154 



NATURE 



[June 15, 1905 



secured in the privacy of a small back yard! It is 

 only necessary first to catch your mouse. This done, 

 he is penned in a glass cage and confronted by the 

 camera. So .soon as an attractive posture has been 

 assumed, the exposure is made. A suitable back- 

 ground "is all that is needed to deceive even the very 

 ■elect ! 



Thus is the mystery explained of some of the 

 wonderful pictures of " wild life with the camera " 

 that have excited the envy and admiration of many 

 who have sought, and sought in vain, in our fields 

 and hedgerows to obtain similar pictures ! 



The illustrations in this book are unusually good 

 and plentifully distributed. The specimen given here- 

 with was selected with no little difficulty, inasmuch 

 as the high standard of excellence, both in taste and 

 execution, which these pictures present rendered 

 choice difficult. W. P. P. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE 

 BAHAMAS.' 

 ""P WO years ago there was published in this country 

 ■•• an account of a cruise to the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Islands - by an American party for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining natural history and ethnological 

 specim,ens for the National Museum at Washington, 

 and every Englishman worthy the name who read 

 that work can scarcely have failed to experience a 

 feeling of shame that it was not long ago anticipated 

 and rendered superfluous by the enterprise of his own 

 countrymen. If such a feeling exist in the case of 

 a _ work dealing in a more or less cursory manner 

 with the results of a private expedition to remote 

 islands of little or no commercial importance, how 

 must it be intensified when we find an American 

 scientific society undertaking a systematic biological, 

 geological, historical, and sociological survey of a 

 group of islands which are supposed to rank among 

 the more important possessions of the British Crown? 



That the work should have been undertaken by 

 American enterprise is, ipso facto, a confession that 

 it required doing; in other words, that it ought to 

 have been done by Englishmen, and the fact of its 

 being left to our Transatlantic cousins is virtually 

 an admission that our rulers — in spite of what we 

 are being continually told as to the all-importance of 

 science if we are to continue to hold our position as 

 a nation— are blind to the needs and signs of the 

 times in matters scientific! That we should have 

 hitherto possessed no detailed and comprehensive 

 account of a group of islands dotted over an area 

 about as large as the British Islands, which has 

 formed part of our Empire for generations, is, indeed, 

 little short of a national disgrace, and the fact that 

 Americans have cut in and done our own work for 

 us in our own possessions speaks volumes as to the 

 amount of attention that has been paid to the crv of 

 " Wake-up, England ! " 



The contrast between our own apathy and .American 

 enterprise in scientific matters of this nature is in- 

 tensified when we compare what is being done for 

 the natural history of the Philippines by their new 

 owners with what has been left undone' in the case 

 of the West Indies (and manv other islands we could 

 mention) by their ancient lords. We were about to 

 urge our rulers, for very shame, to set about doing 

 for the other West Ind'ian islands what Americans 

 have already accomplished for the Bahamas, but we 



Edited by G. B. Shatluck. Pp. 



i+630; 



^ " The Bahama Islands 

 V,S^T^{ r'?T/°'J' • J^" MacmillanCo. ; London : Macmillan and Co., 

 LW^ (published for the Geographical Society of Baltimore), 1905.] Price 



- "In the Andamans and Nicobar 

 Murray, 1903.) 



By C. B. Klos.s. (London : John 



NO. 1859, VOL. 72] 



fear we should only be speaking to deaf ears, and 

 therefore refrain. Let -us add that in all this we 

 have not one spark of jealousy, but rather unbounded 

 and respectful admiration, in regard to the work our 

 American cousins have so successfully and so 

 thoroughly carried out. 



The trustees of the Geographical Society of Balti- 

 more have, it appears, set themselves to accomplish 

 two main objects by means of the body they govern, 

 namely, in the first place, to furnish their public 

 with an annual course of lectures connected with 

 geography, and, in the second place, to foster geo- 

 graphical research in general, and from time to time 

 to publish monographs dealing with some particular 

 piece of geographical investigation carried out under 

 the auspices of the society. Tlie volume before us is 

 the first of these proposed monographs, and its com- 

 pleteness and wealth of illustrations render it a more 

 than usually striking and handsome example of 

 .American thoroughness. 



The object of the expedition was to investigate 

 the origin and natural history of the Bahamas, 

 and also to conduct studies on lines intimately associ- 

 ated with the well-being of their inhabitants. The 

 scientific staff included no less than twenty-four 

 members, with Dr. G. B. Shattuck as director, most 

 of whom are specialists in one or more particular 

 departments, the special subjects of investigation 

 being geology, tides, terrestrial magnetism and 

 climatology, soils, botany, mosquitoes, fishes, other 

 vertebrates, medicine, and history. Even this, how- 

 ever, by no means represents the full force employed 

 in making public the results of the expedition, fur 

 many of the collections were handed over to specialists 

 who did not accompany the latter, the reptiles and 

 amphibians being, for instance, consigned to Dr. 

 L. Stejneger, the birds to Mr. J. H. Riley, the 

 mammals to Mr. G. S. Miller, and so on. 



For months previous to the departure of the ex- 

 pedition, the director was engaged in equipping and 

 organising its various sections, procuring the 

 necessary apparatus, so that everything, even down 

 to the most minute detail, should be in such a state 

 of completeness that work might be commenced the 

 very moment of arrival. The expedition sailed from 

 Baltimore on June i, 1903, equipped for a two 

 months' cruise. Since a number of its members were 

 in Government offices, from which they could only 

 obtain leave during the months of June and July, the 

 length of the cruise had been necessarilv limited to 

 that period, and every effort had consequently been 

 made that work should progress with the greatest 

 possible despatch during the time available. Un- 

 fortunately, bad weather was experienced during the 

 outward voyage, so that Nassau, the first stopping 

 place, was not reached until June 17, and as it was 

 necessary to start on the return journey before the 

 end of July, only about five weeks were left for work. 

 The more southerly islands of the Bahama group had 

 in consequence to be left unvisited ; but apart from 

 this omission, the greater part of the work which had 

 been planned was brought to completion, and all the 

 members of the staff are to be congratulated on the 

 rapidity with which they executed their respective 

 ta.sks. Except dredging and fishing, most of the 

 work was done on shore, but all the field-work was, 

 of course, merely preliminary to study in the labor- 

 atory. In examining the living products of the sea- 

 bed — a sight of rare beauty — great advantage was 

 derived from the glass-bottometi boat which formed 

 part of the equipment. 



Our statesmen should not fail to notice that, accord- 

 ing to opinion in America, the construction of the 

 Panama Canal in the near future (which is said to be 

 assured) is destined to bring renewed prosperity to 



