i88o.J 
Analyses of Books, 403 
He explained the legendary accounts of these monsters as exag- 
gerated descriptions of the pterodactyls. It follows as a matter 
of course that these creatures, if they were the archetypes of the 
dragons of mythology, must have still inhabited the world after 
the appearance of man upon the scene. 
The “ Physical Aspedts of Palestine ” were ably expounded 
by the Rev, Canon Tristram, F.R.S. It was pointed out that 
the lower valley of the Jordan and the basin of the Dead Sea, 
depressed as they are 1300 feet below the level of the Meditera- 
nean, have retained, as it were, a fragment of the Miocene 
climate, and may have served as a refuge for certain tropical 
forms of life during the Glacial period. Certain it is that this 
district contains species quite distind from those of North 
Africa, Egypt, or Arabia, and decidedly resembling South Indian 
and South African forms. Thus the author found in the Jordan 
valley a sun-bird (N ectarinia osece ) whose nearest representatives 
are in the Deccan and a kingfisher ( Halcyon Smyrnensis) not 
found elsewhere nearer than Madras. Many of the butterflies, 
locusts, and beetles of the region belong not to the Mediterranean 
district of the PalgearCtic fauna, but to the Oriental or the Ethi- 
opean. The leCturer very acutely argues that the Arabian Desert 
is older than the Sahara, because the fauna of the former has a 
more pronounced desert type. 
Captain W. de W. Abney’s “ Traps to catch Sunbeams,” the 
final leCture, deals with the aCtion of the sun upon the earth. 
Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geological and 
Geographical Survey of the Territories. Being a Report of 
Progress for the Year 1877. By F. V. Hayden, United 
States Geologist. Washington : Government Printing- 
Office. 1879. 
This volume is devoted to the territories of Idaho and Wyoming. 
In Fossil Entomology a rich harvest has been reaped in the 
Tertiary basin of Florissant, from whence 6000 to 7000 inseCIs 
and 3000 plants have been already received, whilst as many 
more were expeCted by the close of the year (1877). There is 
every reason to believe that the study of these specimens must 
throw a new light on the origin and early history of inseCIs. 
Prof. Leidy has been engaged with the study of the Fossil 
Foraminifera of the Uintah Mountains and the Salt Lake Basin. 
The botanical department was conducted by two of the highest 
authorities in that Science, Prof. Asa Gray and Sir J. D. Hooker. 
Their valuable report is already before the English public. 
