i8yg.] 
( 311 > 
NOTICES OF BO OK S|. 
Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, being an account of 
various Observations made during the Voyage of H.M.S. 
Challenger round the World, in the Years 1872-76. By 
H. N. Moseley, F.R.S. London : Macmillan and Co. 
We have here a general summary of the zoological and botanical 
results of the Challenger's vogage. It is remarked in the Preface 
that “ very much of it was intended for family reading,” and in 
facft no small portion of the book might — as far as internal evi- 
dence goes — have been written by any observant man of culture 
having no special acquaintance with any department of Natural 
History. We find even the music of the Tahitian National Air, 
a modern production which can scarcely be regarded as an 
ethnological document. It must further be remembered that, 
except as far as strictly Oceanic life is concerned, the circum- 
stances of the Expedition were not too favourable to extended 
biological observation. The proportion of time spent on shore 
was not large, and, as the author declares, the zoological results 
of the deep-sea dredgings were disappointing. Hopes had been 
entertained, by the late Prof. Agassiz and others, that at great 
depths many important forms of old geological epochs would be 
found still existing. Such expectations have not been fulfilled ; 
and though many new species, and even new genera, were ob- 
tained by the dredge, they belonged as a rule to well-known 
families, and very few displayed any important structural dif- 
ference from forms already recognised. “ We picked up no 
missing links to fill up the gaps in the great zoological family 
tree.” 
In another respeCt the results may be pronounced negative. 
Upon land wide areas have been found specially favourable to 
the production of variations and the development of new forms. 
Hence the faunae and florae of continents are relatively richer 
than those of islands. It might therefore have been expected 
that the ocean-floor, wider far than any continent and enjoying 
throughout conditions of temperature essentially alike, would 
have disclosed a corresponding exuberance of forms. The very 
contrary is the faCt : deep-sea life is monotonous. Nor do the 
voyagers appear to have been favoured with a sight of any of 
the still unclassified monsters which the sea, according to some 
witnesses, may be supposed to contain. In the sea-serpent Mr. 
Moseley appears to be a decided unbeliever, and accepts the 
usual hypotheses of floating sea-weed, flocks of birds, &c., re- 
marking further that “ Sea-serpent stories are often utterly 
