owe their fertilty to the happy manner in which the inhabitants have availed themselves of a mode of conducting water to them, a mode, as far as I know, peculiar to this country. The greater part of the face of the country being destitute of running streams on the surface, the Arabs have sought in elevated places for springs or fountains beneath it. By what mode they discover these I know not, but it seems confined to a peculiar class of men who go about the country for the purpose; but I saw several which had been sunk to a depth of 40 feet. A channel from this fountain head is then, with a slight descent, bored in the direction in which it is to be conveyed, leaving apertures at regular distances, to afford light and air to those who are occasionally sent to keep it clean. In this manner water is frequently conducted from a distance of 6 to 8 miles, and an unlimited supply is thus obtained. These channels are usually about 4 feet broad and 2 deep, and contain a clear rapid stream. Few of the large towns or oases but had four or five of these rivulets, or feleji, running into them, The isolated spots to which water is thus conveyed possess a soil so fertile, that nearly every grain, fruit, or vegetable common to India, Arabia, or Persia, is produced almost spontaneously." In the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' the same subterranean irrigating channels are referred to as being used in Affghanistan, where they are called Kahrezas. Cieza de Leon, writing between 1532 and 1550 A.D., says, "The Indians of Peru had, and still have, great works for drawing off the water, and making it flow through certain channels. Sometimes it has chanced that I have stopped near one of these channels, and before we had finished pitching the tent, the channel was dry, the water having been drawn off in another direction, for it is in the power of the Indians to do this at their pleasure." Markham, referring to these works of the Yncas of Peru, states, "Trenches are cut along the whole length of the valley, becoming tunnels at the upper end, and penetrating into the rocks until they come in contact with underground springs. They are some 4 feet in height, with the floor, sides, and roof lined with stones, and are called huirca. At intervals of 200 yards there are man-holes in the main tunnels." Somewhat similar works are also referred to in Baird Smith's Italian Irrigation, under the designation of Fontanili, as existing throughout the irrigating districts of Piedmont. REVIEWS OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED. A Journey in Brazil (Agassiz). Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Sea (Collingwood). Acadian Geology (Dawson). Coast Defence (Von Scheliha). Minor Works and New Editions. A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL.* In the winter of 1865 Professor Agassiz found it necessary to seek a change of scene and climate, and rest from work. From early life he had possessed a desire to study the fauna of Brazil, and especially the fishes, in their own home. Single-handed he would have been able to make but slight use of the opportunities presented to him during a visit to that country, although he was certain that the Emperor and the head of his government would give him every facility for his investigations. While brooding over his difficulty, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer expressed to the Professor an interest in his proposed journey, and said, "Take six assistants with you, and I will be responsible for all their expenses, personal and scientific." This princely generosity was carried out in its largest and most liberal sense; and thus we have the origin of Professor Agassiz's Scientific Expedition to Brazil. The volume before us contains a sketch of the Journey in the form of a diary, with here and there statements of the results of the investigations of the party: it is well calculated to interest general readers who are curious in such matters as the manners and customs of a wandering naturalist. The voyage out was occupied most instructively: the Professor gave lectures to his assistants on various Natural History subjects, including the Gulf Stream and its Inhabitants, the Physical features of South America, Embryology, the Glacial Period, the Art of Observation, and many other subjects bearing upon the work before them, concluding with a warning against Darwinian tendencies; brief reports of the lectures being here given by Mrs. Agassiz. Landing at Rio de Janeiro, the route of the expedition was up the coast to Pará; up the Amazon to Manaos, and on to Tabatinga, the frontier-town between Brazil and Peru: having left one of their party at that place to make collections, and two at San Paolo, the *A Journey in Brazil.' By Professor and Mrs. Louis Agassiz. 8vo, pp. 540. Boston: Ticknor and Fields; London: Trübner and Co., 60, Paternoster Row. 1868. remainder returned down the river as far as Teffé, where they remained nearly a month, journeying back then to Manaos, which they made their head-quarters and general rendezvous. After the reassembling of the party, and after making some excursions on the river Ramos and the Rio Negro, their steps were retraced to Pará, and thence to Rio. Remaining in the capital, and exploring its neighbourhood, for about three months, the expedition returned to New York after a sojourn of fifteen months in Brazil. The known results of this expedition are too numerous to mention even in a review, and many facts and conclusions of the highest importance still remain to be worked out and verified before any cautious naturalist would venture to publish them. The chief object of the expedition was to ascertain how the fresh-water fishes are distributed through the great river-systems of Brazil; and all the excursions and independent journeys were planned in reference to this idea. Professor Agassiz estimates the number of species of fresh-water fish collected by the members of the expedition at between 1800 and 2000, or nearly twice as many species as exist in the Mediterranean. The number, however, is not so astonishing as the distribution. From Tabatinga to Pará the river differs neither in the temperature of its waters, in the vegetation of its banks, nor in the nature of its bed; yet under these circumstances completely distinct assemblages of fish are met with from distance to distance. When we consider that all the rivers of Europe united have not yielded more than 150 species of fresh-water fish, and that Professor Agassiz found in one small pond, covering about 400 or 500 square yards, no less than 200 species, mostly peculiar to that spot, we are inclined to indulge in a little scepticism. We want to know how many genera and families are represented by these 200 species, and what degree of affinity there is between the species themselves. Remembering Professor Agassiz's extreme opinions in favour of the theory of special and direct creation of species, we cannot help regarding it as possible that his "species" are not all entitled to that dignity. If they are, and are closely related, the explanation may be that the process of variation is stimulated in a vast degree by the tropical climate and physical features of the region. If both these suppositions are erroneous, we have here a Natural History marvel entirely without precedent; for we presume that the majority of Mr. Lea's species of Unionidæ, the only comparable example we know of, would be regarded as varieties by most European conchologists. Another "sensation" discovery is that of the evidences of the Glacial Period in tropical America. Every geologist knows that the crystalline rocks of South America are extensively decomposed at the surface; but Professor Agassiz states that although the received explanation is true to a great extent, yet that a consider able portion of this so-called decomposed rock is the equivalent of the Northern Drift, presenting, however, in its wider extension and in the immensity of the accompanying denudation, features which are different from those with which we are so familiar. In short, Professor Agassiz refers the most recent deposits of the valley of the Amazons and its most recent denudation, resulting in the formation of hills of denudation nearly 1000 feet high, to the action of an immense glacier which poured down the valley from the accumulations of snow in the Cordilleras, flowed in an easterly direction, became swollen laterally in its progress by the tributary glaciers which descended from the table-lands of Guiana and Brazil, and built up an immense sea-wall as a terminal moraine, which protected its basin from the action of the sea! We have exhausted our space in describing two of the marvels we meet with in this book; but neither the book nor its marvels are exhausted by us. To the intelligent reader we commend a careful perusal of this diary, as containing many new observations and much interesting information on the Empire of Brazil, from scientific, political, and social points of view. The naturalist and the geologist we have already placed on the scent; and the ethnologist will find much food for reflection, and possibly matter for dispute, in Professor Agassiz's conclusions on the characters of the mixed races of men, which are met with in such numerous and diverse aspects throughout the continent of South America. RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST ON THE SHORES AND WATERS OF THE CHINA SEA.* A BOOK written by an Oxford M.A., M.B., Naturalist, F.L.S., &c., describing rambles, in the prosecution of which he was "actuated solely by a desire of increasing his own information, and the hope of, in some measure, advancing science,"† naturally raises great expectations. Its perusal, in our own instance, was attended by a large amount of gratification, not, however, unmingled with disappointment. The author in his preface explains that he has incorporated into his work two papers, on the "Pratas Island" and on "The Luminosity of the Sea," taken by permission from this Journal; and other papers from the Proceedings of the Linnæan, Geological, Ethnological, and Royal Geographical Societies, and from the Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Sea: being Observations in Natural History during a Voyage to China, Formosa, Borneo, Singapore, &c, made in Her Majesty's Vessels in 1866 and 1867.' By Cuthbert Collingwood, M.A., M.B., Oxon., F.L.S., &c. John Murray, London. † Preface. Annals and Magazine of Natural History. This may account for the disconnected character of the work, successive chapters of which, in some cases, relate to distant countries, without even a reference to the intervening journey or voyage. A large portion of the volume is occupied by descriptions of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of various countries visited by the author; and in all this there is no room for disappointment. Life in the far East is depicted with a graphic ability that makes familiar races more familiar, and renders, to certain tribes hitherto almost unknown, services resembling those of the photographer; we feel that we should recognize them if we were to fall in with them. An instance of the former kind occurs in the description of Singapore. "Here we may see tropical vegetation in all its beauty and perfection; and here too we may meet representatives of various races, from the east and from the west, attracted by the same commercial magnet-Europeans and Asiatics all alike bringing with them their manners and customs, their religions, their costumes, unchangeda picturesque combination, such as scarcely any other place can afford.* The foreign (Eastern) residents in Singapore mainly consist of two rival races, widely different in dress, habits, and religion, viz. Klings, from the Coromandel Coast of India, and Chinese."† The Klings are described as being "intensely black, not the shining black of a negro, but a dull, sooty colour, from which their eyes gleam out with great expression, half savage, half intelligent." "The Kling women are dark beauties, finely made, and dressed in flowing robes, which conceal the whole figure down to the feet, but leave the arms bare to the shoulder. Their dress sits on them gracefully, and their ornaments give them an air of barbaric splendour. Armlets of gold are worn above the elbow, and bracelets of gold upon their arms; golden rings encircle their ankles, and several fingerrings glitter on their hands; heavy ear-rings hang pendant from their ears, and one side of the nostril is pierced to give passage to a gold nose-ring, more or less chased in front. These ornaments are not unfrequently worn by one woman, and it appears to be a common practice to invest their money in these trinkets, so that a Kling woman carries a small fortune upon her person."‡ In striking contrast with these appear the small-footed Chinese ladies of Formosa. "Their dresses, consisting of a wide-sleeved tunic, cut in the formal style universal among Chinese ladies, were of the brightest scarlet, blue, or orange, embroidered with black, which contrasted well with the colour; and their full trousers were of some other equally strong material. In their hair, dressed in the elaborate Chinese teapot fashion, they wore artificial flowers *P. 242. † P. 245. + P. 246. |