[ 470 ] 



REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 



Histoire Nalurelle des lies Canaries. — Par MM. P. Barker- 

 Webb et Sabin Berthelot. 4to. avec Atlas in Fol. Livs. i. 

 vii. Paris, 1836. 



The Canary Isles are so frequently the first extra-European land 

 which is visited by a traveller, either in the pursuit of commerce, 

 or to explore the riches of nature, that we do not wonder at 

 the delight and enthusiasm with which naturalists have landed 

 on their shores, and enjoyed the few days which the farther pro- 

 gress of the voyage would allow them to devote to their examina- 

 tion. To such feelings we are indebted for the glowing description 

 which M. Humboldt has given us of his six days residence there, on 

 his way to the sterner, and more stupendous scenery of the Andes ; 

 and to such more lately, the rapture of D'Orbigny, while travers- 

 ing their ravines before proceeding to the same regions. These is- 

 lands have also been a favourite theatre for the experiments of many 

 men well versed in the physical sciences, or attached to the history 

 of the laws affecting the geographical distribution of plants. Their 

 geography and history have received able contributions from Fuillee, 

 George Glass, Bory de Saint Vincent, Cordier, and others ; while 

 the short visit of Humboldt, and the residences of Broussonet and 

 Von Buche, produced a mass of information of the utmost impor- 

 tance, both to the above-mentioned branches and to their natural 

 history. But the works of all these able men are scattered, and 

 seem to have been severally conducted with no view to any general 

 plan. The authors of the work whose title we have just quoted, on 

 the other hand, possessed of all the knowledge which the researches 

 of their predecessors could give, have undertaken a series of obser- 

 vations, which time has enabled them to complete, and of which the 

 commencement is given in the livraisons now before us. 



M. Berthelot arrived in Teneriffe towards the end of 1829, and, dur- 

 ing a residence often years, explored the riches of the island, while at 

 the same time he endeavoured to perfect the management of an accli- 



