lOO 



NATURE 



\yune 6. 1872 



the headwaters of the Narbadu, the Tapti, the Sone, and 

 affluents of the M.'ih.'inadi. 



The author, who, in the course of his profess'i)nal 

 duties, acquired a close and intimate acquaintance wiih 

 the country and its inhabitants, commences by givini; a 

 sketch of tlie probable history of the various races found 

 in this wild and, until lately, almost unexplored country — 

 races whose ethnological and religious history po;s'.s5 

 peculiar interest ; because here the Aboriginal tribes, the 

 races of mixed Aryan and Aboriginal blood, and the 

 Hindoos proper, can be found living side by side ; and 

 the effects of the colonisation of the district by the 

 Aryans of Hindustan can be traced out with some de- 

 gree of clearness. 



A considerable portion of the book is devoted to the 

 author's sporting experiences. These he relates in a lively 

 and spirited style ; but as the reminiscences of Indian 

 sportsmen hive a strong family likeness, this part of the 

 book does not call for much notice, except tint the author 

 appears to make rather too light of the danger of bison- 

 shooting, and makes some statements concerning this 

 game which are scarcely correct, one of these statements 

 being that the animal is always known under the name of 

 l>h\iisa, or more correctly hluiinsa (a word resembling in 

 sound the English word bison), and never zs gaiir. Now 

 in the very district of Northern Belaspiir which the 

 author describes in the latter portion of the book, there 

 is a high and prominent hill much frequented by these 

 animals, and called in consequence Gaur-duilri, or the 

 pass of the bison. The author also appears to confound 

 the bison of Central India with the similar but not 

 identical animal, known as the Mithan or Mithna, 

 found on the hill ranges of Eastern and North-Eastern 

 Bengal. 



From the description given of some of the shrines and 

 pilgrimages met with in these hill districts, an idea may 

 be formed of the way in which the Hinduism of Hindus- 

 tan proper has been localised ; and how the scenes of 

 some of the principal events of Hindu mythology have 

 been transferred from the Ganges and Jumna to the Nar- 

 bada and its adjacent heights. 



The latter portion of the volume is devoted in a great 

 measure to the country lying under and cast of the Mykul 

 range ; that is the range which, according to the author's 

 definition, forms the eastern boundary of the Highlands 

 of Central India. This tract of country is remarkable, 

 because it presents, perhaps, the greatest sweep of un- 

 broken jungle and forest to be found in India south of the 

 Ganges and Brahmaputra. It is neither plain nor hill, 

 but rocky with gentle undulations, and covered with 

 forest. Only a few miserable villages are found through- 

 out the whole country; just enough to make its wildness 

 and desolation more striking. Such a country, unfitted by 

 nature for cultivation, and exhaling a deadly malaria, must 

 long remain the home of the elephant, the tiger, and of the 

 animals on which the latter preys ; nor are there found any 

 remains or traditions which would indicate that the place 

 had ever been more thickly populated than it is at present. 

 Here man is the inferior animal, and the wild elephant 

 is the lord of the country. He roams at will from place 

 to place, and, just when the unhappy villager looks to 

 gather in his scanty rice crop, wrung with difficulty out 

 of an unwilling soil, he invades the fields and browses 



at leisure on the ripening grain, utterly scorning the 

 fee'ole efiorts of the hapless owner to drive him away. 

 Probably no European has braved the deadly malarii 

 of the country at the time of the ripening of the rice crop, 

 or that of the drying up of the rains, but the deep and 

 enormous foot-prints imprinted in almost every field by 

 this jungle ravager remain visible throughout the dry 

 season, and tell the tale of spoliation only too plainly. 



Throughout this distric-, and indeed with most of the 

 tribes who inhabit the wilder and more remote parts of 

 Central India, such religion as the people possess is 

 "devil" worship and fetishism, with just so much gloss f f 

 Hinduism as may be imparted by a rare visit to a Hindu 

 shrine, or the presence of a brahmin whenever anything is 

 to be got — which is seldom. 



A Gond legend, taken down from the lips of one of 

 their most celebrated bards, and translated by the author 

 into blank verse, in imitation of Longfellow's " Song of 

 Hiawatha," is given a'; length ;' it is interesting because it 

 brings in here and there some curious little bits of savage 

 life, and also from the very strong resemblance of the 

 whole legend to that on which Longfellow's poem is based. 

 Moreover, as the author points out, a still more curious 

 analogy will suggest itself to the careful reader. 



The whole work is written in a very lively and readable 

 style. It will be found amusing by those fond of sporting 

 anecdotes ; and though the subjects may be thought to 

 have an interest too bcal for the general reader, yet the 

 spectacle here presented of races of men just emerging 

 from utter barbarism, and acquiring the rudiments of 

 civilisation, gives to the country and its inhabitants aa 

 interest which it would not otherwise possess. 



M. T. Sale 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Lcilure Notes for Chemical Sliidt'>!fs.~Vo\. II. Organic 

 Chemistry. By E. Frankland, D.C.L., F.R.S. (Lon- 

 don : John Van Voorst.) 

 In this, the second part of" Lecture Notes for Chemical 

 Students," Dr. Frankland develops very fully his own 

 peculiar notation. The use of thick letters, as C H^ ; of 

 contracted symbols for many organic radicles, as Ayo for 

 C%H„0 ; of a peculiar way of writing the formula of well- 

 known substances, so as at first sight to make them ap- 

 pear as if they were new compounds, as NPhO,, repre- 

 senting nitrobenzol ; these and a few other remarkable 

 characteristics will make this book, we should think, seem 

 rather startling to the ordinary student. By combining 

 attendance on lectures on organic chemistry with careful 

 reading and a good deal of patient work, the student will 

 find these "Lecture Notes" very useful, containing as 

 they do, in small space, the results of the latest investiga- 

 tions as these bear upon the molecular constitution of 

 organic compounds. Very large use is made of graphic 

 formula-, and also of the theory of types. The types used 

 are somewhat different from those with which we arc 

 familiar in the text-books, and certainly the names applied 

 to them are derived more from an anatomical than a che- 

 mical vocabulary ; thus, the marsh gas type is termed 

 the " Monadelphic," the methyl type the " Diadelphic," 

 and so on. The very useful and scientific method of 

 writing the formuke of all organic acids, as containing 

 the group COHO ; all alcohols, as containing CH.HO ; 

 and all aldehydes, as containing COH, is adopted 

 throughout. The relations of alcohols, aldehydes, and 



