Notices of Books . 
3i3 
1879.] 
habitually prey on lizards. At Juan Fernandez the author was 
struck with a showy flora, co-existing with a paucity of inserts — 
an observation similar to that said to have been made in the 
mountains of Guiana by Schomburgk. 
Whilst watching the movements of seals in the water, Mr. 
Moseley was struck by their close connection with the whales, 
and saw how easily a whale might be developed out of a seal. 
The fur-seals when on land still bend their hinder limbs forward, 
as do land mammals. The sea-elephants carry their hind legs 
always stretched backwards, when little modification is needed 
to turn these otherwise useless members into the broad tail-fin 
of the whale. 
With reference to the interval between man and the anthropoid 
apes, we find an utterance with which we heartily agree : — “The 
wide, but unscientific, distinction commonly drawn between man 
and the higher monkeys is an error of high civilisation, and 
comparatively recent. To the Dyack, the great ape of Borneo 
is simply the Man of the Woods. The author, when at Tonga, 
was struck with the manner in which the natives, when con- 
versing, incessantly contract and relax the muscles of the fore- 
head and twitch up the eyebrows, just as do the monkeys. 
Passing over abundance of other observations well worthy of 
notice, we come to a passage on the possible faunae and florae of 
other worlds. “ On the theory of Evolution it is impossible that 
plants or animals, of any advanced complexity, at all resembling 
those existing on the earth, should exist on other planets or other 
solar systems. It is conceivable that very low forms of vegetable 
life may exist on other planets, and may have been by some 
means transported to the earth : the idea is conceivable, though 
highly improbable. But it is quite impossible that that infinitely 
complex series of circumstances which on the earth has conspired 
to produce from the lowest living forms a Crustacean should 
have occurred elsewhere ; still less is it possible that a bird or a 
mammal should exist elsewhere ; still more impossible that there 
should be elsewhere a monkey or a man. It is even probable 
that protoplasm itself, the basis of all life, is a production en- 
tirely confined to our small planet.” To all this we must of 
course assent if— but only if — species are the result of an infinite 
number of fortuitous variations. 
We cannot better convey our opinion of this work than by 
expressing the hope that the author may soon be engaged on 
some exploring expedition which may give him greater scope, 
and that we may have the pleasure of reading the account of his 
results. 
