Feb. 17, 1881] 



NA TURE 



365 



preparation was especially noticeable; some of his speci- 

 mens, skinned more than thirty years ago, are as neat in 

 appearance and as fresh as the day they were prepared. 

 Returning in 1840, after two years' absence, he com- 

 menced the great work on the " Birds of Australia," which 

 makes seven folio volumes and occupied seven years in 

 its production, being completed in 1848. One of the 

 features of this work is the great increase in our know- 

 ledge of the range and habits of petrels and other sea- 

 birds, to which the author paid great attention during 

 his travels. 



Within a year of Mr. Gould's return from his adven- 

 turous voyage he had the misfortune to lose his wife, and 

 for some time he was completely overwhelmed by his 

 bereavement. His collectors in Australia too, about the 

 same period, lost their lives ; one of them, Mr. Gilbert, 

 was killed during Dr. Leichhardt's expedition overland 

 from Moreton Bay to Fort Essington, and Mr. Drum- 

 mond, while collecting in Western Australia, was also 

 murdered by natives, and a third collector was killed by 

 the explosion of a gun on one of the islands of Bass's 

 Straits. It speaks volumes however for the zeal and 

 energy with which Mr. Gould had prosecuted his re- 

 searches in the .Australian continent that very few birds, 

 sufficient only to form a supplement in a single folio 

 volume, have been discovered since he left the field of his 

 labours in that quarter of the globe. 



Another landmark in the career of this great ornitholo- 

 gist was the publication of his Monograph of the Trochi- 

 lidae, or Family of Humming Birds. These lovely little 

 birds had been for a long time favourites with Mr. Gould, 

 who gradually began to amass that fine collection which 

 has been the admiration of naturalists for so many years. 

 Taking advantage of the Great Exhibition of 1851, he 

 obtained permission from the Zoological Society to erect 

 at his own cost a large building in their gardens in the 

 Regent's Park, where the collectio.T was open to the 

 public at a charge of sixpence per head. A considerable 

 sum was realised by this exhibition, and a large number 

 of subscribers to his monograph was obtained, including 

 nearly all the royal families of Europe. Though sketched 

 by Mr. Gould himself (for even to the last days of his life 

 he executed the designs for all his plates), the majority of 

 the humming-birds were placed on stone by Mr. Richter, 

 who also did the same for Mr. Gould's next work, " The 

 Birds of .Asia." We cannot but regard this as one of the 

 most valuable of all the works done by the author, for, 

 notwithstanding the fact that it is left unfinished at his 

 death, it contains a large number of plates of species not 

 elsewhere figured. The " Mammals of Australia," pro- 

 duced simultaneously with the last-mentioned work, 

 deserved, in Mr. Gould's own opinion, more credit for its 

 issue than perhaps any work he had done, because it 

 touched upon a branch of zoology of which he never pre- 

 tended to have a very exact knowledge. .So large however 

 had been his collections of mammalia during his sojourn 

 in Australia that some account of them seemed to be 

 demanded, and he therefore published his large folio 

 work; but the pecuniary results were less satisfactory than 

 with any of his ornithological productions. His typical 

 specimens of the Australian mammalia are in the national 

 collection. No sooner were the humming-birds finished 

 than his active brain conceived a new idea, to illustrate be- 

 comingly the birds of his native land, and he commenced 

 the publication of the " Birds of Great Britain." Opinions 

 may differ as to the merit of Mr. Gould's other works ; 

 volumes less ponderous than the folios which he adopted 

 for the better figuring of the objects of the natural size, 

 may take their place with the student ; but no work of 

 greater beauty will be produced than that on which John 

 Gould, returning in his later life to his first love, bestowed 

 the fulness of his energy and the acme of his artistic 

 talent. The care bestowed on the plates of this work was 

 remarkable, the aim of the author being to produce a 



picture of the birds as they appeared in their natural 

 haunts, and especial pains were bestowed on the young, 

 particularly those of the wading-birds and natatores. In 

 this fine work most of the drawings were developed and 

 placed on stone by Mr. W. Hart, who also executed all 

 the plates of the later works. 



In 1865 Mr. Gould republished his lelterpress of the 

 big work in an octavo form, under the title of " .A Hand- 

 book to the Birds of Australia," but with all the additional 

 species inserted in their proper families; these two 

 volumes are therefore of great use to the student. After 

 the completion of his work on " British Birds," Mr. 

 Gould devoted himself to the continuation of the " Birds 

 of Asia " and the Supplement to the "Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," until in 1875 ^"6 commenced a work on the " Birds 

 of New Guinea," which was to contain also descriptions 

 of any new species to be discovered in Australia or any 

 part of the Australian region. Of the last-named work 

 eleven parts have appeared, and it was left unfinished at 

 his death, as well as the following works : — a " Mono- 

 graph of the Pittidffi or Ant-Thrushes of the Old World " 

 (one part published), the Supplement to the " Monograph 

 of the Humming Birds" (two parts published), and the 

 " Birds of .Asia." 



The above list enumerates, we believe, nearly all the 

 works published by Mr. Gould with the exception of the 

 " Icones Avium," issued about 1S38, and containing sup- 

 plementary plates to his previous volumes, with descrip- 

 tions of new species, and the " Monograph of the Odon- 

 tophorhin;c or Partridges of America," In addition to 

 the folio volumes he was also in the habit of publishing 

 the introductions to his larger works in an octavo form. 



Many of the above details of Mr. Gould's life are 

 taken from " Men of Eminence," aided by the personal 

 recollections of the writer, who was for many years an 

 intimate friend of the deceased, and knew him first as a 

 successful trout-catch(?r on the Thames, for his prowess 

 in throwing the fly Was scarcely second to his skill as an 

 artist. Were he to write an epitaph of John Gould he 

 would do so in the words which Mr. Gould himself was 

 fond of quoting : — '• Here lies John Gould, the Bird-Man." 

 The latter words were used by an old and intimate friend 

 in introducing Mr. Gould to another relative. We may 

 hope that the Government, according to the well-known 

 wishes of the deceased naturalist, will allow no false 

 motives of economy to interfere with the purchase of Mr. 

 Gould's collection of birds for the British Museum, and 

 that the disgraceful spect,acle of his Australian collection 

 (unrivalled to this day, and oftered to the nation for the 

 small sum of 1000/.) being allowed to leave the country, 

 may not be repeated. 



THE BLACKHEATH HOLES 



THE chalk forming the base of the escarpment between 

 Woolwich and the entrance to the valley of the 

 Ravensbourne, dips at a low angle to the south-south-east 

 under Greenwich Park and Blackheath, where it is over- 

 laid by the Thanct Sands, estimated by Mr. Whitaker of 

 the Geological Survey at 40 to 50 feet, the Reading and 

 Woolwich Beds, consisting of shelly clays, sometimes 40 

 feet thick, associated near Lewisham with fine laminated 

 sands. These beds are overlain by the Oldhaven or 

 Blackheath gravel-, reaching a thickness of about 50 feet, 

 which have been largely dug for gravel in various parts ot 

 the district. 



In the centre of this tract at Blackheath, on the west side 

 of the angle of the roads from Greenwich Park to Black- 

 heath Station, and from the Park to the Paragon, appeared 

 in the early morning of Thursday, .'\pril 12, 1878, a sub- 

 sidence near the row known as Rotten Row, referred to 

 in these columns at the time, the hole being 8 or 9 

 yards in circumference. In November, 1880, appeared 

 another hole near the grave! pit below Eliot Place 



