2 54 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



BOOK5TORE71D 



In the Guiana Forest : Studies of Nature in Relation 

 to the Struggle for Life. By James Rodway, F.L.S., 

 author of " A History of British Guiana." With an 

 introduction by Grant Allen, xxiii and 242 pp. 

 large Svo, with 16 full-page illustrations. (London : 

 T. Fisher Unwin, 1894,) Price 7s. 6d. 



The intro- 

 duction to 

 this delight- 

 ful book is 

 fullofeulogy 

 for the work, 

 but it speaks 

 none too 

 strongly of 

 its excel- 

 lence. Mr. 

 Grant Allen 

 refers to 

 " the educa- 

 tional value 

 of a sojourn 

 in the tropics 

 not merely 

 for the bio- 

 logist, but 

 also and 

 perhaps al- 

 most equally 

 for the gene- 

 ral thinker. 

 The tropics 

 are nature. 

 Certainly it 

 is most 

 notewor t hy 

 . . . that 

 the very idea 

 of evolution 

 and of the 

 survival of 

 the fittest is 

 to a great ex- 

 tent a direct 

 product 

 of tropical 

 travel. It 

 occurred to 

 Darwin 

 himself dur- 

 ing his tro- 

 pical ex- 

 periences 

 in South 

 America 

 while he was 

 voyaging 

 in the 

 " Beagle " ; 



it occurred independently to Alfred Russel Wallace 

 amid the shady depths of the Malayan forests. Bates 

 half anticipated it on the banks of the Amazons ; 

 Huxley had stored up facts for it in his coasting trips 

 along the northern shore of tropical Australia. Its 



Silk Cotton Tree, crowded with Epiphytes 

 From " In the Guiana Forest." 



later prophets, like Bell and Fritz Miiller, were 

 tropical travellers to a man : it was only the stay- 

 at-home Owens and Virchows, the laboratory 

 naturalists, who sturdily opposed it. . . . Now 

 the best thing, of course, to show us what the 

 tropics are like is to go and see them. Failing that, 

 the next best thing is to be personally conducted 

 round the great estate by a thoroughly competent 

 and observant showman, on printed paper. For 

 this purpose Mr. Rodway is one of the best guides 

 I have ever come across, for he ' is fortunate in 

 superadding to the eye that sees, the tongue that 

 speaks, well aided by the pen of a ready writer.' " 



One of the first things that strike one in reading 

 this book, is the high order of literary style which 

 frequently asserts itself in its pages. Many of 



the author's 

 descriptions 

 are fascinat- 

 ing in their 

 s i m p 1 i c ity 

 and truth- 

 fulness to 

 nature. One 

 unconsci - 

 ously drifts 

 into his 

 thoughts,un- 

 til, startled 

 to find we 

 are not with 

 him under 

 the moist, 

 hot, sombre 

 shade of the 

 dark green 

 canopy of 

 the virgin 

 forest, but 

 s u rrounded 

 by murky 

 and grimy 

 London. 

 For instance 

 at page 

 three, in des- 

 cribing our 

 native fel- 

 low subjects 

 of Guiana, 

 he says: "To 

 the native 

 Indian the 

 forest is 

 never dull. 

 H o we ver 

 deserted it 

 may appear, 

 he knows 

 where to 

 look for the 

 acourie and 

 labba, or on 

 what trees 

 monkeys 

 and parrots 

 are likely to 

 be found. 

 The Indian 

 treads softly so that not a twig or leaf rustles under 

 foot, yet he trips along much faster than the white 

 man can follow. To him the pathless woods are 

 familiar ; he knows every hill and valley ; the little 

 streams which trickle downward have their destina- 



