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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archi- 

 pelagoes ; being the Account of the Work carried on and of the 

 Collections made by an Expedition during the Years 1899 

 and 1900. Vols. I. &II. Edited by J. Stanley Gardiner, 

 M.A., &c. Cambridge : at the University Press. 



Two volumes of this important publication have been com- 

 pleted, and, though we are promised some supplementary parts, 

 the work may now be considered as a distinct unit in bio- 

 logical literature, and further delay in notice is unnecessary. 

 The expedition to these faunistically unknown archipelagoes — 

 for our knowledge was so slight and incomplete as to be practi- 

 cally of little use — was undertaken by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, 

 who left England at the end of March, 1899, in the company of 

 Mr. L. A. Borradaile, a partnership that was soon dissolved 

 owing to an unfortunate attack of sunstroke, which compelled 

 the last-named naturalist to return home. Mr. Forster Cooper 

 subsequently joined the expedition from England, and some 

 amount of the work accomplished may be appreciated when we 

 read that two hundred and seventy-three dredgings were recorded 

 in the Maldives, which were finally left on April 25th, 1900. 



Mr. Gardiner has contributed an early memoir on the Coral 

 Beefs of the Indian Ocean, which gives us a firm grasp of the 

 status of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes. " The 

 soundings, such as they are, although not quite close enough, 

 give strong indications that the belt between Madagascar and 

 India is cut by a depth of over 2000 f. in three places, i. e. 

 between the Maldives and Chagos, between the latter and Saya 

 de Malha Bank, and between Farquhar Atoll and Madagascar. 

 These channels divide the coral-reef areas into four sections, 

 which may be termed respectively the Malagasy, Seychelles, 

 Chagos, and Maldive." The Maldive and Laccadive Archi- 

 pelagoes form a long, narrow belt, extending due north and south 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. IX., April, 1905. N 



