Slike strani
PDF
ePub

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1905.

SOCIOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS.

A Modern Utopia. By H. G. Wells. Pp. xi+393. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1905.) Price 78. 6d.

I

[ocr errors]

T is instructive to watch the growth, both in power and in hopefulness, of Mr. Wells's criticism of life. In the "Time Machine" his forecast of the future of humanity was frankly appalling; in "When the Sleeper Wakes, more lurid (albeit far more probable) than the worst imaginings of “reforming socialists. "Anticipations" was a most stimulating book, but so deliberately confined itself to exalting and exaggerating the prospects of a single aspect of life, so exclusively devoted itself to glorifying mechanical and material progress, that those sensitive to our spiritual and æsthetic possibilities might be pardoned for regarding the present order, with all its cruelty, waste, sordidness, and grotesqueness, as a golden age in comparison with Mr. Wells's world. "Mankind in the Making " contained much vigorous criticism and many sensible and practical suggestions. In the present book Mr. Wells has become still more moderate and practicable and hopeful, without in the least derogating from his ingenuity and originality. We sincerely hope, therefore, he will not, as he threatens, stick henceforth to his art or trade of imaginative writing," but will continue from time to time to regale and stimulate us with sociological speculations.

66

Stripping off the romantic form-in which Mr. Wells dreams himself and a companion, a botanist suffering from a chronic affair of the heart, into a distant planet which is an exact duplicate of our earth, save that it has realised all the good which is attainable with our present resources- -his main argument may be condensed as follows.

As the philosophic foundation of his whole enterprise, Mr. Wells assumes what he calls the 66 metaphysical heresy" (though it is rapidly forcing itself upon the notice even of the most stagnantly " orthodox " philosophers) that all classifications, though convenient, are crude, and that whatever is real and valuable in the world is individual, a thesis he had expounded in the brilliant contribution to Mind entitled the " Scepticism of the Instrument," which he has now reprinted as an appendix to his book. From this philosophy he infers that progress depends on individual initiative and variation, leading to successful experiment. Hence the infinite preciousness of freedom, which the Utopian WorldState must restrict only when and in so far as it would oppress the freedom of others. Hence, too, there will be extensive toleration of "cranks," while even criminals would merely be segregated as failures and condemned to work out their ideas of a good life in a society of their likes, after a fashion charmingly described in the account of the arrival of involuntary immigrants at the "Island of Incorrigible Cheats." But though Utopia is strangely kind to the cranky, the criminal and the inefficient, because it regards

their occurrence as the measure of the State's failure, it does not allow them to reproduce their kind. Parentage is a privilege, and the production of superior offspring a service to the community for which a wise State will handsomely reward its

women.

་་

But the efficiency and prosperity of the Utopian order ultimately depend on the ruling class, which Mr. Wells seems to have taken bodily out of the Platonic Republic, and, with a fine compliment to the unparalleled rise of Japan, entitled the " Samurai." The Samurai are conceived as a "voluntary nobility which (like the mediæval Church) all may enter who are able and willing to lead the strenuous and somewhat ascetic life prescribed by the rules of the Order. Among these the obligations to buy and read every month at least one book published in the last five years, and every year to go out into the wilderness and to travel through it in silence and solitude for at least seven days, are perhaps the most noticeable, together with the prohibition of acting, singing and reciting, and the playing of games in public.

It is remarkable how Platonic is the general spirit of these institutions in all save the high appreciation of individual freedom, to the value of which Plato showed such singular blindness. Nor is their general aim hard to discover. At several points, however, a critic will be disposed to doubt whether Mr. Wells's means are adequate to his ends. He has seen, indeed, what never seems to have occurred to Plato, that if wisdom is to control the State, elaborate precautions must be taken to keep learning progressive, and to prevent it from fossilising into pedantry. The Platonic State, if it could ever have come into existence, would systematically have suppressed originality, and simply have stereotyped the condition of science and art prevailing at the date of its institution. If it could be conceived as surviving to the present day, it would still be sending its heroic hoplites against quick-firing guns, and still be punishing a belief in evolution or metageometry as heresies worthy of death. Mr. Wells seeks to guard against the universal human tendency to fix in rigid forms whatever man admires. But though he insists on the importance of preserving the "poietic," i.e. originative, types of man and endowing their researches, it may be doubted whether even under his laws they would not be overpowered by the "kinetic," i.e. the efficient administrators, who everywhere conserve the established order. For these latter would control the Order of the Samurai.

Again, Mr. Wells's distrust of eugenics, justified as no doubt it is by the present state of our knowledge, seems unduly to disparage the prospects of scientific discovery in the future. It does not follow that because now we know too little to entrust the State with the function of controlling the reproduction of the race, this will continue to be unsafe, and it is easy to imagine circumstances in which such control would become almost inevitable. For example, if one of the many attempts to discover what determines the sex of an embryo should chance to be crowned with success, the numerical equality of the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

sexes would in all probability be gravely imperilled, and the State would almost certainly have to intervene. Again, while Mr. Wells is doubtless within his rights in scoffing at the racial prejudices of the time, in his scorn of popular notions of "superior" races, "including such types as the Sussex farm labourer, the Bowery tough, the London hooligan, and the Paris apache," and in his contention that no race is so superior as to be trusted with human charges, his anticipation of wholesale racial fusions seems to involve a serious underestimate of the æsthetic instincts. Lastly, although Mr. Wells has keenly perceived the spiritual value of a temporary retreat from society, it may be doubted whether he does not purchase its advantages at too high a cost. The solitary voyages of his Samurai would assuredly lead to a high death-rate among them, and though one type of mind was thereby strengthened, another would be unhinged. The rule, in short, seems too rigid for the variety, and too cramping for the freedom, of man, both of which Mr. Wells is elsewhere anxious to appreciate. But Mr. Wells, on the whole, shows a wisdom far superior to that of former Utopists in not seeking to construct out of the imperfect materials which alone the actual can furnish a static order which shall be, and if possible remain eternally, perfect. He aims rather at laying down the principles of an order which shall be capable of progressively growing towards perfection; and so it may well be that in his ideal society men will be less reluctant than now to learn from experience.

[blocks in formation]

J. W. Gibbs. Translated by G. Ray, of Dijon, with an introduction by B. Brunhes, of Clermont. Pp. 86. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1903.)

THE

HE second volume of "Thermodynamik" deals essentially with applications. It is divided into two parts, devoted to thermochemical changes and thermoelectric changes respectively. Under the first heading are included changes of phase of a single substance, which occupy the first 168 pages. In this connection we have sections dealing with Van der Waals's formula, steam and gas engines, the equilibrium of an atmosphere of water vapour, and the Hertzian adiabatics. The next chapter deals with phases formed of more than one component, the properties of binary mixtures occupying about 80 pages, and those of a system with more than two components being treated subsequently. The part dealing with thermoelectric changes contains a good bit of introductory matter on electrostatics. In the third chapter of this part the properties of black-body radiation are discussed at much length.

The subject of thermodynamics can be defined in various ways. In its most restricted sense it deals exclusively with the first and second laws and direct

deductions from them, in just the same way that dynamics deals with direct deductions from the laws of motion. But the name thermodynamics is often used to include all phenomena directly or indirectly associated with heat, and it is in a fairly broad sense in this respect that Dr. Voigt deals with the subject. A good many of the formulæ are based more or less on experiment or reasoning not directly connected with the two laws of thermodynamics. Thus, for example, in the chapter on radiation the only piece of work which can be regarded as thermodynamical in the narrower interpretation is the proof of the equation by which Stefan's law is deduced from the formulæ for radiation pressure. But in addition to this we have here a general discussion of radiation based on electrodynamical considerations, Wien's law, Planck's law of mixture, and Kirchhoff's theorem. The relation between the black radiation

and wave-length is in no way deducible directly from

[blocks in formation]

to matters of detail, the author is to be congratulated on the lucid way in which he clears up many points usually regarded as obscure. We may instance the detailed discussion of the thermodynamical potential of a gas-mixture (§ 69), a point which receives scanty attention in many books we have seen. The author's task is made easier by the fact that most of the higher applications of thermodynamics deal with equilibrium. Now, whether we deduce the conditions of equilibrium from making the available energy a minimum, the entropy a maximum, or by any other equivalent hypothesis, the variation of the function selected must in general vanish to the first order, so that the conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium (apart from stability) are deducible from the equations of reversible thermodynamics. Very little is said in this book about irreversible phenomena, and this is perhaps fortunate owing to the great difficulty of dealing with these phenomena in a clear and logical way. The kind of impression which a beginner is likely to form in reading about irreversible thermodynamics may be exemplified by the following three apparently

66

contradictory statements :-"The increase of entropy is dQ/T." The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum." "For a cyclic irreversible cycle do/T<o."

It would be hardly an exaggeration to assert that whether any statement in irreversible thermodynamics is right or wrong depends entirely on the way of looking at it. For example, in § 105 a very little is said about irreversible electric phenomena, which is doubtless correct according to the author's interpretation; but whether this is the best way of stating the case is necessarily a matter of opinion.

In connection with the continuity of the liquid and gaseous states, the rule for the horizontal line in the isothermal diagram is deduced from van der Waals's equation (p. 151), and is not treated as a general result. In this method, however, the significance of the rule is somewhat lost. The proper condition that the rule may hold good is that the liquid and gaseous

[blocks in formation]

and making y, equal to the specific heat at constant volume in the regions which represent physically possible states. For the validity of the rule it does not matter how the curves are joined up provided that the above differential equation is everywhere satisfied. The notation may appear somewhat cumbersome, but anyone who tries to express thermodynamical formulæ in writing will find it impossible to do so clearly and precisely without some such large array of symbols. In particular, the use of capital letters for the volume, entropy, energy, and other thermodynamic magnitudes of a whole body, and small letters for the corresponding magnitudes per unit mass, is a very useful convention. The different forms of d, & used for differentiations, variations, and diminutions are less easy to follow. If we attempt to compare the subject of this volume with Prof. Planck's excellent little treatise, we shall probably come to the conclusion that Prof. Voigt goes more into elaborate details, while Prof. Planck keeps more to the main points. The book now before us thus contains the more information about a wide range of physical phenomena, but Prof. Planck's book is the easier to read. Neither book can be said to be better or worse than the other, as each has its own uses.

The French translation, which forms No. 22 of the physico-mathematical series appearing under the title of Scientia, contains the two papers "Graphic Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids" and "A Method of Geometric Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by Means of Surfaces," both originally published in the Connecticut Transactions for 1873. It is accompanied by a short notice of Gibbs's life and works, and an introduction by Prof. Brunhes. The latter, giving as it does a general and explanatory account of the subject-matter of the papers translated, forms a useful addition to the book. G. H. B.

FUNGUS-GALLS,

Beiträge zur physiologischen Anatomie der Pilzgallen. By Hermann Ritter von Guttenberg. Pp. 70; with 4 plates. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1905.) Price 25. gd. net.

THE

HE study of galls is ne never more profitably approached than when the mutual inter-reactions between parasite and host-plant are considered conjointly. The intimate connection existing between these two, whether the parasite be insect or fungus, forbids the divorce of either party, and it is therefore a pleasure to come across a work in which this close union is recognised, and an endeavour made to explain the anatomical changes occurring in fungusgalls from a physiological standpoint.

In this work the effects caused by five different fungi on as many host-plants are described. The fungi all belong to separate families, as also do the

hosts, and the series is therefore admirably suited for generalising the results. It includes Albugo on Capsella, Exoascus on Alnus, Ustilago on Maize, Puccinia on Adoxa (where, however, no gall-formation arises), and Exobasidium on Rhododendron.

The constancy of form and complexity of structure, characteristic of many insect-galls, are not found here, and the principal changes observable may be briefly summarised as consisting of the hypertrophied development of a large-celled, thin-walled parenchymatous tissue containing very vacuolated protoplasm, enlarged nuclei, and rich stores of starch or water. This is accompanied by an increase in the number of vascular bundles, or at least of their elements, and by modifications of the epidermis, whilst the assimilatory and aërating systems generally tend to be suppressed.

These anatomical changes are, in the author's opinion, mostly due to a change of function which the tissues assume under the influence and for the exclusive benefit of the parasite. The fungus may almost be regarded as a sculptor working with clay. It moulds the host-plant at will, forcing it to lay down a store house and fill it with food for the tenant's use, forcing the xylem to predominate when water is needed, or the phloem when carbohydrates are required. Where spore formation is proceeding, accessory bundles are laid down to provide the increased supplies necessary. Here the epidermis is weakened so as not to hinder the dispersal of spores, there the mechanical tissue suppressed lest the progress of the fungus be impeded, while even the chlorophyll granules, when present, work in the service of the parasite. Everywhere the story reads as if the host had become wholly subservient to the will of the parasite; but were the author now to exchange his brief and act as counsel for the host, he might equally well explain many of the changes as evidencing an intense effort put forth by the latter to overcome the former. A final summing up would then be less partial, and productive of still more valuable results.

Here and there the author has observed indications of this struggle, and one point to which he directs attention is of special interest, viz. the deposit of a cellulose cap or sheath around the invading haustorium or hypha, apparently for the purpose of preventing its entry. This phenomenon, which, though of frequent occurrence, is not generally known, is most remarkable in Ustilago Maydis, where the whole length of an intracellular hypha in its passage through a cell may become enclosed in a cellulose tube. Subsequently this tube may become irregularly thickened in parts, and then shows distinct stratification.

The observations regarding the behaviour of the nucleus-its lobed appearance, occasionally leading on to amitotic division, its participation in the formation of the above mentioned cellulose sheath, its subsequent decrease in size, the aggregation of the chromatin at the periphery, &c.—are all most interesting. Some of them need confirmation by more exact histological methods than the author seems to have employed, before his conclusions can be accepted, e.g.

the fate of the nucleus in the epidermal cells of Alnus incana, which appears very doubtful. In a few other points doubts have also arisen in the writer's mind whether certain appearances described may not have been due to imperfect fixation.

The discussion concerning the attraction which the nucleus apparently exerts on the haustoria is reverted to in the section dealing with Puccinia Adoxae, and the solution arrived at seems natural and satisfactory. Space will not permit us to mention many other points of interest which the reader will find in this little book. A perusal thereof will, it is believed, repay the mycologist, who, even if he doubts a few of the facts or considers the conclusions often somewhat forced, will at all events find the subject treated from a new point of view, and will thereby gain a stimulus for his own researches.

E. R. BURDON.

OUR BOOK SHELF. Report on the Injurious Insects and other Animals observed in the Midland Counties during 1904. By Walter E. Collinge, M.Sc. Pp. v+64. (Birmingham: Cornish Bros., 1905.)

THIS is the author's second report. It deals with injurious insects and other animals which have been forwarded to him by various correspondents in the midland counties during 1904.

The work is not bulky, but contains in its sixtynine pages a great amount of valuable matter, covering a wide ground. Its value is enhanced by twentynine illustrations; many of these are those used in the Board of Agriculture leaflets, and some could certainly be improved on, such as Fig. 17, the winter moth, and Fig. 22, the codling moth. The original illustrations are excellent, including those of the goat moth, the birch gall mite, crane flies, and yellow underwing larvæ. Among the most interesting notes are those on a supposed new apple mite (Eriophyes, sp.) and on carnivorous slugs.

With regard to the latter, the author tells us that living specimens have been introduced into greenhouses and nursery gardens with very beneficial results. This kind of work is most valuable, and we hope Mr. Collinge will have a larger supply to dispose of among nurserymen in future.

There is a detailed and able account of the pear midge (pp. 42-49), but amongst the supposed remedial measures we find it recommended "to deeply trench the ground beneath the trees." This has probably crept in by error. The goat moth is treated in a short, concise manner, and this paper is excellently illustrated with photographs.

Amongst other fruit pests that the author has had reported from the midlands may be mentioned the apple blossom weevil, codling moth, the plum bark beetle, winter moth, the currant clearwing, magpie moth, and, needless to say, one of the most serious pests in Herefordshire, the apple sucker. A few short notes are also given on parasitic diseases of animals, such as scaly leg in fowls, gapes in poultry, and the pig louse.

In the appendix the use and employment of hydrocyanic acid gas and bisulphide of carbon are dealt with, and a general account of insects and the classification briefly referred to. The author divides the Hexapoda into fourteen orders.

As this report should fall into the hands of practical men, we regret to see new generic names are given in the text. Scientific names have rather a frighten

matters worse.

ing effect, and when we keep changing them it makes Probably it would be better if we kept to popular names only in the text of such reports, and referred the reader to the scientific names in an appendix. The farmer and gardener want these matters put before them in as simple a way as possible.

We look forward to another of these reports with pleasure, and hope they will appear annually for the benefit of grower and economic zoologist alike, for the contents of the pages of the one before us are both scientifically accurate and preeminently practical. F. V. T.

Studies of the Museums and Kindred Institutions of New York City, Albany, Buffalo, and Chicago, with Notes on some European Institutions. By A. B. Mever. Rep. U.S. Nat. Mus. for 1903. Pp. 311-608; plates. (Washington, 1905.)

DR. MEYER'S valuable notes and comments on the museums of America and Europe are already familiar to our readers by the notices published in our columns of the issues of the original German text. Of that text the present volume is a translation, revised by the author himself, and with all the original illustrations reproduced, although in some instances on a smaller scale. Since the author's tour of inspection was primarily undertaken for the purpose of learning all that was to be learnt from American museums, the consideration of which occupies by far the greater portion of the report, it was only right and proper that an English translation of the latter should be issued in America rather than in this country, and the Smithsonian Institution deserves the thanks of all interested in museums for the excellent manner in which it has carried out its self-imposed task.

The translation will indeed be fully as acceptable in England as it can be in America, for Dr. Mever is an outspoken critic who does not mince his opinions, and some of his views with regard to the organisation, installation, and conservancy museums in this country cannot fail, from this same outspoken and candid manner, to have a permanent value.

of

Especially important are his opinions with regard to the deteriorating effect of light on the collections of recent zoology in the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road.

"Everywhere in England," he writes, "the collections are exhibited during the entire day, and it is said that this custom must continue, otherwise the money for expenses will not be forthcoming. I think, however, that this is an error. If the officials themselves were only convinced that the collections intrusted to their keeping are really being injured, they would be able to impress this fact upon the trustees. . . . The public would soon become accustomed to shorter hours of opening if there were some way of making them generally known." Would they?

Whether or no we accept all the author's views and criticisms, there can be no doubt that the issue of an edition of Dr. Mever's " museum survey" in English is a matter for all-round satisfaction. R. L. Notes on Assaving and Metallurgical Laboratory Experiments. By Prof. Richard W. Lodge. Pp viii+287. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1904.) Price 12s. 6d. net.

PROF. LODGE has brought together in this book the notes which have been in use for many years by the third-year students in assaving at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and part of the notes given to fourth-year students. The book may therefore be

taken as representing the teaching given to metallurgical students in America, and forms an interesting study to those who wish to know something of the much-praised methods in vogue there. Judging from the contents of Prof. Lodge's volume, the methods do not differ much from those in use in this country and in other parts of the world. The assaying of gold and silver ores is dealt with adequately, and there is an interesting though incomplete chapter on the metals of the platinum group, but the rest of the third-year work (the assay of bullion and of copper and tin ores) is scrappy and of little value. The notes for the fourth-year's work would also not be of much help to students. For example, in the section on cleaning mercury, the student is recommended to wash away soluble and light material with a stream of water, and then to "decant off water and add a small piece of potassium cyanide (poison), which ought to clean it nicely." The author seems to have some misgivings as to whether base metals would really be removed in this way, but the true nature of the problem is nowhere stated, nor are the correct methods of purification described.

In the more valuable part of the book, the assaying of gold and silver ores is discussed at considerable length. The following differences between the instructions given to the student and those usually given in England are noteworthy :-(1) In scorification the slags are not cleaned by the addition of carbon after the eye of lead is closed. (2) In cupellation, the formation of feathers of litharge is strongly insisted on. (3) Beads from gold ores are parted by boiling three times in nitric acid of different strengths.

A large number of exact experiments in assaying are described, and inferences drawn from them. Such work is always useful, but it is better not to put it before students until it has been discussed. Some of the inferences given can hardly be accepted, such, for example, as that the presence of silver does not diminish and that of copper does not increase the cupellation loss of gold. A word of protest may be uttered against the low standard of draughtsmanship in the illustrations. The scorifying tongs, depicted twice, on pp. 13 and 38, are absolutely startling.

T. K. R. The Practical Photographer. Library Series. Edited by Rev. F. C. Lambert. No. 18, Gum-bichromate Printing. Pp. xxiv +64. No. 19, Floral Photography. Pp. xx+64. No. 20, Portraiture. Pp. xxviii+64. No. 21, Orthochromatic Photography. Pp. xx+64. No. 22, Figure Studies, Groups and Genre. Pp. xx+64. No. 23, Summer Number. Pp. 64. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.) Price is. net each.

THE reputation of this excellent series of photographic books is well maintained in the above-named additions to this useful library. As in previous issues, each volume is the work of numerous authors, and the value of the series is that the information is given by those who are at work at the various subjects, and therefore more practical than theoretical.

The illustrations, which are very numerous in each number, are all of a high order of efficiency, and add greatly to the value and utility of the text. The editor in each case contributes an interesting article on the pictorial work of some photographer of note, and those included in these numbers are, in the order of the books given above:-Charles Moss, Mrs. Cadby, Furley Lewis, Harold Baker, William Rawlings, and F. J. Mortimer. An important feature of each of these essays is the reproduction of specimens of their work. As practical handbooks these new volumes will be found very serviceable.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected' manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]

Exploration of the Indian Ocean.

MR. STANLEY GARDINER, leader of the Sladen Trust Ocean Expedition for the exploration of the Indian between Ceylon and the Seychelles, in H.M.S. Sealark, has sent me the following short account of the progress of the expedition up to the date of writing. The letter is written from the Salomon Atoll, Chagos Group, and is dated June 4. A. SEDGWICK.

Trinity College, Cambridge, August 4.

"We came on board H.M.S. Sealark on May 8 at Colombo. Weighing anchor the following evening we set a course for Peros Banhos, the large N.W. atoll of this group, but on the second day out appreciated the fact that we were getting in for the commencement of the burst of the S.W. monsoon. On May 14 we had reached a latitude south of the Maldives, and commenced sounding in view of the possible existence of a bank between this group and the Chagos as indicated by the soundings taken by the German l'aldivia Expedition. I may say at once that our soundings showed a depth of more than 2000 fathoms between the two groups. The depth increases from the Maldives and Chagos towards the centre of the passage between, but in this position there would seem to be a broad flat, extending along the line of latitude with a depth of 2000 to 2150 fathoms. Of course both east and west the depth probably increases gradually to 25,000 fathoms or even more, but one obviously cannot build upany views of a possible former connection of the Maldive and Chagos Banks on such a slender basis.

"On our way down we took samples of the sea-water and of the plankton (pelagic fauna) at the surface and at every 25 fathoms to 150 fathoms, using a wire with a heavy weight at the end running over a measuring block and clamping on the nets as each 25 fathoms ran out. We also took a series of hauls with the Fowler and Wolfenden closing nets, so as to get our wire into trim, &c. The weather was dead calm with a moderate swell, and generally our results were satisfactory. The Fowler net, being opened at a certain depth and then hauled up vertically to a lesser depth and closed, seemed more suitable for the conditions prevailing in this region than the Wolfenden, which is opened and closed at the same depth, being dependent on the drift of the ship, in the absence of any deep-sea current, for what enters the actual net; heavy messengers, too, are essential for opening and closing the nets. Of course these results on the depth of pelagic animals have a value of their own, but our best haul from a collector's point of view was that of a large net, mouth one yard square, length about twelve yards, made of strong mosquito cloth, ten meshes to the inch. This net we let down on 1200 fathoms of wire and hauled in as fast as our winch could take it. Unfortunately the wire became tied up most abominably, but the comparison of the contents of the tin with the collections made by the Fowler net showed that the net itself must have actually sunk to 600 or 700 fathoms. The presence in the tin of a series of prawns (one 6 inches long), a cuttle fish, and many strong swimming jelly-fish suggests that the use of this method of investigating the swimming fauna (nekton) of the sea should yield valuable results.

"On May 19 we anchored at Ile de Diamant, Peros Banhos Atoll, but it became obvious in the next couple of days that in the S.E. trade winds now prevailing in this region, any thorough examination of this atoll, open as it is to the S.E., would be impossible. Accordingly we moved on to the Salomon Atoll on May 22, coming on shore to camp on the following day, selecting it as being of small size (5 miles long by 3 broad) and enclosed on all sides, save for one passage to the north, by a surface reef. While Cooper and I are collecting the marine fauna and flora, and examining the reefs and land, Captain Somerville and the officers of H.M.S. Scalark are making a fresh chart of the atoll on a large scale,

« PrejšnjaNaprej »