262 



NA TURE 



\7an. 20, 1 88 1 



eleven genera. Copious synonymic details are given. 

 Of the restricted genus Phoca, three — P. vituliiia, P. 

 Grocnlaiidica, and P. fa'tida — are marine, and frequent 

 the northern oceans, never descending anywhere near to 

 the equator. A fourth, P. Caspica, is found in the Aral 

 and Caspian Seas, and a fifth, P. Sibirica, is from Lakes 

 Baikel and Oron. Monachus albiventer occupies an 

 intermediate position (Mediterranean, Madras, and 

 Canary Islands) between these northern forms and the 

 Antarctic species, such as Macrorhinus koitimis, Ogmof- 

 rhiinis Icptcnyx, Ominatopkoca rossi, and the like. All 

 the species have strong social instincts, and are almost 

 unsurpassed in their affection for their young. Most of 

 them are gregarious ; few of them are in the least fero- 

 cious ; they are in general patient and submissive crea- 

 tures, quite harmless to man. Fond of basking in 

 sunshine, they spend a good deal of their time out 

 of the water, on bank, rock, or ice. They are ver)' 

 voracious, eating fishes, or in lack of these, moUusks 

 and Crustacea. Strange though it may seem, the young 

 seals take to the water reluctantl)-, and have to be 

 actually taught to swim by their parents. The young 

 of some species remain on the ice until they are from 

 two to three weeks old, or until they have shed their 

 first soft woolly coat of hair ; their cry is more of a bark 

 than a roar ; that of the young is a kind of tender bleat, 

 putting one in mind of the cry of a young child. Dr. 

 Murie (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870) has characterised 

 three distinct modes of terrestrial locomotion among 

 these Seals, from -which it would appear that the Phocine 

 Sea's generally have considerable power of mo\'ement 

 upon land. 



The Seal-hunting districts are described at length ; the 

 oil and skins of these Seals having a large com.mcrcial 

 importance. The Dundee sealers took in 1876 nearly 

 40,000/. worth. The habits of the vaiious species form 

 a most interesting portion of this division of the volume, 

 and the author seems to have ransacked every treatise on 

 the subject so as to make his own complete. This his- 

 tory of the North American Pinnipeds will long remain 

 a perfect monograph of a valuable and important group 

 of mammalia. 



CATALOGUE OF NEWCASTLE LIBRARIES 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public Libraries. Catalogue 0/ the 

 Books in the Central Lending Department. Compiled 

 by W. John Haggeston, Chief Librarian. (Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne : 18S0.) 



NO portion of a book draws more heartfelt commenda- 

 tion or more earnest rebuke from a critic who has 

 read it, not for the purpose of criticising, but for that of 

 using its information, than the index. Only the reader 

 who picks up a book for recreation and amusement feels 

 at all independent of it ; and even he appreciates its 

 miportance if any future reference is required. And if a 

 good table of contents is so requisite in the case of a 

 single book, how far more so must one be in a large 

 library. 



We have here a new catalogue of a new library, a 

 selection of 20,000 volumes of books chosen for their 

 readable value only (which perhaps justifies the omission 

 of all dates of publication of the books, which would be a 



fault in a catalogue of most libraries), and consequently 

 we may look to it as a model of what a catalogue should 

 be. And we shall not be disappointed. It is drawn up 

 on the same scientific principles worked out so fully in Dr. 

 Billing's catalogue of the U.S. Surgeon-General's Office, 

 which we noticed lately ; and these so well worked out too, 

 that really it is a table of contents of the library ; the 

 matter contained in the volumes of the latter as well as 

 their titles aie all laid before us. Each work is entered 

 under the author's name, under the title, and, in cases 

 where that title is compound, under each of the subjects 

 it may include. Under the heading of each principal 

 subject treated a reference is again given to the work 

 with its library number, and so numerous are these cross 

 references that on an a\-erage every \-olume throughout 

 the library appears four times over. Indefinite titles are 

 rectified by a summary being given, in a smaller type, of 

 the matters discussed. 



Catalogues which limit themselves rigidly to the con- 

 tents of the title-page abandon all attempts at complete- 

 ness, since many titles do not even pretend to express the 

 subjects of the book (need we cite Mr. Ruskin's ?), and 

 many equally fail in the attempt. As the field of literature 

 increases, and not even a librarian can keep himself 

 acquainted with the ground gone over by all the books 

 under his care, a subject-catalogue as well as an author- and 

 title-catalogue becomes a necessity, and, if it is well drawn 

 up, though it laay cost both money and time, they will 

 be well spent. Volumes that appear unattractive enough 

 to the general reader, and are far too numerous for the 

 ordinary student to search through, become suddenly, 

 through a subject- catalogue, of the greatest value to both 

 of them. The books in a library whose contents are thus 

 laid open to its frequenters will be read with profit much 

 greater than would a considerable fraction more books 

 whose title-page was all the introdui'tion their readers 

 had to them. 



And the saving of time when it is completed will be 

 immense. It will save the time of the librarian by pre- 

 venting hundreds of inquiries being made at all, and still 

 moie by strengthening the hands of his assistants, who 

 will be capable of working his catalogue to the utmost 

 and answering a very large proportion of such inquiries 

 as are made by readers who may be awkward at it ; it 

 will save the time of the busy man, who wants his infor- 

 mation at once ; it will save the time of the student who 

 wants the most recent information which he can get ; 

 and it will save the time of aU by making fewer changes 

 of books necessary. 



All this is doubly important in a Free Library, because, 

 as any one taking an interest in these institutions will 

 have marked, those of its readers who do not confine 

 themselves to novels seldom take out books for the mere 

 pleasure of reading, as the higher classes do. Reading has 

 not yet become a recreation to them, but they go to the 

 library as to a great encyclopa;dia to get information on 

 i certain subjects, often of the most technical character ; 

 and a catalogue that directs them to the very book they 

 want doubles and trebles the value of the library to them. 

 They have no time to read all the critiques and resumes 

 of new books with which the press teems, and which make 

 the style and contents of many such works familiar to 

 readers of periodicals who may never ha\e seen the works 



