Jan. 15, 1880] 



NATURE 



259 



the words of Dr. Isenkrahe [translation] : " One is be- 

 ginning to recognise that physics has been quietly 

 sleeping for two centuries upon [in the words of Newton] 

 ' a great absurdity,' for which no one less than Newton 

 can be made responsible" [page 125]. 



S. Tolver Preston 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TRANSIT 

 OF VENUS EXPEDITION 1 



IN 1870 one of our correspondents called attention' 2 to 

 the favourable opportunity that would then shortly 

 present itself for the exploration of some very little known 

 parts of the earth's surface. Some of the positions 

 selected by our astronomers for the observation of the 

 Transit of Venus of 1S74 were in little known islands of 

 the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it was pointed out 

 that the addition to the astronomers' staff of a small corps 

 of naturalists would not materially increase the expendi- 

 ture, and would possibly lead to very interesting scientific 

 results. 



The same subject was brought before the notice of the 

 British Association at their Meeting in 1871 by Mr. 

 Sclater, 3 who likewise suggested that so good a chance of 

 adding to our knowledge of the natural history of some 

 of the least known parts of the world should not be thrown 

 away, and urged that Naturalises should be appointed to 

 at least three of the stations to be occupied by the astro- 

 nomers, namely Kerguelen Island, Rodriguez and the 

 Sandwich Islands. 



Subsequently the same idea was taken up by the 

 Council of the Royal Society, who resolved to request the 

 Treasury to attach naturalists to the expeditions destined 

 for the two first above-named localities — " two of the 

 least explored and most inaccessible islands in the 

 southern hemisphere" — and appointed a committee 

 consisting of Sir Joseph Hooker, Prof. Huxley, and Mr. 

 Sclater, to prepare the necessary applic:tion to the 

 Government for this purpose. We need not now repeat 

 the arguments which these gentlemen brought before Her 

 Majesty's chief advisers — it is enough to say that they 

 were of a sufficiently cogent character to obtain the 

 sanction of the Treasury to the appointment of four 

 naturalists for the purposes required j three for Rodriguez 

 and one for Kerguelen's Land. 



The gentlemen selected for the work by the Council of 

 the Royal Society were for Rodriguez, Mr. George 

 Gulliver, Dr. I. B. Balfour, and Mr. H. H. Slater, and for 

 Kerguelen's Land the Rev. A. E. Eaton. Mr. Gulliver 

 was directed to investigate the fauna of Rodriguez gene- 

 rally, Dr. Balfour was charged with the duties of botanist 

 and geologist, and Mr. Slater was set to dig out the caves 

 of the same island, and to collect the fossil remains of 

 extinct birds known to be imbedded in them. Mr. Eaton 

 was thought to be specially qualified to investigate the 

 fauna and flora of Kerguelen's Land, as having been 

 previously naturalist to one of the Arctic expeditions. 



The collections and observations made by these natu- 

 ralists fulfilled, as we are informed, the expectations of 

 the Council. The results of them are given in the present 

 work, which is issued as an extra volume (Xo. 168) of the 

 Philosophical Transactions, 



The plan upon which the collections were worked our, 

 and which is in fact the only plan upon which a mass of 

 heterogeneous materials can be properly worked out now- 

 a-days, is an admirable one. The different objects were 



1,1 An Account cf the Penological, Botanical, and Zoological Collections 

 made in Kerguelen's Land and Rodriguez during the Transit of Venus 

 Expeditions, carried out by Order of Her Majesty's Government in the Years 

 lS 74 - 75-" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 

 clxviii. Extra volume, 1879. 



• See article on the Transits of Venus in 1S74 and iES:. Nature, vol. i., 

 p. 526. 



3 See " Remarks on a Favourable Occasic n for the Establishment of Zoologi- 

 cal Observatories." By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R S. Rep. Brit. Ass., 

 1871. pt. ii., p. 134. 



assigned for examination to experts in different branches 

 of science, each of whom has prepared his own report 

 on what was submitted to him. These reports, prefaced 

 by a few introductory remarks, and illustrated by notes of 

 the collectors, constitute the volume now before us. It is 

 divided into two sections, the first relating to Kerguelen, 

 and the second to Rodriguez. 



After a chapter by Mr. Eaton on the physical features 

 of Kerguelen, and on the previous visits to it by naturalists, 

 we find a series of essays on the botany by Sir J. 

 Hooker, Mr. Mitten, the Rer. J. M. Crombie, Dr. Dickie, 

 and other well-known authorities. Then follows a similar 

 series of memoirs upon the zoology of the same island. 



The zoological and botanical collections made in 

 Rodriguez are next treated of in the same way,and we have 

 here also a valuable memoir on the petrology of Rodriguez 

 by Mr. N. S. Maskelyne. From the last-named essay 

 it turns out that the notion that this island consists of 

 "granite overlaid with limestone, and other recent rocks," 

 which was entertained by the Committee of the Royal 

 Society, misled by previous inaccurate observations, is 

 altogether erroneous. Mr. Maskelyne tells us that " the 

 numerous specimens illustrating the rock formations of the 

 Isle of Rodriguez, collected by Mr. I. Bayley Balfour from 

 different localities, need only a cursory inspection to attest 

 the volcanic character of the whole mass of the island. 



"Rodriguez, in fact, consists of doleritic lavas that 

 appear to have been poured out at a considerable number 

 of volcanic orifices at successive periods. It would be 

 difficult, without more minute description of the physical 

 geography of the island than is accessible, to assign any 

 precise date of duration to these volcanic eruptions, or to 

 trace with any certainty the degree to which, and the 

 mode in which, subsequent denudation has helped in 

 giving the island its present remarkable aspect. 



" But the fact of that denudation and the degree to 

 which alteration has proceeded in affecting the minerals 

 composing rocks that by their position must have been 

 among the later of the out-poured lavas, would point to a 

 remote date, possibly to one contemporary with the 

 tertiary period, as that of the volcanic activity of 

 Rodriguez." 



We have not space here to go separately into the numer- 

 ous essays that compose this work. For many of them, 

 the name of the author is quite sufficient to assure us 

 of their excellence, some of the most accomplished 

 naturalists of the present epoch having contributed to 

 the volume. But it is quite evident that a thoroughly good 

 and satisfactory piece of scientific work has been thus 

 accomplished at a very small cost, and that the council of 

 the Royal Society, who planned the whole scheme and 

 carried it out, and especially those two members of it 

 (Sir J. Hooker and Dr. Giinther), who have so 

 efficiently edited this account of the results attained, are 

 entitled to the warmest thanks of all naturalists. Several 

 other nations sent out expeditions to observe the Transit 

 of 1874, and likewise had naturalists attached to their 

 staffs, who have published some valuable observations. 

 But nothing like the handsome and solid volume now 

 before us, with its fifty-five admirably executed litho- 

 graphic plates, has been produced on this occasion in 

 France, Germany, or America. There are certainly some 

 advantages in having a Royal Society at the head of 

 Science instead of a Royal Academy ! 



Having said this much, we will venture on two small 

 criticisms: — First, it is a great pity that there are no 

 maps given in the volume now before us. Without 

 reference to maps it is not possible to appreciate the 

 significance of many of the observations made by the 

 naturalists, and as no generally available atlas contains 

 charts of such obscure islets as Rodriguez and Kerguelen, 

 maps ought to have been attached to the work itself. In 

 fact, every zoo-geographical memoir now-a-days ought ta 

 be illustrated by a map. 



