igS Av/es and Comments. 



tage of a personal inspection of the specimen found on the 

 Beresovka River. The hairy covering of the Mammoth had 

 a close resemblance to that of the Musk Ox. The tail was 

 comparative^ short, but it is with regard to the precise position 

 of the curiously curved tusks that the author strikes out a 

 particularly^ new line. He suggests that the points of these 

 were directed downwards, and were probably used as digging 

 instruments in the same way as the ' snow-scraper ' of the 

 Reindeer. This does not quite agree with the position of the 

 tusks in the well-known Adam's mammoth in the St. Petersburg 

 Museum, but, as the author points out, the tusks of that speci- 

 men are made up of pieces of two or three different ones, joined 

 together ! By the courtesy of Prof. Pfizenmayer, and with the 

 permission of the Smithsonian Institution, we shall next month 

 be able to reproduce the remarkable restoration of the Mam- 

 moth for the benefit of our readers (plate xx.). 



Darwin's library. 

 It is always interesting to examine the library of any 

 worker, no matter in what direction his w^ork lies. To readers 

 of this journal perhaps none would appeal more strongly than 

 that of Charles Darwin. A catalogue of this library, which is 

 under the charge of Professor Seward of Cambridge, has 

 recently been issued by the Cambridge University Press at the 

 nominal charge of i/-. It has been compiled by Mr. H. W. 

 Rutherford, and contains an introduction by Mr. Francis Darwin. 

 The library " retains to a great degree the original ragged 

 appearance." Darwin hardly ever had a book bound, and he 

 certainly used his books. A copy of the sixth edition of 

 Ly ell's ' Elements,' which was found too heavy to be read with 

 ease, was simply cut in two. The general characteristic of the 

 library is its incompleteness, hardly any of the sets of the 

 periodicals being perfect. But it is certainly very valuable in 

 many ways. The books indicate the extent to which they 

 were read by the numerous pencil notes written on the pages, 

 and by the loose scraps of paper pinned at the ends of the 

 volumes. Cambridge is to be congratulated upon being the 

 possessor of this collection, which will increase in interest and 

 value as time goes on. The only small complaint we can 

 make with regard to the catalogue is that there is no lettering 

 on the back, so that when it is on the book-shelves it is liable 

 to be overlooked or misplaced amongst numerous others, 

 which unfortunately are similarly produced now-a-days. 



Naturalist. 



