September 24, 1908] 



jVA TURE 



507 



by Messrs. Longmans about six years ago,' it contains 

 a great deal of practical information that should be 

 of great service to those interested in coast protection. 



One of the authors is the son of the late Mr. Case, 

 so well known for the very successful work he carried 

 out in protecting and saving from destruction the 

 coast land at Dymchurch, and afterwards for his 

 advocacy of the system of low groynes. 



The book is divided into fourteen chapters, dealing 

 respectively with forces acting on coasts and the 

 sea bed, transporting power of running water, move- 

 ment of materials composing the foreshore and bed 

 of the sea, causes of erosion, protection works, 

 materials of construction, groynes, sea walls, sand 

 dunes. 



The authors very properly point out that there is 

 no one method of protection that can be applied to 

 all coasts, but that each shore must be considered 

 on its merits, and that it is only after due considera- 

 tion has been given to the special circumstances which 

 may influence the effect of the sea upon any par- 

 ticular shore that the proper remedy can be designed. 



By way of example, it has been frequently said that 

 it is useless to erect groynes upon a foreshore where 

 there is no material to collect. But there are other 

 matters that require consideration besides the actual 

 collection of material. On many sandy coasts low- 

 groynes may serve a useful purpose by preventing 

 denudation and the formation of swills and lows. 



With regard to the sometimes debated question of 

 high and low groynes, the writers of this book are 

 fully in accord with the author of " The Sea Coast " 

 in advocating the use of low groynes both on account 

 of efficiency, convenience, and economy. With regard 

 to the direction to be given to groynes, the authors 

 do not see any reason for departing from a direction 

 at right angles to the shore, and the majority of 

 the engineers who gave evidence before the Royal 

 Commission on Coast Erosion were of the same 

 opinion, although some stated that, as a matter of 

 experience, they had found the best results were ob- 

 tained where the groynes were directed away from 

 the side from which the prevailing winds came. 



As to the proper distance between groynes, this 

 has been found by the experience of the authors to 

 be the distance between high and low water mark, 

 or practically the length of the groyne. Experience 

 has fully shown that the carrying up of the groyne 

 from low water to about half tide level, as practised 

 in many instances by the late Mr. Case, is not suffi- 

 cient, as the water is apt to work round the end 

 and make gullies, but that in every instance the 

 groynes should extend so far as the high spring 

 tides reach. 



The chapter on ferro-concrete groynes contains 

 much useful information on the application of this 

 material to sea defence work, and gives illustrations 

 and cost of works carried out for the protection of 

 the coast of Sussex. The cost of these groynes is 

 given as twenty shillings a foot run, which compares 

 favourably with timber. 



1 "The Sea Coast, Destruction, Littoral Drift, Protection." (London: 

 Longmans and Co., 1902.) 



NO. 2030, VOL. 78] 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Discovery and Settlement oj Port Mackay, 

 Queensland. By H. Ling Roth. Pp. viii+114; 

 S2 figs., 4 maps and charts. (Halifax : F. King 

 and Sons, Ltd., igoS.) 

 PoKT Mack.\y in Queensland was discovered by Cap- 

 tain Mackay in iStio. The town was founded in 1862, 

 and declared a port of entry in 1863, and is now the 

 chief seat of the sugar industry in Queensland. The 

 early history of a colonial settlement is sometimes of 

 great interest, but it is often impossible to recover it, 

 excepting where, as fortunately is usually the case 

 in Australia, the young town promptly establishes a 

 local newspaper. Port Mackay had the advantage of 

 including amongst its residents Mr. H. Ling Roth, 

 the author of the standard work on the aborigines of 

 Tasmania ; he was at one time secretary of the 

 Mackay Sugar Planters' .'■\ssociation, and in this 

 volume gives a monograph of the history of the town 

 up to 1867, whence the story is continued in the 

 columns of the local Press. He describes the dis- 

 coveries along the Queensland coast up to 1844, and 

 the exploration of the coastal districts by land from 

 1813 to 1859; and he explains how it happened that 

 so valuable a locality as Port Mackay was missed by 

 all explorers until 1S60. 



The volume is most valuable as a contribution to 

 the historical geography of Australia. It includes a 

 collection of portraits and interesting sketches of the 

 early settlers. It tells several good stories, as of the 

 sarcastic Mackay magistrate, who, when joined on 

 the bench by a distrusted local J. P., asked his col- 

 league whether he appeared for the plaintiff or the 

 defendant. In the appendices, Mr. Ling Roth gives 

 a valuable account of the aborigines of the district and 

 of its natural history. He objects to calling the black- 

 fellows aborigines, as he holds that Australia was first 

 occupied by a negroid people who have been sup- 

 planted by the present race. This view, well known 

 from its adoption by Sir William Flower, appears to 

 be now generally discredited, owing to the lack of 

 evidence in its support. The author undertakes a 

 forlorn hope in his objection to Australian lizards 

 being called Iguanas — often abridged to " Goanas " — 

 because they do not belong to the genus Iguana as 

 now restricted. The name may conveniently be re- 

 tained popularly for the lizards formerly included in 

 the Iguanida, and it is not so incorrect zoologically 

 as those of " native bear" or native "cat." 



There are specially interesting notes on the habits 

 of some of the snakes and of the crocodiles, and the 

 author appears disposed to throw doubt on the estab- 

 lished habits of crocodiles of other continents from the 

 different behaviour of the sluggish Queensland Croco- 

 dilus porosus. 



Stories are often told of the wanton extermination 

 of the Australian aborigines by the colonists. It is 

 interesting, therefore, to learn from Mr. Roth that a 

 collector on the coast from 1863 to 1873 endeavoured 

 in vain to get an aboriginal skeleton for a well-known 

 European museum. His failure shows that at least 

 in the Port Mackav district there is no truth in the 

 legends about the 'wholesale shooting of the abori- 

 gines. J- W. G. 

 Through the Depths of Space. A Primer of Astro- 

 nomv. By Hector Macpherson, jun. Pp. viii + 

 123; illustrated. (Edinburgh and London: William 

 Blackwood and Sons, iqoS.) Price 2s. net. 

 In this small primer the author has attempted to give 

 an outline of all the main features of the solar system, 

 comets and meteors, and the stellar universe. Asa 

 journalistic collation the result is not without merit, 

 but as a •' primer," presumably for persons previously 



