11 $ 
Notices of Books. [January, 
a crust, that year by year becomes less and less, until at length 
it becomes so thin that it acquires the name of ‘ bee’s wing.’ 
The deposit also takes the form of crystals, which will both 
adhere to the cork and fall to the bottom of the bottle like 
powdered glass. All natural wines that have been any length of 
time in bottle should therefore be decanted with care.” 
Description Physique de la Repuhlique Argentine. Par le Dr. H. 
Burmeister, DireCteur du Museo Publico de Buenos-Ayres. 
Traduite de l’Allemand par E. Maupas. Tome Premier, 
contenant l’histoire de la decouverte et la geographic du 
pays. Paris : F. Savy. 1876. 
We have before us the first volume of an elaborate and important 
work, which Dr. Burmeister contemplates issuing on the Ar- 
gentine Republic, and in which will be embodied the results of 
twenty years’ careful study. It is intended that the first two 
volumes should form the introduction, as it were, to the main 
body of the work, the scope of which, as a whole, will be best 
and most concisely described in Dr. Burmeister’s own words : — 
“ Je n’ai pas a fournir,” he remarks, “ un traite de geographie 
de la republique Argentine, et encore moins une description de 
sa richesse mineralogique ; mais il me suffira de faire connaitre 
dans leurs generalites le sol, et le milieu dans lequel, vivent ou 
ont vecu dans les temps prehistoriques les animaux et les plantes 
qui seront etudies specialement dans les volumes suivants. 
L’ouvrage sera surtout consacre a ces deux regnes, et son but 
est de donner un tableau des diversites organiques de ces deux 
groupes, tableau qui commencera par le regne animal. Le regne 
vegetal et la description geologique du sol de la republique ont 
etes confies a de jeunes savants qui publieront leurs divers 
travaux sous leur nom personnel, comme parties de l’oeuvre 
totale.” 
It is naturally impossible to form a decided opinion as to the 
merits of this work from this the first volume, but Dr. Burmeis- 
ter’s reputation as a geographer will be a good guarantee for the 
correctness of his faCts and the soundness of the views expressed; 
and it will be sufficient for us to observe that the present instal- 
ment of the book is devoted to a history of the discovery and 
of the early colonisation of the country, and, secondly, to a 
sketch of the geography of the republic, in which the author has 
availed himself of special materials to be found only at Buenos 
Ayres. It may not be uninteresting to add that the work is 
published in German and French, at the expense of the Republic. 
