May 31, 1906] 



NA TURE 



99 



from outside is a number of fixed points upon which 

 to " lianj,' " his own surveys. 



'Thus we arrive at the conclusion that more provision 

 must be made for the training of civilian topographers 

 in iliis country, and we are at once confronted by great 

 dil'lKulties. Students learning surveying are usually 

 studying other subjects at the same time, and in the 

 more open parts of these islands where alone it is 

 easy to do small-scale work extending over any con- 

 siderable area, opportunities of studying other subjects 

 are necessarily limited. The question "of time also 

 becomes troublesome, much of what is available being 

 soon spent in getting to and from the scene of opera- 

 tions ; and the climate, difficulties connected with 

 trespass, setting up marks, getting unskilled assist- 

 ance, and so on, are all against the student. Work 

 with ordinary " classes " is for the most part restricted 

 to mapping on a scale of at least three inches to a 

 mile, with " demonstrations " of the nature of 

 secondary triangulation, and bicycle expeditions for 

 practice in rapid sketching over larger areas; beyond 

 this it is necessary to depend on " vacation courses " 

 extending over a week or ten days in the summer. 

 The expedients, however, are more or less of the 

 nature of makeshift, and the student cannot hope to 

 acquire the eye for country, and the facility in repre- 

 senting it, which is characteristic of skilled surveyors 

 in constant practice, like the native topographers in 

 the survey of India. 



I?ut the difticulty does not end here, for it affects 

 the civilian teacher as well as the student. However 

 great the skill and experience of the latter may be, it 

 is scarcely possible for him to keep " up to date " with- 

 out direct contact with actual modern survey work, 

 .ind this is difficult to achieve. The importance of this 

 is clearly shown in Major Close's book, in which, as 

 he says, " the field methods described are, for the most 

 part, those in use by the Survey of India ; but 

 advantage has been taken of recent experience in 

 mapping and exploring various territories in Africa 

 and elsewhere to include useful methods which are not 

 conmionly employed in India." 



Hence, for many reasons, it is to the advantage of 

 all topographers in this countrv to keep up as close 

 • icquaintance as possible with the service work in all 

 its branches, and amongst the many efforts which 

 military surveyors have always made to render 

 this easy, few have been more entirely adequate than 

 the publication of this book. There are few subjects 

 in which books by themselves are of less assistance 

 than topographical surveying, but Major Close has 

 succeeded fully in doing what can be done bv this 

 means. 



The body of the book consists of seventeen chapters 

 on instruments and methods, sketching, map projec- 

 tions, the reproduction of maps in the field, field 

 astronomy and the determination of positions, and 

 the theory of errors as applied to topographical work. 

 Some of these chapters have been partly written by 

 ofifieers who have given special attention to the sub- 

 jects treated of, others are drawn from published 

 papers, and the sections on field astronomy have been 

 revised by Mr. A. R. Hinks, of Cambridge Obscrva- 

 NO. 1909. VOL. 74] 



tory. The eighteen t.-ibles giving the quantities 

 usually required for plotting graticules, computing 

 astronomical results, and so on have been specially 

 revised, and in some cases recalculated. Ten appen- 

 dices give various useful lists, explanations, and 

 formulae. The thirty-four plates, which include admir- 

 able examples of sketch maps of different kinds, 

 specimen sheets of British and foreign topographical 

 maps on different scales, and four new star charts, are 

 almost the best features of the book. It would be 

 difficult to suggest a better exercise in map reading 

 for the student than a study of the reproductions of 

 maps executed by the Ordnance Survey. 



Taking the book for what it is, we find, as might 

 be expected, little or nothing to criticise; it would be 

 easy to criticise it for what it is not, and does not 

 profess to be. As a text-book, experience has proved 

 its excellence, but it must be fully realised that it is 

 true to its name, and that while it supplies the text,, 

 the teacher must preach the sermon. Many chapters 

 are distinctly of the " pemmican " order, and would 

 prove extremely difTicult to a reader altogether un- 

 acquainted with the subject. The difficulty is no doubt 

 got over to some extent by the excellent lists of 

 references given. These lists might perhaps be made 

 more complete, but in some cases satisfactory books 

 are still to be written. We may take as an e.xample 

 the chapter on map projections — largely reprinted from 

 Major Close's " sketch " of the subject — and venture 

 to express the hope that the author will one day give 

 us an authoritative text-book on this alone. .Another 

 chapter about which the same remark might be made 

 — indeed the author himself makes it — is that on the 

 adjustment of errors, a subject we have always found 

 of great value and interest even to elementary students 

 dealing with comparatively rough observations. It 

 is true that a good deal of help can be obtained here 

 from the methods ordinarily employed by engineers, 

 but for topographical purposes many useful results, 

 can be got by graphic extensions of these methods. 



H. N. D. 



GARDEN SHRIMPS. 

 The British Woodlicc, being a Monograph of the 

 Terrestrial Isopod Crustacea occurring in the British 

 Islands. By Wilfred Mark Webb and Charles 

 Sillem. Pp. x-l-54; with 25 plates and 59 figures 

 in the text. (London : Duckworth and Co., 1906.) 

 Price 6i-. net. 



\T present in England there are only two dozen 

 species of these little land crustaceans on record. 

 1 he number, combined with their love of obscurity, 

 may remind us of the regal feast at which four-and- 

 twenty blackbirds were served up concealed in a pastv. 

 When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. 

 In correspondence with the daintiness of such a dish, 

 the apostles of oecology are now earnestly trying to 

 persuade society that all nature is tuneful. Those 

 who are afflicted with toneless ears may assume a 

 haughty indifference towards the resounding harmonv, 

 while they are themselves the objects of pitv rather 

 than of pride. The bright little volume under review 



