July 2, 1896J 



NA TURE 



'95 



of the present century ; and the Biological Type, such as 

 Darwin, Wallace, and Bates. Mr. Thomson includes 

 Brehm in the last group ; but if we accept his definition of 

 the Romantic Type (p. .\vi.), Brehm has certain claims to 

 Ije placed among these. " In days when the critical 

 spirit was young," Mr. Thomson tells us, and "verifica- 

 tion hardly possible ; there could not but be a strong 

 temptation to tell extraordinary ' traveller's tales.' And 

 they did. Nor need we scoff at them loudly, for the type 

 dies hard ; every year such tales are told." We have 

 only to turn to p. 38 to see a proof of this. There we 

 learn that in the fiords of northern Norway " the fish 

 swim so thickly that the boat has literally to force a way 

 among them, . . . that an oar placed upright among 

 the densely-packed crow-d of swimmers remains for a few 

 moments in its position before falling to one side." Or 

 on p. 83, where we are told that in the tundra " every 

 grass-stalk, every moss-blade, every twig, every branch, 

 every little leaf sends forth hundreds and thousands of 

 them [mosquitoes] all day long." After this we are 

 prepared to learn that the mosquitoes " form swarms 

 which look like thick black smoke ; they surround, as 

 with a fog, every creature which ventures into their 

 domains : they fill the air in such numbers that one 

 hardly dares to breathe ; they baffle every attempt to 

 drive them off; they transform the strongest man into 

 an irresolute weakling, his anger into fear, his curses 

 into groans." These are samples of the author's style, 

 and of the precision of his descriptions. His hook is 

 written in superlatives, which appear to be laboured, and 

 is full of humour, which is generally unintentional. But 

 in spite of the author's command of impressive language, 

 he is \ery modest ; the heat of Africa, he tells us, is 

 "indescribable," and then does his best in a page full of 

 sentences, such as the following, "The torments are 

 inconceivable." " Nor can any one who has not groaned 

 through these nights, when one tosses on the couch, 

 prevented by the sultriness from resting or sleeping, 

 adequately sympathise with the torments to which men 

 and animals are subjected at this season." " Men and 

 beasts seem to wither as the grass and leaves withered." 

 " In vain does manly courage endea\our to bear up under 

 the burden of these days ; the most resolute will give 

 way to sighs and moans. Every piece of work fatigues, 

 even the lightest covering is too heavy, every movement 

 is an effort, every wound becomes a virulent sore." After 

 this we are not surprised to find an account of a tropical 

 thunderstorm and its effects, written in language that 

 reads like an American journalist's report of the Johannes- 

 burg dynamite explosion ; and that, in escaping the steppe 

 fires, "antelopes, zebras and ostriches speed across the 

 plain more quickly than the wind ' ; or that a view of the 

 baobab is described as " a sight which stamps itself 

 ineffaceably on the memory," and that nothing in the 

 African forest can compare with it " in charm and im- 

 pressiveness," as when it flowers " this incomparable 

 giant is transformed, as if by magic, into an enormous 

 rose-bush of indescribable beauty, the sight of which 

 stirs the heart of even the most matter of fact of men 

 with admiration." This appears in a chapter on the 

 " Prim;eval Forests of Centra! .Africa," though as a 

 matter of fact the author never seems to ha\e entered 

 iiny of the real .African forests ; in these, indeed, the 

 NO. 1392, VOL. 54] 



baobab is not found, it being characteristic of the steppes 

 and scrub-covered plains. In respect to the doleb palm, 

 we are told on the same page that " its trunk is a pillar 

 which no artist could have surpassed ; its crown a capital 

 worthy of such a pillar." After such a compliment, this 

 palm cannot complain at the description of the shape of 

 its stem being exactly contrary to the facts, it thickening 

 at half its height from the ground instead of thinning. 

 According to the author's account, although he tells us 

 that Northern Africa " is desert, must be desert, and will 

 be desert for ever," it appears to be a remarkably well- 

 peopled desert. He says that one of the most indis- 

 pensable articles in an African traveller's outfit is a pair 

 of long-legged tongs, with which to seize the vermin that 

 swarm into camp at night, drawn by the fire. " Attracted 

 by the light, noxious creatures come running and creep- 

 ing, first one and then another, but soon in tens and in 

 hundreds. First appear gigantic spiders, which, with 

 their eight legs spread out, cover a surface as large as an 

 outstretched hand. After the spiders, or sometimes along 

 with them, the scorpions come hurrying. Both spiders 

 and scorpions rush with sinister rapidity to the fire, 

 clambering o\'er carpet and coverlet, among the dishes of 

 our simple supper, retreating when the radiating heat 

 becomes too strong for them, turning back again under 

 its mesmeric influence — in truth a fearsome invasion.' 

 -After these " hellish brood" come the vipers, "unmis- 

 takably on the spot," in " terrifying numbers," which 

 " drive one almost to despair." We fear that any one who 

 imagines that he has only to light a fire on an African 

 steppe to be able to fill his cases with all sorts of interest- 

 ing animals, which rush to him, like rats to Bishop 

 Hatto, would find zoological collecting less exciting and 

 profitable than he would have expected from Brehm's 

 description. 



We have given many extracts from this work, as the 

 best method of illustrating its nature. The book is well 

 printed and illustrated, and the translation is very read- 

 able. Only we do not see that there is very much in it 

 worth reading. Every page is distorted by such ludicrous 

 exaggeration, that the descriptions run dangerously near 

 to bathos and caricature. 



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