1885 .] Analyses of Books. 747 
on a work of higher scientific importance, on the regional distri- 
bution of the 14,000 Australian plants. 
The Natural History Museum, under the management of 
Prof. M‘Cay, has received several very important additions, es- 
pecially some collections illustrative of the Zoology of New 
Guinea, and a fine collection from Borneo. 
The Field Naturalists’ Club is prosperous, and numbers nearly 
200 members. Let us hope that they will work energetically at 
the almost endless questions which are sure to crop up in a 
country so sparingly explored as Australia. 
Earthquake tremors have been of late experienced in Tasma- 
nia, and in the extreme south-east of the Australian mainland. 
Most of the tremors and rumblings, whilst startlingly manifest 
on the surface, were not noticed 12 feet or more below it, except 
sometimes in the open-timbered shafts of the mines. Even in 
deep cuttings they were often not noticeable.” This would 
seem to indicate that the agency concerned cannot be deep- 
seated. 
Red sunsets and afterglows are still observed, but the Krakatoa 
theory is becoming discredited. It has now come to light that 
similar phenomena were not uncommon in Australia before that 
great catastrophe. 
Much definite information has been collected as to the rainfall 
in different parts of Australia. Only a fringe around the great 
continent — broad in some parts and narrow in others has a 
sufficient rainfall to render agriculture successful. The arid 
centre has an average rainfall of from 5 to 10 inches per annum, 
and it is a matter of surprise that vast flocks of sheep can be 
maintained in such a region. Between these two districts runs 
a belt with from 15 to 20 inches of annual rainfall, the limit 
required for wheat-growing. ' " 
The first article printed is “ On the Evidences of a Glacial 
Epoch in Victoria, during Post-Miocene Times, by G. S. 
Griffiths. The evidence, which he collects from purely geolo- 
gical, palaeontological, and biological sources, appears puma 
facie conclusive. , 
Mr. James Stirling, F.L.S., of Omeo, continues his Phanero- 
gamous Flora of the Mitta Mitta Source. Basin. _ 
Mr. W. W. Culcheth, C.E., discusses the formation of shingle 
on the East Coasts of New Zealand with reference to keeping 
open harbours and river-mouths. 
Mr. P. H. Macgillivray, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., continues his re- 
searches on new or little-known Polyzoa, in two memoirs, and 
he also contributes a paper on the “ Reproduction of the 
Ornithorrhynchus .” f . 
Mr. James Stirling, F.L.S., gives an elaborate account of the 
Meteorology of the Australian Alps. 
