28 



HARDWICKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



younger generation, is causing us to regard with in- 

 terest all those factors which give rise to new develop- 

 ments, and most of all those which, acting at the 

 present time, are capable of being directly observed. 



Astronomers, by making themselves familiar with 

 the nature of things on this earth, are able by 

 analogy to reason out the nature of the stars, 

 bridging space, so to speak, in a way that would, 

 not many years ago, have seemed incredible. So 

 also, by observing the origin of slight varieties and 

 mutations in the present, we may learn something of 

 the history of genera and species, the actual origin 

 of which is buried deeply in the past. 



The much-abused names are simply a matter of 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



T^RITISH New Guinea, by J. P. Thomson 

 J-J (London : George Philip & Son). A new 

 book on this wonderful land was much needed. M. 

 D'Albertis' work was published ten years ago, 

 and now fetches a high price. Had we known as 

 much about it then as we do now, New Guinea 

 would by this time have been solely a British 

 possession, instead of being divided between England 

 and Germany — the latter country probably getting 

 the better half. It is a country which was bound to 

 be annexed by some European power ere long, and 

 its contiguity to Australia plainly indicated it ought 



Fig. 18. — Flat-Sopped mountains of Parana-quara, Lower Amazons. (From new edition of Bates' "Naturalist on the Amazons.") 



convenience — that they are convenient can hardly be 

 doubted by anyone who often has occasion to refer 

 to the forms they represent. The most serious 

 difficulty as to names at present seems to be the 

 danger of naming from British examples varieties 

 previously named on the con'inent. Those who 

 can, might purchase Westerlund's great work with 

 advantage, but this is very incomplete as regards 

 mutations. I have myself been at some pains to 

 collect foreign records, and will gladly give any 

 information I can to anyone who cares to address 

 queries to me on the back of a three-halfpenny 

 postcard. I cannot, however, undertake to examine 

 shells. 



to have come under British protection. Moreover, 

 from a general scientific and natural history point of 

 view, the cost and work of exploring it, had been 

 accomplished almost entirely by Englishmen, count- 

 ing our Australian fellow-subjects, of course, as such. 

 Mr. Thomson's work is a splendid contribution to 

 our knowledge of this beautiful land. It is well 

 printed, and abundantly as well as charmingly 

 illustrated and bound — quite a volume de luxe. It 

 gives a short historical resume of the various exploring 

 expeditions from the coast into the interior, notably 

 that of Sir William Macgregor. The ethnology, 

 manners, and customs of the natives, the physical 

 geography, (and geology as far as possible), the 



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