Fuly 2, 1885] 
NATURE 
205 
from its publication will be incurred by the national ex- 
chequer. This may or may not be a judicious rule for the 
reports of specialists for which no great sale can be ex- | 
pected ; but surely it is not a wise one in the case of the 
Narrative volume, for which a much wider circulation | 
may confidently be expected. It is understood that the | 
type and plates of this volume are kept up, so that if the | 
present edition is sold off another may be printed. But as 
the cost of production has been charged upon the first | 
edition, every copy subsequently produced will cost no- 
thing but the mere paper, printing, and binding. Govern- 
ment cannot, of course, wish to make profit out of the 
book as a commercial speculation. Would it not have 
been more in accordance with common sense and trade 
economy to have issued a much larger edition at first, and 
to have spread the cost of production over the whole of 
it? Had the book been sold at half its present price its 
sale would probably have been more than doubled. That, 
Fic. 2.—Jpnobs Murrayi, Giinth., 1600 to 1900 fathoms. 
even as it is, the whole edition will be sold we con- 
fidently believe. But that will be no justification what- 
ever for making the price so high. After so large a sum of 
money has been spent upon the expedition first and last, 
it seems perfectly childish to publish the results in such a 
form that even the most generally useful and intelligible 
part of them are out of the reach of most of those who 
really feel an interest in them. 
Thereis another question which my Lords of the Treasury 
will have to face in regard to this Narrative volume. Many 
Tequests have been made to that pachydermatous body for 
gifts of different reports ; many more would no doubt have 
been made but for the known determination on the part 
of the authorities to refuse them. Now, it is tolerably 
certain that public libraries all over the country will ask 
for at least copies of the “ Narrative of the Cruise,” and the 
whole of the first edition would probably barely suffice to 
supply their demand. That their requests will be again 
Fic. 3.—Scotoplanes giobosa, Théel. 
refused goes without saying. But it will be noteworthy if 
these public institutions are content with the refusal. The 
country has a right to insist that the results of an ex- 
pedition on which so much public money has been spent 
shall be made as widely accessible as possible, and will 
no doubt brush roughly aside the stereotyped official ob- 
jections. A more flagrant case of the stupidity into which 
that no doubt means well could hardly be found than this 
Narrative volume and its price of 6/. 16s. 6d. 
With this preliminary protest we gladly pass on to 
notice the book itself. First of all, like the previously 
published Reports, the “ Narrative ” is admirably got up. 
The paper, print, illustrations, and binding are so vastly 
superior to ordinary Stationary Office productions that we 
a blind adhesion to red-tape rule may lead a Department | wonder more than ever how the Treasury officials were 
