49 ^ Correspondence. [August, 
enquiry has yet been set on foot concerning Atlantis, and it 
appears to me that one of the most interesting questions of the 
day should be allotted its share of investigation. — I am, &c., 
Cl. de Crespigny. 
[This communication is the more interesting because the 
writer does not appear to be acquainted with certain recent 
speculations in this direction, and in particular with the work of 
Mr. Donnelly reviewed in our June number. — Ed. J. S.] 
NATURAL IMITATION. 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
Sir, — The following remarks of Gordon Cumming (“ Two 
Years’ Adventures in the Interior of South Africa ”) appear to 
me worthy of being separated from the text of what is gene- 
rally conceived to be merely an amusing hunting work. The 
remarks are profound and most interesting to naturalists, and 
when its date is considered (October, 1843) places its author high 
in the lists of natural observers, preceding as it does the observa- 
tions of both Bates (“ The Naturalist on the Amazons ”) and 
Wallace (“ The Malay Archipolago ”). The remarks are the 
more interesting as they are detached from all technical ideas, 
and were not written to support any particular theory. In the 
many works I have read on this interesting subjedt I nowhere 
find the original observance of this peculiar natural phenomenon 
is given to Gordon Cumming. 
“ There can be no doubt that every animal is seen to its 
greatest advantage in the haunts which Nature destined them to 
adorn ” (witness Waterton’s observations on the Sloth), “ and 
amongst the various living creatures which beautify this fair 
creation I have often traced a remarkable harmony between the 
form of the animal and the general appearance of the locality in 
which it is found : this I first remarked at an early period of my 
life, when Entomology occupied a part of my attention. No 
person following this interesting pursuit can fail to observe the 
extraordinary likeness which insedts bear to the various abodes 
in which they are met with : thus among the long grass we find 
a variety of long green insedts whose legs and antennae resemble 
the shoots emanating from the stalks of the grass, that it 
requires a practical eye to distinguish them. In sandy districts 
varieties are met with of a colour similar to the sand which they 
