444 The National Geographic Magazine 



cial importance to the student of primi- 

 tive man. A suggestion of the varied ex- 

 periences met with in the j ourney through 

 the Lake Rudolf (or Gallop) region and 

 the country lying to the west of the 

 lake is had in reading the list of the 

 names of tribes, many of them unknown, 

 none of them well known. Thus, Arusi 

 Galla, Walamo, Alibori, Wangobeino, 

 Gallopa,Lokub,Turkana, Loka, Abbas, 

 Tamata, Boma, Morelli, Shillaks, and 

 Dinkas. Of these the Walamo are note- 

 worthy for their alleged and widely cred- 

 ited power of bewitching with devils. 

 The Turkana are remarkable for their 

 great size. Captain Wellby puts a higher 

 estimate than most travelers upon the 

 capacity of the Abyssinian character in 

 respect to the higher emotions — friend- 

 ship, charity, generosity — -the very qual- 

 ities which would be most readily de- 

 veloped by his own lovable nature. One 

 is permitted to doubt the author's pre- 

 diction that most of their present defects 

 will be largely cured by intercourse with 

 Europeans. In using well-established 

 native names of lakes and rivers, rather 

 than those proper names of European 

 travelers assigned for glory's sake, Cap- 

 tain Wellby administers a reproof to 

 vanity. The general reader of this im- 

 portant book will inevitably feel a sym- 

 pathetic interest in its author. The 

 graceful introduction and epilogue, writ- 

 ten respectively by his friends Colonel 

 Harrington and Sir Rennel Rodd, will 

 pleasantly gratify this interest. Many 

 good photographs and two maps add to 

 the value of the text. 



Oscar T. Crosby. 



Animals of the Past. By F. A. Lucas. 

 With manj^ illustrations. New York : 

 McClure, Phillips & Co. $2.00. 

 Mr. Eucas has given the public a book 

 that has long been needed, an authori- 

 tative but simply written account of the 

 strange animals of past ages. In a 

 chapter on the " Rulers of the ancient 

 seas," the author sketches the succes- 



sive races of creatures who ruled the 

 oceans long before the advent of man. 

 ' ' For a time the armor-clad fishes held 

 undisputed sway; then their reign was 

 ended by the coming of the sharks, who 

 in their turn gave way to the fish-lizards, 

 the Ichthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs." 

 Then came great marine reptiles, who 

 extended their empire from New Zea- 

 land to North America, the Mosasaurs. 

 These maintained their headquarters in 

 the oceans that rolled over western 

 Kansas. As this great plain in the 

 course of hundreds of centuries was 

 gradually lifted, they were imprisoned, 

 the weaker captured by the stronger, 

 and in time even the latter were stran- 

 gled by the freshening of the water or 

 starved by the disappearance of their 

 food supply. Then sharks came into 

 power again, small sharks with little 

 teeth and great sharks with gaping jaws 

 six feet across and inside hundreds of 

 gleaming teeth, three, four, and five 

 inches long. These enormous sharks 

 swarmed everywhere that the water 

 was warm, and then they disappeared 

 utterly. Chapter headings of the volume 

 are as follows: " Fossils and how they 

 are formed," " The earliest known ver- 

 tebrates," "Impressions of the past," 

 "Rulers of the ancient seas," "Birds 

 of old," "The Dinosaurs," "Reading 

 the riddles of the rocks, " " Feathered 

 giants," " The ancestry of the horse," 

 "The mammoth," "The mastodon," 

 ' ' Why do animals become extinct ? ' ' 



Our National Parks. By John Muir. 

 With illustrations. New York: Hough- 

 ton, Mifain & Co. $1.75. 

 The magnificence of scenery of the 

 western United States and what is being 

 done to preserve it by reservations like 

 the Yosemite and Yellowstone National 

 Parks is the theme of this volume. Mr. 

 Muir says his aim in writing the series 

 of sketches has been to incite people 

 " to come and enjoy them [the national 

 parks] and get them into their hearts, 



