April T, 1887] 



NATURE 



531 



which the rainless zone is most pronounced. With the 

 possible exception of Pisagua, there is no inhabited place 

 where drinkable water is to be had, and yet the wants 

 (or greed) of men have established many industrial settle- 

 ments along the coast for the purpose of working mines 

 of silver, copper, and lead, and digging deposits of 

 alkaline nitrates. Drinking-water is, in most of these 

 towns, provided by the distillation of sea-water ; in others 

 it is imported. Nine such places were touched at by the 

 steamer ; their features were uniform, and, we nny add, 

 uniformly repulsive : chemical works with tall chimneys, 

 sheds of reeds for workmen, a few clean-looking houses 

 for managers, and grog-shops. At one of these, Tocopilla, 

 Mr. Ball observes : — "At last I found, what I had often 

 heard of, but in whose existence I had almost ceased to 

 believe, a land absolutely without a trace of vegetable 

 life. Not only was there no green thing ; not even a 

 speck of lichen that I could detect, though I looked at the 

 rocks through a lens. Even more than by the absence of 

 life I was impressed by the appearance of the surface, 

 which showed no token that water had ever flowed over 

 it. Every edge of rock was sharp, as if freshly broken, 

 and on the steep slope no trace of a channel furrowed its 

 face. The aspect is absolutely that of the scenery of the 

 moon — of a world without water, and without an atmo- 

 sphere." Curiously enough, small birds, which live on 

 stable manure, were the only trace of indigenous animal 

 life ; what they were Mr. Ball could not approach 

 them near enough to see. Seaweeds, however, though 

 scarce, occurred in pools left by the tide, and relieved the 

 barren coast from the curse of being without vegetation. 

 At Caldera, the port of Copiapo, vegetation begins, and, 

 though the environs are sandy, bushes and inclosed 

 gardens are to be seen, and at Coquimbo green is, in the 

 spring at any rate, a dominant colour. On May 9, Mr. 

 Ball disembarked at Valparaiso, and made that town and 

 .Santiago his headquarters for twenty days. During this 

 period he made numberless observations on the scenery, 

 climate, vegetation, and geographical features, many of 

 which th 'Ugh referring to matters that are familiar to 

 every scientific reader, abound in thought and shrewd- 

 ness, and are exceedingly instructive. Leaving Val- 

 paraiso, the voyager entered a totally different region of 

 America, physically and biologically, and into it we shall 

 follow him in a future number. 



( To be conlinuciL) 



COLEOPTERA OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 

 The Coleoplcra of the Drilish Islands. A Descriptive 

 Account of the Families, Genera, and Species indige- 

 nous to Great Britain and Ireland ; with Notes as to 

 Localites, Habitats, &c. By the Rev. W. W. Fowler, 

 M.A. \'ol. I. Adephaga — Hydrophilidse. Pp. xxii. 

 and 269. Two Plates. (London : Lovell Reeve, 1887.) 

 "TOURING the last thirty years, seven or eight distinct 

 •L-' catalogues of British Coleoptera have been pub- 

 lished, and have met with an encouraging sale ; hence 

 there can be no doubt that there exists a considerable 

 number of collectors of British Coleoptera. But no really 

 satisfactory systematic work on this department of the 

 aun;E of our islands exists, and Mr. Fowler has done well 



in attempting to supply such an one. The earlier works 

 of Curtis and Stephens are, for obvious reasons, of little 

 practical use in the present day, and though, twelve years 

 ago, Mr. H. E. Cox published a hand boik of British 

 Coleoptera in two volumjs, it cannot be said to have been 

 the work required, owing to the facts that it contained no 

 reference to localities, and that it consisted entirely of 

 systematic tables, without the addition of any matter that 

 could make it a pleasant book to use. 



In the work now before us, the author has b:en very 

 successful as regards these points ; he adopts the system 

 of tables, but gives, in addition, brief diagnostic descrip- 

 tions of all the species, and satisfactory details of locali- 

 ties and the distribution in our islands. In his prefatory 

 remarks he very properly calls attention to the necessity 

 of access to collections of an elementary nature, so that 

 the student shall have some elementary notions about, at 

 any rate, a few beetles before attempting to use the work. 

 There can be no doubt that he is quite correct as to this 

 point, and it may be hoped that the local museums and 

 school collections that are now becoming numerous 

 throughout the country will be of great use in this respect ; 

 and for this object such institutions should possess a small 

 but well-selected general collection in addition to that of 

 their local fauna. 



There are now about 3200 species of Coleoptera on the 

 British list, and the present volume deals with only about 

 one-sixth of these, so that the work when completed will 

 be of considerable extent. The author promises to give, 

 when it is concluded, an introduction to the system of 

 classification employed in it. This is, indeed, indispens- 

 able, as at present the student ii not supplied with any 

 definitions of the " series " which form the basis of the 

 arrangement used. He already finds, however, under the 

 various subdivisions, remarks on classifi:ation and affini- 

 ties ; these are usually well considered, and will, no 

 doubt, increase greatly the interest of the work, and, it 

 may be hoped, will induce the student to extend his 

 studies to questions of greater interest and importance 

 than the determination of the names of species. 



The Coleoptera are an enormous order of insects, com- 

 prising already fully 100 000 species, and as their organis- 

 ation is such that the details of their external structure 

 can be readily observed, much has already been done 

 towards establishing a natural classification of the order. 

 The author has made himself well acquainted with the 

 various recent improvements in this department, and 

 acknowledges in the frankest manner his obligations to 

 authorities in various parts of the world. There are some 

 points of general interest as to the British Coleopterous 

 fauna, such as the number of species peculiar to the 

 islands, but the work before us has not yet sufficiently 

 advanced to enable such points to be discussed with 

 advantage, and we may perhaps find occasion at a future 

 time to consider them. 



It would be a very great advantage if zoologists could 

 agree on a system of names for the various aggregates 

 larger than genera. Mr. Fowler's work only gives the 

 individual names of these larger aggregates, and dis- 

 tinguishes them merely by rather slight typographical 

 distinctions ; as a consequence, the student finds himself 

 introduced to a large number of these names in rapid 

 succession, and they must be rather a source of bewilder- 



