I30 



NATURE 



[April i, 1909 



whole. The book gives useful samples of profitable 

 nature-studies, e.g. of a river or of a wasp nest, 

 but more should have been made of the remarkably 

 fine collection of illustrations. We may also point 

 out that there is an unpleasant smack in some of the 

 much too ambitious titles — " How to know the 

 Insects," and so on. 



(5) Mr. Westell's guide to the natural histon,' of 

 the sea and seashore contains much interesting infor- 

 mation, somewhat carelessly stated, and many of 

 the illustrations are very fine. In many cases the 

 coloured plates do not show the natural colours, and 

 the text contains many errors. It is a pity to speak 

 of the " bones of starfish," of the Bass Rock as a 

 "remarkable headland," of Luidia as "one of the 

 largest British brittle-stars," of Polycystina .as 

 "shell-fish." Mr. Westell refers frequently and 

 gratefully to Miss Newbigin's admirable " Life by 

 the Seashore," but the fact that he never spells her 

 name correctly is a trivial illustration of the careless- 

 ness which disfigures his book. 





m 



well done. But that there is something more than 

 all this a book like Mr. M'Conachie's reminds us, for 

 it e.xpresses an end of nature-study which, if 

 attained, covers a multitude of sins, but without 

 which the naturalist with his lynx eye is a fingering 

 slave, and the school garden only an open-air 

 laboratory. That end is the love of the country, 

 which is to be felt, not spoken about. Mr. 

 iM'Conachie does not speak of it, except, perhaps, 

 in the repellent title of his book, which is congruent, 

 however, with his vocation, but his pictures, w-hich. 

 are w'orthy of a place beside those of Jefferies and 

 Burroughs, reveal it eloquently. He knows his birds 

 and his flowers not as species so much as familiar 

 friends; he takes us, not on botanical excursions, but 

 for a walk in the country, and we return wondering 

 whether it was poet or naturalist who led us. t^ur 

 was du fiihtst das ist dein Eigenthum, and no one 

 can read these sketches — such as the coming ot 

 spring, the promise of summer, the turn of the year, 

 and December days — without feeling that the author 



has made the 

 natural history of 

 the year his own 

 in the truest 

 sense. Many of 

 the sketches are 

 local ; but though 

 we have never 

 been very near 

 the Scotch parish 

 which contains 

 the quarry pool, 

 the brook path, 

 the mill stream, 

 the haunt of the 

 pike, and the old 

 forest that we 

 now know, there 

 is so much of the 

 universal in the 

 pictures that we 

 seem to have 

 known and loved 

 them for many 

 years. To all who 

 would know the 

 true inwardness 

 of nature-study 

 we commend this 

 book. J. A. T. 



(6) Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts writes a picturesque 

 book about beavers, bears, wolves, moose and other 

 Canadian animals, and tells a good story. There is 

 convincing work in his nature-studies, and " From 

 the Teeth of the Tide" is uncommonly well done. 

 It is unlikely that the author meant his tales to be 

 included under the serious rubric of " nature-study," 

 but they may help some to get away from the 

 tallacious automatic-machine theory of the 

 creature. 



(7) What are the ends of nature-study, for they 

 are many? We are told that this discipline — which 

 is now part of the day's work of the elementary 

 school — " implies an appreciative outlook upon the 

 whole environment, and that not from a scientific 

 view-point only, but from the Eesthetic and practical 

 as well." Thus among the aids to nature-study 

 which have sprung up on demand with almost 

 rnagical quickness, some emphasise precise observa- 

 tion and others graphic registering; some the culti- 

 vation of the school garden, and others the culture 

 of the scientific mood ; and all this is well if it be 



• NO. 2057, "^'OL. 80] 



LIFAJT. SHACKLETON'S AXTARCTIC 

 EXPEDITION. 

 (i) Explorations and Results. 

 'T'HE anxiety occasioned by the delay in the return 

 ■*■ of Lieut. Shackleton's expedition has been re- 

 lieved by its safe arrival and the news of its supreme 

 success. A cable published in the Daily Mail of 

 March 24 records the magnificent exploits of the ex- 

 pedition, and though there are occasional obvious 

 verbal inaccuracies in regard to some technical points, 

 the report makes clear the main outlines of its great 

 achievements. They unquestionably place it in the 

 front rank of Polar expeditions. Its two most strik- 

 inuf achievements were the sledge journeys by which 

 Lieut. Shackleton reached within one hundred geo- 

 graphical miles of the South Pole, and discovered 

 the nature of the very centre of the South Polar 

 region, and by which Prof. David gained the mag- 

 netic south pole, and rendered almost certain the con- 

 tinuity of South Victoria Land and Wilkes Land. 

 The expedition was landed early in 190S near the 



