Marck 27, 1884] 



NA TURE 



501 



made its appearance, and the circumstances attending its 

 publication arc, as the editor informs us, without prece- 

 dent in the nineteen years during whicli this important 

 and most valuable annual has been issued. The sudden 

 death on the Niger of Mr. VV. A. Forbes, the late re- 

 corder of the literature relating to the mammals, was soon 

 followed by the loss of the help of Mr. Howard Saunders 

 in the arduous work concerning the recording of the 

 literature of the birds. These severe losses have been 

 supplied by Mr. Oldfield Thomas and Mr. R. B. Sharpe. 

 In the records of the fishes Mr. Boulenger has had the 

 assistance of Mr. R. Ogilvie-Grant. Mr. Ridley has 

 handed the recording of the Protozoa over to Mr. W. 

 Saville Kent, and the Myriapod literature has fallen to 

 Mr. I. D. Gibson-Carmichael. It thus happens that of 

 the recorders who, just twenty years ago, assisted Dr. 

 Gunther in the arduous undertaking of bringing out the 

 first volume of this work, but one, Dr. E. von Martens, 

 still responds to the editor's call, though happily all of 

 the first recorders still survive to overlook and appreciate 

 the labours of their successors. 



The editor apologises for some slight delay in the ap- 

 pearance of the volume, owing to the mechanical difficul- 

 ties brought about by all these changes, difficulties only 

 to be thoroughly understood by those who have expe- 

 rienced them, and which we trust will not trouble the 

 editor again. It is not without interest to note that nearly 

 two-thirds of this volume is compiled by officers of the 

 Natural History Department of the British Museum ; 

 indeed, if we include Dr. E. von Martens' work, and 

 remember that he occupies the position of assistant in 

 the Natural History Museum of Berlin, it would appear 

 that over 600 out of 700 pages have been compiled by 

 writers whose lives are devoted to the subjects about which 

 they write. 



The editor has again to thank the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science and the Government 

 Grant Committee of the Royal Society for kindly aid in 

 assistance of the publication. The number of new genera 

 and sub-genera recorded in this volume is 1015 asagainst 

 1438 in the last volume, and it will be remembered that 

 this latter number included 483 new genera made by 

 Haeckel. 



Each recorder seems to have executed his share of the 

 work well and painstakingly. The special treatment of the 

 literature of each group is on the lines of that followed in 

 the later volumes of the series. We warmly congratulate 

 the Zoological Record Association on the result of their 

 editor's labours. 



Sketches of North- IVfshrii Mongolia. Vol. IV. — Ethno- 

 graphicitt Materials. By G. N. Potanin. 102; pages, 

 with 26 Plates (Russian). (St. Petersburg : Published 

 by the Russian Geographical Society.) 

 The first tvTo volumes of this important work contained 

 the results of the journeys by the author in 1876 and 

 1877. The third, which is in print, will contain the geo- 

 graphical materials collected during the journey of 1879, 

 and the volume we have before us deals with the ethno- 

 graphical part of the same journey. It begins with an 

 enumeration of the Turkish and Mongolian peoples who 

 inhabit the region : Tartars, Uryankhays, Kirghiz, 

 Durbuts, Darkhats, and Buryats, with the legends cur- 

 rent about their origin. There is no general sketch 

 of the populations dealt with ; the aim of the author 

 seems to have been to give in this volume a col- 

 lection of materials, rather than to enter the field of 

 general conclusions. With regard to the former, the 

 present volume is a most valuable one. We find in it 

 interesting facts as to the family,, social, and religious life 

 of the inhabitants ; a list of names of stars, plants, and 

 animals, together with the beliefs about them, and 

 finally, their legends and folk-lore. Of these, no less ihin 

 200 are given, containing a rich and new source of infor- 



mation. On almost every one of the 500 pages occu- 

 pied by these legends and tales one is attracted 

 either by their poetical beauty or by the light they 

 throw on the mythology and popular conceptions of the 

 inhabitants of this border region of Central Asia ; 

 while M. Potanin's name is the best warrant for the 

 accuracy of the transcription of the legends reported. 

 However rich this material, one hesitates to say which 

 of the two is more valuable, the folk-lore published, or 

 the annotations which follow them. These last cover 300 

 pages of small type, and we find there, philological 

 explanations, comparisons with the legends of other 

 Finnish tribes, most valuable materials for comparative 

 mythology, and so on, all being the result of a thorough 

 study of nearly the whole of the Russian literature of the 

 subject, disseminated through periodicals of the most 

 various descriptions. While perusing these invaluable 

 materials one only regrets that the author has not yet 

 been brought to summarise his wide studies and to draw 

 therefrom some conclusions which may enter into the 

 domain of science. In any case a careful index of all 

 matter mentioned in the volume would much facilitate 

 the researches. The plates represent mostly the pictured 

 tambourines of the shamans and the o/igons (holy pictures 

 and idols) of the Tartars, Uryankhays, and Buryats. 



P. K. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does )tot hold liintself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications , 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

 as short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great 

 that it is impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 

 of comntunications containing interesting and novel /acts,'\ 



Quintino Sella 



It is proposed to place a bronze wreath on the tomb of the 

 distinguished Italian geologist and statesman, Quintino Sella. 

 English geologists are invited to expre.ss their sympathy with 

 their Italian fellow-workers by sending in their names «ith a 

 -■■mall subscription. 1 have been requested to bring the matter 

 before their notice, and to collect the subscriptions in this 

 country. Thos. M 'Kenny Hughes 



Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge, March 25 



Electrostatic Measurement of E.M.F. 



Perhaps you wdl allow me to make known through your 

 columns to those who have from time to time made inquiries 

 concerning my Absolute Sine Electrometer, that, after many 

 months' woik, I have salisfactoiily concluded a series of experi- 

 ments with the instrument which was made for Prof. Anthony. 

 When this instrument was finished last year, I made some ob- 

 servations with it which were so unsatisfactory that I did not 

 feel jusiified in allowing it to be sent to America. I have now, 

 however, removed all the difficulties connected with it, and I 

 uniformly obtain results perfectly consistent onev\ith another. 

 Indeed my difficulties during the last six weeks were due to the 

 fact of my employing cells which were not sufficiently constant, 

 and not to any fault of the electrometer, a fact which I did not 

 realise for some time. 



1 hope to publish in a few days a full report on the various 

 points connected with the instrument and on the experimental 

 results obtained. George M. Minchin 



Koy.al Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill, March 24 



Pons' Comet 

 This comet has been visible here some time. I first saw it at 

 9 p.m. on January 15, but only for two or three minutes, through 

 the clouds. On the following evening (January 16) I saw it 

 well. To the naked eye it looked like a star of the first mag- 

 niuide seen through a haze ; the tail was visible, but not at all 

 conspicuous. In the telescope (4-inch) the head was large, but 



