196 



NA TURE 



[June 28, 190b 



Ei 



.4 \E.\R ON THE "5/BOG.4.'" 

 Jahr an Bord I. M.S. Siboga. Von Frau A. 



Weber van Bosse. Beschriebung der Holland- 



ischen Tiefsee-Expedition im Niederlandisch-In- 



dischen Archipel 1899-1900. Nach der II Auflage 



aus dem Hollandischen iibertragen von Frau E. 



Ruge-Baenziger. Pp. xiii + 370. (Leipzig: W. 



Engelmann, 1905.) Price 6s. net. 



T N this booli Mrs. Weber gives a popular account 



•1- of the expedition the scientific results of which 



have been described in the " Siboga-Expeditie " edited 



by Dr. Max Weber. 



The Siboga, a twin-screw vessel of the Royal Dutch 

 Navy, built for the East Indian service, deprived of 

 her armament, and specially fitted for her scientific 

 voyage, left Surabaya, on the north coast of Java, 

 on March 7, 1899, and returned thither on February 

 26, 1900, having spent the interval — practically a year 

 — in exploring the marine, and especially the deep- 

 water, fauna of the East Indies. The expedition con- 

 sisted of Prof. Max Weber and Mrs. Weber, two 

 scientific assistants, a doctor, and a draughtsman, 

 and received from the naval staff of the vessel those 

 ungrudging and invaluable services which the officers 

 of our own Navy so invariably put at the disposal 

 of the scientific members of an expedition. The in- 

 vestigation of the marine flora was in the hands of 

 Mrs. Weber. 



The course of the Siboga lay at first along the 

 coasts of the Lesser Sunda group from Java to 

 Timor, then across the Flores Sea to Saleyer 

 Island, and to Macassar, in Celebes, where the ex- 

 pedition was landed for a time while the ship made 

 a trip to Surabaya. On her return the voyage was 

 continued through the Macassar Straits to the Sulu 

 Islands, then southwards across the Celebes Sea to 

 Kwandang, in Celebes, northwards again to the 

 Sangir and Talaur groups, southwards through the 

 Molucca Straits to Obi, and eastwards across the 

 Halmahera Sea to the coast of New Guinea. From 

 Atjatuning, in New Guinea, the ship sailed by Ceram, 

 .\mboyna, Buru, and Buton to Saleyer again. Here 

 the expedition was left during a second trip of the 

 .'>iboga to Surabaya. When a fresh start was made 

 the course lay eastward across the Banda Sea Dy 

 Ambovna to Aru and back to Amboyna. From this 

 place the Siboga returned to Surabaya along the 

 Sunda Islands by a different route from that which 

 she had taken at starting. 



The story of this voyage is pleasantly told by 

 Mrs. \^■eber. Scattered through her account of the 

 everyday life of the ship and the happenings at 

 various stopping-places and dredging-grounds are 

 allusions to the scientific discoveries of the expedition. 

 Some of the soundings are particularly interesting. 

 It appears that the Lombok Straits, instead of being 

 a deep cleft between Bali and Lombok, are in reality 

 quite shallow (i/o fathoms). Since Weber has 

 already shown that the fauna of the East Indies 

 changes only gradually from an Asiatic to an Aus- 

 tralian character in an easterly direction, we have 

 now probably heard the last of that old friend of our 

 NO. 1913, VOL. 74] 



student days, " Wallace's Line " — a picturesque and 

 fruitful hvpothesis, for al! the contempt with which 

 it is apt to be treated nowadays. On the other hand, 

 interesting soundings of considerable depth were ob- 

 tained among the islands — some 2700 fathoms in the 

 Banda Sea and in the Celebes Sea, 2200 fathoms in 

 the Ceram Sea, 1500 fathoms between the Banda 

 Sea and the Flores Sea, and 2000 fathoms close to 

 land off Saleyer. Near the latter island great banks 

 of calcareous algae were found, which recalls Stanley 

 Gardiner's observations on the importance of these 

 organisms in Funafuti and elsewhere. The plankton 

 also seems to have been unusually rich and plentiful. 

 The sea bottom is in many places rough, entirely unlike 

 the oozy bed of the great oceans, and was the cause 

 of much loss and damage to gear. 



The book is well got up and illustrated by some 

 good photographs, and should prove interesting to 

 the large class of readers who are attracted by books 

 of travel. 



YORKSHIRE FUNGI. 

 The Fungus Flora of Yorkshire. By G. Massee and 

 C. Crossland. Yorkshire Naturalists' L^nion 

 Botanical Transactions, vol. iv. Pp. 396. (London : 

 A. Browii and Sons, Ltd., 1905.) 



THE Yorkshire Naturalists' Union has held and 

 maintained a high place in the history of British 

 cryptogams, and its published Transactions abound 

 in records of fungi in which the county seems to 

 be peculiarly rich. It is hardly surprising, therefore, 

 that a scientific society of such well-proved eminence 

 should every now and then issue the results of its 

 labours, originally published in its serial journal, in 

 the form of a separate book. 



To do this in the case of the fungi required more 

 initiative and enterprise than with most other crypto- 

 gams, and the committee is to be congratulated, not 

 only on having carried the work through, since 1902, 

 but on having done it so thoroughly and efficiently. 



When we extend our congratulations also to the 

 two authors responsible for the work, we may take 

 the opportunity of pointing out that while one is 

 an amateur field naturalist of that peculiarly en- 

 thusiastic and . accurate type for which Yorkshire 

 has long been famous, the other is a professional 

 mycologist of high reputation ; and the combined 

 labours of the two give us all the advantages of the 

 accurate and industrious notes of a collector who 

 knows his county thoroughly, together with the 

 critical supervision of one who knows his herbarium 

 equally well, and who has had shed on to his shoulders 

 the cloak of Berkeley, and has been a fellow-worker 

 with Cooke. 



The book consists of 365 pages with appendices and 

 an index, a too meagre bibliography, and more than 

 2600 entries. There is a short introduction and classifica- 

 tion, with notes on the distribution within the county. 

 The work is by no means a mere catalogue, though 

 in many cases little more than the record of the name 

 is given, together with the localities in which the 

 fungus has been found growing. Interesting notes 



