July 29, 1880] 



NATURE 



The Appendix contains an interesting account of a 

 Japanese orchestra, many historical notes, and various 

 information of great ethnological value. The notes 

 throughout the book are very interesting, and some of 

 them amusing. Thus, when the Ronin are crowding round 

 the body of their victim they shout, " Happy are wc as' the 

 Moki when he found his waif." In the note we learn that 

 " the Moki, according to a Chinese fable, was a species of 

 sea-tortoise with one eye in its belly. For three thou- 

 sand years the monster had longed to see the light, but 

 in vain. One day, while swimming about the surface of 

 the sea, it came into contact with a piece of drift-wood, 

 to which it immediately clung in such a manner that the 

 belly was uppermost under the wood, a ragged hole in 

 which fortunately allowed the tortoise the opportunity of 

 at last satisfying its long-cherished desire. There is a 

 curious note on p. 120 on an allusion in the text as 

 follows : — "Allusion is here made to the practice of 

 hacking at the dead bodies of criminals, by which the 

 young Samurahi was wont to perfect himself in swords- 

 manship under the old order of things. Treatises exist 

 upon this repulsive art — for an art it seems to have been 

 considered — and one of the commonest of picture-rolls 

 used to represent the various cuts, distinguished by special 

 names, by practising which the aspirant could best learn 

 on the dead subject to qualify himself for mangling the 

 living one." 



The Appendix contains a translation in verse of a 

 popular Japanese ballad which is often sung as a kind of 

 epithalamium, and which gives a pleasing conception of 

 Japanese poetry. We commend the book to all our 

 readers. H. N. MOSELEY 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Loch Etive and the Sons ofUisnach. With Illustrations. 



(London : Macmillan and Co.) 

 All sorts of epithets have recently been applied to Oban 

 ^the Brighton of Scotland, by those whose highest ideal 

 of heaven is " London by the Sea " ; the future Liverpool 

 of the North, according to one of its most constant 

 wooers, that enthusiastic Celt, Prof. Blackie; the " Charing 

 Cross of the Highlands," a picturesque placard of one of 

 the railway companies informs the public. Lut to those 

 who have been there and know from impressive experi- 

 ence all the romantic beauties of island and loch and 

 rugged coast to which the modern Argyllshire coast town 

 is the key, no epithet however ingenious is half so ex- 

 pressive and beautiful as simple " Oban" itself, especially 

 since the " Princess of Thule " has shed a glory over all 

 the Western Islands from Stornoway southwards. But 

 there is the glamour of a story much older than that 

 which William Black has told so well hovering around 

 some of the lochs and headlands in the neighbourhood 

 of Oban. It is this old old story which is told in the 

 anonymous volume before us, the author of which, were 

 we at liberty to reveal his name, our readers would 

 recognise as one occupying a very high rank in a certain 

 department of physical science. The story is that of the 

 early migrations of the Irish Scots to the land which for 

 the last Soo years has borne their name. By the help of 

 a somewhat clumsy dialogue the author takes the reader 

 to some of the localities in and around Loch Etive men- 

 tioned in the half-legendar)' record which remains of these 

 early migrations. He seeks to reproduce the stirring life 

 of the time and localities, takes us to the spots where 

 the Irish emigrants and their distant kinsmen came 

 in contact, unearths the ruins of their houses and forts, 



and the remains of their household utensils and warlike 

 weapons. The work has, however, \vider bearings than 

 its immediate subject, and several important points con- 

 nected with the early "Aryan" migrations are discussed 

 in a style much more in accordance with the canons of 

 scientific investigation, and therefore of common sense, 

 than is usual w^ith those who are in the habit of handling 

 such subjects. The chapter on the Celts is specially 

 interesting ; its breadth of view is admirable. The 

 author's discussion of the question of Celt and Saxon, 

 Aryan and non-Aryan, and in connection therewith the 

 subject of mixture of race, is an excellent specimen of 

 close reasoning, and we strongly commend it to the 

 study of "Saxon" and " Celtic '' enthusiasts. To those 

 who read this work with care and with the help of a good 

 map a new interest will be added to Oban and its 

 vicinity, which is now rendered so accessible by the 

 opening of the Oban Railway. The numerous illustra- 

 tions will be found really helpful ; and grand and musical 

 as the names of many of the places illustrated are in 

 themselves, they will be clothed with a lively significance 

 to those who take the trouble to study the legends of 

 the Sons of Uisnach. 



The Birds, Fishes, and Cetacca commonly frequenting 

 Belfast Lough. By Robert Lloyd Patterson. (London: 

 David Bogue, 1880.) 

 This work does not purport to be a scientific treatise, but 

 to be a record of many years' obser\-ations on the cetacea, 

 birds, and fishes found commonly frequenting Belfast 

 Lough. This lough is, in its way, almost classic ground 

 to the naturalist, and in connection with the treasures to 

 be found around its shores or in its waters, the names of 

 Thompson, Hyndman, Templeton, Haliday, and that of 

 the father of the author of this volume, will ever be asso- 

 ciated. The lough is favourably situated for receiving 

 the visits of birds, though the great and still increasing 

 traffic through it must to some extent frighten away many 

 a species ; and in grandeur of beauty and variety of life 

 it will not favourably compare with the fine fjord-like 

 bays of Western Ireland. Mr. Patterson tells us that the 

 greater portion of the matter in this volume was originally 

 brought together in the fonn of papers, which were read 

 at different times before the Belfast Natural History and 

 Philosophical Society, which will account in great mea- 

 sure for their style and for their being somewhat discur- 

 sive ; still the volume is for the most part pleasant reading, 

 and every now and then we come across very interesting 

 and novel facts. In the chapter about gannets we read 

 a good deal about their great feeding powers, and the 

 following estimate of how many herrings the Scotch gan- 

 nets cat in a year is noteworthy ; it is given on the authority 

 of Commander M'Donald, of H.M. cruiser Vigilant. Of 

 the five Scotch stations where the gannet breeds, the 

 number of birds frequenting each is put down as fol- 

 lows : — Ailsa Craig, 12,000; the Bass Rock, 12,000; St. 

 Kilda, 50,000 ; the Stack, 50,000 ; Gula Sgeir, 300,000, 

 or a total of 424,000. Each of these birds would consume 

 at least a dozen herrings in the day if it could get them ; 

 but estimating the daily average as six to each gannet 

 produces 928,560,000 as the quantity consumed in one 

 year, and reckoning Soo herrings to a barrel gives us 

 1,160,700 barrels captured by the gannets, as against 

 750,000 barrels, the total take by fishermen on the west 

 coast of Scotland for 1872. jNIany more such extracts 

 might we give, but our space is limited, and our desire is 

 to send the reader to the volume itself. Almost every- 

 where throughout the work the author spells the specific 

 names with capital letters, in this overlooking both the 

 rules and practice of men of science. Sometimes, indeed, 

 a specific name, if after a person or place, may be thus 

 spelled without offence, but these exceptional cases should 

 not be made the rule. The volume is dedicated to the 

 memory of the author's father, Robert Patterson, F.R.S. 



