influence of the beetle, and various other instances might be cited. What a benefit to agriculture, then, it must be to have a person employed by the State, whose sole duty it is to go about and investigate the nature of those insects which inhabit farms, and to find out the injurious and beneficial forms, and also the means of encouraging or exterminating them. Such a work is that of the author of the volume before us, who has pointed out various insects which are injurious, and has furnished the means of exterminating them. This Report is furnished with an introduction to the study of entomology, which gives illustrations of the different plans of capturing and preserving insects, whilst the book itself is full of interesting and valuable details.

THIS

RELIQUIE AQUITANICE.*

HIS lavishly executed work, which has been in progress for so many years, was, as our readers are aware, originally from the joint authorhip of M. Edouard Lartet and Mr. Henry Christy. These distinguished savants are no longer in existence, and the work on which they bestowed their united labours is now committed to the charge of Professor Rupert Jones, F.R.S. And it has not been delivered over to idle hands, or to those who will not expend as much time and research as the original authors bestowed upon it. Indeed Professor Jones has already given evidence of this in the manner in which he has brought out another portion of this work beside the present one; and as there are in all but fifteen parts to appear, and this is the twelfth, we may soon anticipate the completion of the treatise. The main portion of this, the twelfth part, is occupied by an able paper from the pen of J. Evans, F.R.S., whose splendid treatise on the Flint Implements of Great Britain our readers are already familiar with. It is upon certain bone and cave deposits of the Reindeer period in the South of France. The remarks were originally read before the Geological Society, but were only printed in abstract in its "Quarterly Journal." Mr. Evans' observations, which are abundantly illustrated, are fully descriptive of many caverns and hollows which contain prehistoric remains, but withal there is exhibited a considerable reticence as to the expression of an opinion regarding the absolute age of these deposits. In reference to relative antiquity he is more decided in opinion; for he, as others do, especially M. Gabriel de Mortillet, regards the Moustier remains as unquestionably of a higher antiquity than those of other caves. Apart from this paper of Mr. Evans, the number concludes the observations on the Reindeer and Hippopotamus, and is as usual illustrated by a number of exquisite plates of flint weapons and carved horns. These are splendid engravings as work of art; they are immensely superior to any work executed in these countries, being drawn and lithographed by Louveau, and printed by Becquet, both of whom are Parisian artists.

"Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ;" being contributions to the Archæology and Paleontology of Périgord and the adjoining Provinces of Southern France. By Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy. Edited by T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. Part XII. London: Williams and Norgate, 1873.

RESEARCHES IN ZOOLOGY.*

ALTHOUGH this is the second edition, it is nevertheless an absolutely

new book to the great majority of our readers. The first edition was published nearly forty years ago, and we think that the well known author of the "British Spiders" did well to bring it again before the public. It of course is not a book on any distinct subject, but is a collection of very valuable papers on subjects of general interest to every true naturalist. It is without exception the book of books for the observant country gentleman. What is it about? Well, we must give some of the contents. First are a couple of good papers on birds and their migrations, and there are two further articles on the cuckoo. Then follow chapters on the desertion of their young by swallows; on the pied flycatcher; on the formation of the bill of birds; on the diving of aquatic birds; on the growth of the salmon; on the means by which animals adhere to the vertical surface of highly-polished bodies (this paper is of especial interest, for it shows by exactly similar experiments to those recorded in a very recently published paper, the precisely same result, that the flies do not adhere by means of atmospheric pressure, for on exhausting the air from a glass vessel the flies still continué to adhere to the glass); on one of the Ichneumonide, whose larva is parasitic; on spiders; and experiments and observations on geometric, aëronautic, and other spiders. It must be borne in mind that we have only given a portion of the contents of this interesting book, which is, of all the works we have lately seen, especially the book for the country naturalist.

M

WORKSHOP APPLIANCES.†

ESSRS. LONGMANS continue to bring out their series of text-books of science suited to the intelligent working man, and we think they have not yet published a book which is more admirably suited to the class to whom they are addressing these volumes, than the present one. It is clearly a book which every one who delights in a workshop should possess. We do not mean the workman alone; for there is a very large number of country gentlemen, and not a few town ones, who have a certain love for the workshop, and who spend a good deal of their time over the lathe and the chisel, hammer and plane. To such, as well as to the workman, we heartily commend Mr. Shelley's volume. It is essentially a book which ought to be in every workshop; and we confess that we have learnt something from it ourselves, in the chapters on grinding edge-tools, and stones

* "Researches in Zoology;" illustrative of the Structure, Habits, and Economy of Animals. By John Blackwall, F.L.S. 2nd edition. London: Van Voorst, 1873.

"Workshop Appliances;" including Descriptions of the Guaging and Measuring Instruments, the Hand Cutting-tools, Lathes, Drilling, Planing and other Machine Tools used by Engineers. By C. P. B. Shelley, C.E. Professor of Machinery in King's College. London: Longmans, 1873.

and oilstones, which we did not know before. Further, it has more than 200 illustrations, many of which are novel to most readers. The plan of the work is to describe the different apparatus which are to be found in a thoroughly well-furnished workshop, and to show the young student how he may best use them, and in what way they get out of repair, and how they may be set in the best working order. In treating of these very important subjects, we think the author has done his work fully and well. We feel, in reading his book, that we are in the hands of a thoroughly practical man, who will teach us in a complete and masterly manner.

IT

AMONG THE DOLOMITES.*

is not often that we find in a book of travels-especially in a lady's book the subject that is likely to attract the pedestrian coupled with the matter of highest interest to the man of science. Yet, most assuredly, we have found this in the present instance. In this book of travel, which Miss Edwards has given the excursionist world, we find matter not alone of general interest, but of a character to excite the attention of the geologist also. To be sure the subject-matter-as far as geology is concerned-is present to an exceedingly small extent, and is moreover of a nature not unknown to those who have studied the works of the French and Austrian geologists. But to the great mass of English readers the Dolomite mountains are an utterly unknown region, and to many even of our skilled local geologists their character and lithological features are more unknown even than the Andes or the Himalayas. Miss Edwards's book will therefore prove to all such a most interesting and instructive volume, and the marvellous sketches which she has given will do more to make its structure comprehended than pages of mere writing. For some of these exceedingly clever engravings we are indebted to the publishers, who have kindly placed them at our disposal, so that we are enabled to place some of Miss Edwards's handiwork before our subscribers. Miss Edwards is, of course, no ordinary tourist; she is evidently a woman who possesses material strength, and who is above those petty wants and cares which render an average woman such a terrific bore on an alpine excursion. She is able to bear the eleven hours on a mule's back, which is one of the conditions of excursionising amid alpine mountains, and she is then enabled to put up with a dish of Liebig's beef-tea brewed with the aid of a pocket-lamp which accompanies her. All these are things which to an ordinary woman would appear something terrific. But she is used to it; and hence she has been enabled to see and examine a district which is at present, and probably will be for a time, cut off from female expedition. She states that a knowledge of Italian and German are indispensable for the excursionist, and she says that "the Dolomite district is most easily approached from either

"Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys; a Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites." By Amelia B. Edwards, author of "Barbara's History." London: Longmans, 1873.

Botzen or Bruneck, the nearest railway stations being Toblach on the north, Atzwang on the west, and Conegliano on the south. All that is grandest, all that is most attractive to the artist, the geologist and the alpine climber, lies midway between these three points, and covers an area of about thirtyfive miles by fifty. The scenes which the writer has attempted to describe all lie within that narrow radius." The greatest beauty of the district, or almost so, seems to our mind to be the fact dwelt upon by the authoress, that she travelled "sometimes for days together without meeting a single traveller, either in the inns or on the roads." But apart from this, there can be no doubt, we think, that the country is singularly wild and beautifully picturesque; the fact that many of the mountains exceed 10,000 feet in height, and some, 66 as the Cima di Fradusta, the Palle di San Martino, and the Sass Maor, are so difficult, that the mountaineer who shall first set foot upon their summits will have achieved a feat in no way second to that of the first ascent of the Matterhorn," must in itself prove attractive to the reader. The authoress adopts Richthofen's views as to the origin of the mountains, and gives a brief summary of his theory of the coral-reef origin of the mass; but of that we need not say anything. Suffice it to describe, in Miss Edwards's own words, the three exquisite cuts which we have borrowed from her publishers. And first of the Monte Antelao.

Here, says the authoress, "from a grassy knoll, the writer devoted a long time to making a careful drawing of the Antelao, which is here seen to its greatest advantage. . . . The first ascent of the highest peak of this mountain was achieved by that famous climber Dr. Grohmann, in 1863; and the second in 1864, by Lord Francis Douglas, of hapless memory, accompanied by Mr. F. L. Latham and by two guides... The ascent is taken from a pass called the Forcella Piccola, which divides the mass of the Marmarole from that of the Antelao. . . . It was supposed to be inaccessible till Dr. Grohmann's time, when the fortunate discovery of a certain cleft by one of his Cortina guides opened the way to the German cragsman." And assuredly the climb must have been no easy matter, to judge from the sketch which Miss Edwards has given of the snowy mountain. But this is not all. Another view which we have obtained from Miss Edwards's book is that represented here-the Monte Cristallo and Piz Popena.

She says, 46 Passing Schluderbach, a clean-looking roadside inn, we come

presently in sight of the Dürren See, a lovely little emerald-green lake, streaked with violet shadows, and measuring about three-quarters of a mile in length. Great mountains close it in on all sides, and the rich woods of the lowly hills slope down to the water's edge. The clustered peaks, the eternal snows and glaciers of Monte Cristallo; the towering summit of the Piz Popena; and the extraordinary towers of the Drei Zinnen, come one after the other into view." And certainly the sight must have been grand indeed, for we know of very few even of the well-known alpine picturespots that can at all compare with this grand combination, as it were, of Killarney and Mont Blanc.

There is only one other picture which we have taken from this book, to which we have to direct the reader's attention, and that is of the Sasso di Ronch. This the authoress very briefly describes, but she alleges that the view obtained in going up to it was singularly grand. Indeed, all through