152 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVll. No. 943 



rest of it. With a brief sketch of the lower 

 Amazon and lower Eio Negro, he begins his 

 story of the trip at Santa Isabel nearly half 

 way up the Rio Negro. With the same 

 promptness, the best of the book — the part 

 which treats of the trip across from Santa 

 Isabel to Ciudad Bolivar on the lower Oro- 

 noco — comes to a living end at 4 :30 a.m., after 

 his long voyage, when ''my canoe grated the 

 sloping bank of Ciudad Bolivar, and I stood 

 upon the beach, bare-legged to the thighs, 

 looking, no doubt, in tattered shirt, like a 

 derelict cast up by the sea." 



The remainder of the book is only remotely 

 related to this first and most important part 

 of it, but it is all interesting. Chapter SIX., 

 however, at the end, relates to outfitting for 

 travel in tropical regions and is the best thing 

 of the sort we have seen; and in the opinion 

 of the reviewer the best things among the 

 many valuable suggestions are these : go light, 

 eat what the natives eat, sleep in a hammock, 

 avoid liquor, don't scratch insect bites. He 

 forgot to add: "Learn the language of the 

 people." 



This last point suggests that the book con- 

 tains a few errors in Portuguese which a little 

 care might have avoided. Such are " batelao " 

 for batelao, " Rio Janeiro " (74, etc.) instead 

 of Rio de Janeiro, "cachaea," rum, for 

 cachaga (43, etc.), " igarapee " for igarape 

 (47^9), " madrugar " for madrugada (84). 



There are also a few erroneous statements 

 in regard to plants which it is hoped may be 

 corrected in future editions: that farinha de 

 mandioca is made from the root of a yucca 

 (33) ; that piassava is a " fiber parasite " of a 

 palm (118) ; that Panama hats are made of 

 " the fine and enduring straw " of a palm. As 

 a matter of fact the piassava fiber is from the 

 edges of the petioles of the palm, and is in no 

 sense a parasite, while the straw of which the 

 hats are made are from the leaves of a species 

 of screwpine. 



On the other hand he does well to correct 

 the impression, so popular in temperate re- 

 gions, that South America swarms with 

 snakes; and he justly discredits the exagger- 



ated stories to be heard all over South Amer- 

 ica of the numbers and dangers of the ja- 

 guars. He does well also to mention the ever- 

 lasting stumbling blocks placed in the road of 

 the foreign wayfarer (213) — an item the for- 

 eigner should be prepared for before he begins 

 his wayfaring. 



In his preface Mr. Whitney speaks rather 

 lightly of the fevers and intimates that they 

 belong to the category of robbers and reptiles 

 (4). Having come safely out of some of the 

 most unhealthful parts of South America, it is 

 natural enough for him to think lightly of the 

 fevers. But when he takes a serious view of 

 the possibilities of the region about San Fer- 

 nando he finds himself confronted by " the 

 insect host and the fever — a forbidding pair " 

 (111). 



The writer is in entire sympathy with this 

 author's general cheerful attitude in regard to 

 the people and their ways and the country in 

 general, but he thinks it due to those who are 

 likely to go there to call attention to the abun- 

 dant evidences of fevers and of their sad work 

 as set forth in " Recollections of an Ill-fated 

 Expedition," etc., by N. B. Craig, Philadel- 

 phia, 1907, and indeed in the experience of 

 every one who has lived long in that country. 



It is a pity that the book is not supplied 

 with better maps. J. C. Branner 



MINERALOGY IN JAPAN 

 The valuable Japanese periodical issued in 

 Tokyo by T. Wada, under the German title 

 " Beitrage zur Mineralogie von Japan," offers 

 many interesting articles in its fourth number 

 (June, 1912), all of them being written in 

 English by their Japanese authors. Among 

 them we note an account of the fall of meteor- 

 ites which took place July 24, 1909, in the 

 districts of Mugi and Yamagata, province of 

 Mino.' The writer, Tetsugoro Wakimizu, 

 states he was at the time in the town of Ogaki, 

 about twenty miles distant, when he heard a 

 sound like the report of a cannon, accom- 



'"Beitrlige zur Mineralogie von Japan," ed. 

 by T. Wada, No. 4, pp. 145-150, 1 pi., 1 map; 

 Tokyo, June, 1912. 



