Starshine 
Thirty Years of Night. 
Pp. 191. (London: George G. Harrap and 
Co., 1916.) Price 3s. 6d. net. 
(1) qoROF: J. G. NEEDHAM, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, and his colleague, Mr. J. T. Lloyd, 
have prepared an introduction to the study of 
freshwater organisms—their adaptations, asso- 
ciations, and economic possibilities. The subject is 
an interesting one, the authors are enthusiasts and 
experts; the book should certainly give.a stimulus 
to limnology. After dealing with the physical and 
chemical conditions of the freshwater environ- 
NO. 2445, VOL. 98] 
through 
By Clarence Hawkes. 
[SEPTEMBER 7, 1916 
ment, and its relation to the land-surface, the 
authors discuss the various types of lakes and 
ponds, of streams, of marshes, swamps, 
bogs, and the. difference between high and low 
water in each case. Then comes a vivid, well- 
illustrated survey of the freshwater plants and 
animals. The subject of adaptations is also very 
successfully handled. Flotation is helped by the 
outgrowth of slender prolongations and by the 
production of oils, gases, and jelly. Movement is 
facilitated by the “stream-line form” familiar in 
fishes. Animals living near the shore have adap- 
tations for avoiding silt, for burrowing, for 
making shelters, for withstanding the rush of 
water. Seasonal vicissitudes are circumvented by 
adaptations for lying low, such as _ statoblasts, 
ephippia, and hibernacula. The secondary adapta- 
tion of originally terrestrial types to aquatic life 
is also discussed. Inter-organismal adaptations 
find fine illustrations in the bladderwort and in 
the dependence of the larve of freshwater mussels 
on fish hosts. This leads on to associations or 
societies, whether in the open-water (limnetic) or 
by the shores (littoral), the latter being again 
divided into still-water (lenitic) and rapid-water 
(lotic) societies. The studies end up with a sugges- 
tive chapter on water-culture, which is not too 
dismally utilitarian. As an elementary introduc- 
tion to a fascinating study the book is admirable 
—clear, interesting, educative, and of moderate 
size. It is abundantly illustrated, and many of the 
figures have had brains put into their construc- 
tion. 
(2) Mrs. Henshaw has done good service in 
compiling a convenient flora of the North Ameri- 
can mountains by means of which travellers can 
get to know a little about the characteristic alpine 
flowers. A terse diagnosis is given of each 
species, and then follow less formal descriptive 
notes in which there is occasionally a breeze of 
enthusiasm rather unusual in “Floras.” The 
arrangement is popular—mainly according to 
colour—but there is a scientific classification as 
well. There are sixty-four fine photographs and 
seventeen beautiful coloured plates. 
(3) The author of ‘‘ Hitting the Dark Trail” was 
accidentally blinded by bird-shot when a boy of 
fourteen, and the book tells with delightful frank- 
ness and simplicity how he has made a success of 
his life in the true sense. The “menace of the 
years,” as Henley called it, found him unafraid, 
and in spite of grim difficulties and discourage- 
ments he has remained “master of his fate and 
captain of his soul.” Not only so; he has been 
able to trade with the visual gains of his early 
years, when he got a good grounding in wood- — 
craft, and to get for himself and to give to many 
others a great deal of pleasure out of thirty years 
of Nature-study without eyes. Mr. Hawkes has 
written a number of popular “animal bio- 
graphies”; he has now essayed the more difficult 
task of writing his.own. He succeeds consider- 
ably by being perfectly natural. The auto- 
biography reveals a fine quality of pluck, to 
reward which ought not to tax the resources of 
American civilisation. 
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