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PRE EAC E. 
The Bermudas or Somers Islands, since their discovery in 1515, have 
given origin to a literature of very considerable extent. Not only have 
they been the subject of discussion in many a book of history and 
travel, they have inspired the poetic fancies of Thomas Moore and 
Andrew Marvell, and supplied Shakespeare with an environment for 
“The Winter’s Tale.” The natural history of this littlearchipelago has 
also been a fruitful subject of description from the days of Sil Jourdan 
and his quaint old black-letter volume, ‘‘The Wreck of the Sea Adven- 
ture.” The literature of the islands, as will be shown in a bibliography 
to be published in a subsequent part of this work, includes many papers 
of considerable importance from a scientific standpoint. 
The ‘‘enchanted isles” have proved very attractive to naturalists, 
especially during the past decade, and to the old list of observers, con- 
taining such names as those of J. Matthew Jones, Sir William Reid, Sir 
Henry Lefroy, Lansdowne Guilding, H. B. Tristram, J. L. Hurdis, Col. 
H. M. Drummond-Hay, Colonel Nelson, Dr. J. J. Rein, and Colonel 
Wedderburn, must be added those of Sir Wyville Thomson and his as- 
sistants on the Challenger staff, especially John Murray and H. N. 
Moseley, Prof. W. G. Farlow, Mr. Walter Faxon, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 
Mr. J. W. Fewkes, Prof. William North Rice, Dr. G. W. Hawes, Dr. F. 
M. Hamlin, and Prof. A.S. Bickmore. The field of marine zoology is as 
yet hardly touched. No place can be more suitable for a laboratory of 
biology. 
The only book in which a general survey of the flora and fauna of the 
islands has been attempted is in ‘“‘ The Naturalist in Bermuda,” an oc- 
tavo volume of 200 pages, published in London in 1859, by John Matthew 
Jones, Esq., ’. L. S., barrister, of the Middle Temple. This work is full 
of interest and suggestion. It bears upon its title page as its legend, 
the well-known saying of White of Selborne, “ Every kingdom, every prov- 
ince, should have its gwn monographer,” was conceived and executed in 
the spirit of.a true disciple of the Hampshire sage, and received a well- 
merited encomium from Darwin in his Origin of Species. 
In “The Naturalist in Bermuda,” Mr. Jones made no attempt to 
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