50 Notes and Comments. 



of the Roman occupation, to trace out the roads they laid 

 down, and to possess themselves of the position and essential 

 features of the centres where they congregated for commerce, 

 pleasure or defence,' we fear we must admit, as one of the 

 readers, to a considerable feeling of disappointment. The 

 book is a scrappy summary of what is known of Roman Towns ; 

 Colchester occupying about half a page, and York only a 

 little more. The author refers to ' the wonderful secrets 

 which await the skilful use of such humble implements as 

 the shovel and the pick in almost any quarter of our island 

 home.' We could put him on several square miles of our 

 island, in different parts, where he could spend the rest of his 

 days with the shovel and the pick ; but he would find few 

 ' hidden secrets,' though he might produce a new treatise 

 on ' Toleration ' ! As the book is not bound in cloth, the 

 price at 2s. 6d. seems ample. 



THE ' COUNTY ' MANIA 



In The Irish Naturalist for January, Mr. Roland Southern 

 writes on ' The State of Ireland,' in which he refers to the 

 present ' county mania ' with regard to recording species. He 

 points out that ' the seaward boundary of the terrestrial 

 divisions was fixed at low- water mark. Consequently, one 

 shore of nine of the principal bays was in one sub-province 

 down to low water-mark, and in another sub-province below 

 low-water mark. One might catch a crab just above low-water 

 mark in ' Desmond,' but if the crab was nimble enough, and 

 managed to slip into the water before being captured, it would 

 figure in the records of ' Thomond.' If that crab had been 

 already recorded from ' Desmond,' but not from ' Thomond,' 

 there would be a strong temptation for the record hunter to 

 chivy it over the border before capturing. But such deplorable 

 chicanery could not have occurred to the mind of Mr. Adams, 

 for he says ' Species obtained by shore-collecting belong 

 (naturally enough) to the county on whose shores they are 

 collected.' Nor, apparently, have the vagaries of ' low-water 

 mark,' as a territorial boundary, troubled him.' 



IN IRELAND. 



' But these minor absurdities do not constitute the chief 

 objection to such ready-made faunistic and floristic divisions 

 of a country. They are fundamentally wrong, insomuch as 

 they precede a knowledge of distribution, instead of being 

 based on it. If they are to have any value, they must represent 

 the observed limitations of species, and those factors in the 

 environment which prevent their further dispersal. It will 

 then be obvious (as it is now) that each species has its own 

 peculiar distribution, and only two divisions will be necessary 

 to express it, one in which it occurs, and one from which it 

 is absent.' 



Naturalist, 



