146 



NA rURE 



[jfiifie 25, 1874 



nor's Report deals with a more civilised part of the 

 country, which had already, to some extent, been examined 

 by the Survey. He is evidently an accession of great 

 strength to the staff. 



While explorations were in progress on the shores of 

 the Pacific among the Vancouver coalfields, other mem- 

 bers of the Survey were busy on the Atlantic borders 

 among the coalfields of New Brunswick and Nova 

 Scotia. Prof. Bailey and Mr. Matthews have written a 

 valuable account of the New Brunswick region, which it is 

 to be hoped will be extended and published with sections 

 and fuller details. Several other Reports are included in 

 the volume, having more of a practical than a scientific 

 interest. In fine, the Geological Survey of Canada may 

 be congratulated upon the evidences of continued activity 

 which this volume furnishes. The form of such Annual 

 Reports necessarily precludes a systematic treatment of 

 the subject, and makes it somewhat difficult for readers 

 unfamiliar with the localities to grasp the main features 

 of geological importance amid the manifold local details. 

 It is earnestly to be wished, therefore, that before many 

 years pass away another general volume may be issued 

 like that which Sir William Logan published eleven years 

 ago. Arch. Geikie 



{To be caUuLued.) 



OUR BOOK SHELF 

 Field Ornithology. By Dr. Elliot Coues. (Naturalists' 



Agency, Salem.) 

 Our ornithological readers are all familiar with Dr. 

 Coues' excellent " Key to North American Birds," which 

 we noticed on its appearance. In that work it was in- 

 tended that instruction in the best means of collecting 

 and preserving birds should have been incorporated, 

 which was prevented by the unexpected dimensions which 

 the volume assumed. The same author now gives us 

 these important instructions in a separate small manual, 

 with which he combines a check list of the species de- 

 scribed in the " Key,'" arranged in accordance with his 

 own views, as a supplement to the larger work. The sub- 

 jects treated of will be found of great service to all col- 

 lectors, especially to those, both amateur and professional, 

 who are commencing to attempt the accumulation and the 

 preservation of bird-skins. The hints on the selection of 

 a gun, shot, &c., will be of especial service to all sportsmen 

 of small game, whilst the carefully-written account of the 

 bestwayin which the skinning of birds, both large and small, 

 should be undertaken, will well repay the perusal, even of 

 the experienced. The various less well-known means of 

 preserving specimens, as in spirit, and by means of car- 

 bolic acid, which latter is not inaptly termed by the 

 author " mummification," are described in detail. Of the 

 carbolic-acid method it is remarked : " 1 mention the pro- 

 cess chiefly to condemn it as an atrocious one ; I cannot 

 imagine what circumstances woidd recommend it, while 

 only an extreine emergency could justify it. It is further 

 objectionable because it appears to lend a dingy hue to 

 some plumages, and to dull most of them perceptibly." 

 Notwithstanding these disadvantages there is one point 

 which recommends this process, it being that the bodies 

 of the birds preserved by it are in a condition quite fit for 

 the dissection of the muscles and other organs, after they 

 have been soaked for some time. Nothing is more diffi- 

 cult than for the students of internal structure to get most 

 of the bodies of which they despondently regard so many 

 skins ; and they naturally look with delight at any method 

 which gives them a chance of obtaining the species they 

 desire. The check list will be found of much use to those 



who collect the birds of North America. It is printed 

 on one side of the page only, and separate copies are to 

 be printed, which can be cut up for cabinet purposes. 

 For those who are commencing ornithology practically 

 we know no book which will prove so serviceable as Dr. 

 Coues' little work. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications.] 



Proposed Issue of Daily Weather Charts of Europe 

 and the North Atlantic 



I HAVE the honour to inform you th.it Capt. Hoffmeyer, 

 Director of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Copenhagen, 

 has seat me a circular announcing his intention to publish daily 

 charts of the weather for the district from 60 ' E. to 60° W. long, 

 and from 30° to 75° N. lat. The charts for the three months — 

 Dec. 1873-Feb. 1874 — will be puljlished as an experiment. 



The cost will be four francs per month, exclusive of postal 

 charges. 



Capt. Hoffmeyer states that he can only deal with central 

 offices, and has requested me to undertake these islands as regards 

 the distribution of the charts. I have therefore to announce that 

 I have been instructed by the committee to subscribe for twenty- 

 five copies of these charts, and I shall he happy to supply copies 

 for the three months to any gentleman, at the cost of iis.\o 

 cover carriage from Copenhagen, and postage from London to 

 his address. RoiiERT II. ScoTT, Director 



Meteorological Office, June 22 



The Degeneracy of Man 



Dr.OscarPesciiel, in his recently pulilished " Volkerkunde" 

 (p. 137), calls attention to a remaik by the late Dr. von 

 Martins, of much interest to anthropologists. It is well known 

 that this distinguished naturalist avuwed in the strongest terms 

 his belief that the savage tribes of brazil were the fallen descen- 

 dants of more cuUured nations. In 183S he said : — " Every day 

 I spent among the Indians of Brazil increased my conviction that 

 they had once been in quite another state, but that in the lapse 

 of dark ages there had broken in upon them manifold cata- 

 strophes, which had brought them down to tlieir actual condiiion, 

 that of a peculiar decline and degeneration. The Americans are 

 not a wild race, they are a race run wild and degraded." To 

 students of civilisation (myself for example) Dr. Martius' views 

 have been most embarrassmg. It was not strange that the theory 

 of savages being the degraded offspring of primeval civilised men 

 sliould have been advocated by Archbishop Whately, who did 

 not even take the trouble to examine his own evidence. Nor is 

 it surprising that the Bishop of Ely, in the " Speaker's Com- 

 mentary," should still appeal to Whately as an unrtfuled .autho- 

 rity, for one hardly expects an orthodox commentator to test the 

 arguments on his own side. But the case with Dr. Martius was 

 quite different. Here was an eminent ethnologist, intimately 

 acquainted with savage thought and life, declaring that it seemed 

 to him not to indicate natural wildness, but to thow traces of 

 decay from an ancient higher culture. What made the matter 

 more puzzling, was that Dr. Manius, in his reseaiches, had come 

 upon facts which he acknowledged to be evidence of progress 

 taking place from savage toward civili>el instiiutions. Thus, 

 among the forest tribes of Brazil he found the rudest form of the 

 " village community," with its tribe-land common to all, but 

 the huts and patches of tilled ground treated as .acquired private 

 property, not indeed of individuals, but of families. It was 

 m.anifest that these tribes were passing through stages of that 

 very development of the law of real property which is so clearly 

 shown in the history of European law. This is a strong argu- 

 ment in favour of the development-theory of civilisation, but how 

 could an ethnologist who understood ihe force of sulIi arguments, 

 remain an upholder of the degeneration-theory? 



Dr. Peschel considers that he did not so remain, but had 

 changed his opinion when, nearly thirty years later, he wrote as 



