October i ■ 



1910] 



NATURE 



465 



duced ; perhaps the most interesting is that of a tad- 

 pole with three legs, the right front limb not yet 

 having emerged from the opercular fold. A book 

 which might interest a novice in "nature-study." 



(4) In " Insect Wonderland " the author endeavours 

 to interest little children in the natural history of 

 insects bv conversations between insects and flowers, 

 birds, &c., to which the insects describe their life and 

 habits. It may be doubted whether this method is 

 really more attractive to children than straightforward 

 accounts, if written simply and easily, but in any 

 case, it is unfoitunate to write of Mr. Bee when the 

 individual speak.'ng is a worker, or of the orange-tip 

 butterfly as "slu-," when the orange colour is confined 

 to the male. 1 fie flowers and insects described as 

 talking together also are not all to be found at the 

 same season. Otherwise the descriptions are clear 

 and good ; the illustrations are pretty, but not always 

 easv to understand. 



(s) "The Landscape Beautiful" is written by an 

 American "landscape architect," to encourage the 

 appreciation of beauty in nature and in gardens. The 

 first five chapters (" Essays ") are in praise of natural 

 beautv in its broader aspects, followed by a chapter 

 to prove that landscape gardening is entitled to a place 

 among the fine arts, since it combines all the objects 

 and technical difficulties of painting and sculpture. 

 This subject is amplified in the succeeding chapters, 

 which deal especially with Ainerican landscape garden- 

 ing, and the need for a greater appreciation of beauty 

 and care for its preservation bv the American people. 

 The concluding chapter on " Some Practical Applica- 

 tions," describing the methods used or suggested by 

 the author for encouraging the study of natural beautv 

 in schools is particularly interesting, and might well 

 be read by teachers of "nature-study." The book is 

 pleasantly written and illustrated by very pretty photo- 

 graphs bv members of "The Postal Photographic 

 Club." 



(6) "Bees for Profit and Pleasure" is a practical 

 handbook to bee-keeping, written by an expert on the 

 subject. It points out the advantages of keeping bees 

 either for pleasure or as a supplementary source of 

 income, gives a clear, concise account of their natural 

 history and habits, and a good account of the various 

 kinds of hives and other apparatus, with prices, but 

 in some places the mention of apparatus not described 

 until later in the book might cause some difficulty 

 to the beginner. The instructions for successful 

 management are straightforward and interesting, and 

 the book is provided with an index. 



THE GEOLOGY AND ARCHJEOLOGV OF 

 0RANG1A.\ ._ 



THIS work is the fourth of a series containing 

 the author's personal observations and conclu- 

 sions on the economic geology and archeology of 

 South .'\frica. The present volume is devoted to 

 Orangia, where the author has resided in practice 

 as a mining engineer; his work gave him excellent 

 opportunities for observation and research, and he has 

 used his chances with admirable industry and judg- 

 ment. ■ 



The first chapters are devoted mainly to the geology 

 of Orangia, which is of less interest, owing to its 

 monotonous 'uniformity, than that of any other South 

 African State. Most of the country is occupied by 

 rocks belonging to the Karoo system. The granitic 

 mass of Vredeport outcrops near the northern frontier, 

 and is surrounded by a -belt of rocks corresponding to 

 those of the Rand goldfield, which is situated further 



"Geological and Archajol Jgical Notes on Oranaia." By J. P. Johnson. 

 Pp. vi-i-io2. (London: Longmans and Co., 1910.) Price loj. 



NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



to the north. The extension of the Rand series under 

 the Karoo has been proved by the bores recently made 

 under the superintendence of Mr. A. R. Sawyer, and 

 some of the results revealed by those boring opera- 

 tions are stated in the work. ' Mr. Johnson gives a 

 short account of the diamond-bearing pipes of 

 northern Orangia; he describes especially the Roberts- 

 Victor Mine, of which he was for soine time the 

 mining engineer. This mine, among other points of 

 iiiterest, has yielded. an ecloglte boulder; containing 

 diamonds, which has been described by Dr. Corstor- 

 phine. The first such occurrence was found in the 

 Newlands Mine at Kimberley, and is well known frop' 

 the classical paper by Prof. Bonney. Mr. Johnson 

 rejects the view that the eclogite was the original 

 matrix of the diamond, and his conclusion is supported 

 by the results of Mr. Gardner Williams's elaborate 

 test, which proved by testing a large number that these 

 boulders at Kimberley are barren of diamonds. He 

 adopts the conclusions that the kimberlite, the igneous 

 rock that fills the diamond-bearing pipes, is due to the 

 intrusion of a _, . 



magma at a com- '' ~- 



paratively 1 o w 



temperature. - . 



Mr. Johnson's 

 archaeological con- 

 tributions include 

 figures and de- 

 scriptions of many 

 rock paintings, of 

 which one is here 

 reproduced ; the 

 figures show no 

 new general re- 

 sults, but they are 

 interesting addi- 

 tions to those pre- 

 viously recorded. 

 They are cruder 

 than manv of 

 those foi.md in 

 South Africa, as 

 s h o w n by the 

 exaggerated stea- 

 topygy in one of 

 the figures. Mr. 

 Johnson has dili- 

 gently collected 

 stone implements 

 at many localities 

 la Orangia, and investigated 

 ancient settlements. At one 

 700 stone implements from a 

 a short time. Mr. Johnson's most original 

 archceological contribution is the claim that the stone 

 implements belong to two separate periods, which he 

 compares with the Acheulian and Solutrian of 

 Europe. In some localities he found his .'\cheulic type 

 — a common form of which he calls amygdaliths — 

 below the alluvium and the Solutrian above it. The 

 author candidly remarks at the end of his discussion 

 of this question that his observations may merely 

 prove that some of his Acheulic are older than some 

 of his Solutric implements. This caution appears 

 justified, as the results stated are not quite convincing, 

 and more details as to the depths at which the imple- 

 ments were found would be useful. 



In his agricultural notes the author directs atten- 

 tion to the great progress that has been made in 

 Orangia by the adoption of the methods often known 

 as "dry farming," which have long been used by 

 farmers on our chalk downs. They have only recently 

 been adopted in South Africa, where they have already 



Representation of Zebra, Hippotragus, and 

 Quagga pecked and engraved on rock. 



. isfonte: 

 " Geological 



(Scale J.) Reduced fro:n 

 id Archaeological Notes on 



the sites of many 

 site he collected 

 a small area in 



