SOMERVILLE S PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
155 
be observed with equal facility in the common Sepiola or Elcdone of the 
British shores. 
From a perusal of pages 346-47, we are led to believe that our au¬ 
thoress accepts as true the views of the late Professor E. Eorbes with 
regard to the existence of specific centres, while, at page 394, she infers, 
from the fact of Vanessa cardui having been found in each of the four 
quarters of the globe, that each particular species must have been origi¬ 
nally created in the places they now inhabit. 
The few paragraphs which profess to explain the leading facts which 
have been recently brought to light concerning the distribution of marine 
animals are, in our opinion, most unsatisfactory. What can be more 
confused than the following passage, which contains errors of so manifest 
a character that any particular allusion to them must seem unneces¬ 
sary :— 
“ From the surface to more than 100 fathoms in the Arctic and boreal belts there are 
five distinct zones of depth. The first, or littoral zone, which extends to a depth of fifteen 
fathoms, is distinguished by the genera Littorina or turbo, the Purpura or whelk, and the 
Patella or limpet; the other four contain various kinds of mollusca, star-fish, sea-urchins, 
sponges, corallines, and sea-weeds. The most remarkable of these is an arborescent star¬ 
fish which inhabits the depths of the North Atlantic, and the Comatula Europea , belong¬ 
ing to the stone-lily family, or crinoids, which are fixed to the rocks when young, but 
become detached when full grown: they are numerous in the Arctic seas to the west of 
Spitzbergen; one is met with in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, and a species has been found in 
Dublin Bay. They are the last representatives of those beautiful zoophytes which cha¬ 
racterized the oolitic period. The larger Crustacese are exceedingly numerous in this 
belt, especially on the rocky coasts and islands of Norway, where an extensive fishery 
supplies the English, Dutch, and French markets with crabs and lobsters.” 
The physiological information which Mrs. Somerville conveys is, no 
doubt, sufficiently extensive, though, like the rest of her writings, it is 
characterized by incompleteness and inaccuracy. Thus, for example, at 
page 450, we are told that— 
“ Herbivorous animals inhale oxygen in breathing, and as vegetable food does not 
contain so much carbon as animal, they require a greater supply to compensate for the 
wasting influence of the vital air ; therefore, cattle eat more frequently than those which 
feed on animal food.” 
Erom the ordinary rules of grammar, we must suppose that the word 
“ those” in the concluding portion of the sentence just quoted refers either 
to cattle or herbivorous animals; but if either of these expressions be 
inserted, the sense of the passage is manifestly destroyed. But, waiving 
this objection, it maybe said that our authoress has mentioned one only 
of the reasons why cattle are obliged to eat more frequently than carni¬ 
vorous animals, the comparatively small amount of histogenetic material 
contained in vegetable food being, we need hardly inform our readers, the 
true cause of the difference in question. 
The concluding chapter of the book is more promiscuous in its con¬ 
tents than any of the others, embracing an extensive variety of topics in 
connexion with Man,—his influence, free will, the progress of civiliza¬ 
tion, poetry, fine arts, See., &c.,—“bringing to a close a work which” 
