532 The American Naturalist. [June, 
see your body move and gesticulate ; but I cannot touch, hear 
or see any of your sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts 
or volitions. These are inwardly or retrospectively realized 
by yourself alone. 
The distinction here established is essential. It excludes, 
first of all, the possibility of our entire being consisting of mind 
stuff, as believed by Idealists of all shades. And it excludes 
also the possibility of anything mental being in the remotest 
degree akin to physical forces, as taught by materialistic 
thinkers, for no one can deny that we give the name of " force " 
only to that which is capable of affecting our senses in some 
way or other, and this is exactly the kind of effect that noth- 
mg purely mental can produce. 
Yours, very truly, 
Edmund Montgomery. 
The Open Court. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 
Asia.— FoRMOSA.-Mr. G. Taylor, an Englishman in the 
Chmese Lighthouse Service, gives in the April issue of the 
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society a most inter- 
estmg account of the natives of Formosa. There was con- 
siderable difficulty in establishing a lighthouse at the south- 
ern end of the island, among wild natives inimical to Chinese 
rule, but at last the ground for its erection was fairly bought, 
and this commencement without bloodshed led to future 
amicable relations. The Chinamen has ousted the natives 
from the fertile and highly cultivated plains of the west and 
north and even in the south the Chinese squatter has fixed 
himself upon all the streams, so that the really wild natives 
have had to retreat to the mountains, especially as many of 
the native races adopt Chinese customs, settle down, and 
cultivate the ground. 
Formosa possesses only two harbors worthy of the name, 
VIZ.. Keelong in the north, and Takowin in the west. The 
first of these can be entered by larger vessels, but the second 
has the advantage of being more entirely land-locked. The 
entire island is densely wooded. 
There is little doubt that the original settlers were Malay, 
but physiognomy differs greatly in the same tribe. At pres- 
ent there are four principal races who have preceded the 
Chinese, viz., the Paiwans, Tipuns, Amias, and Pepohoans. 
