plantains, and bananas, weighing from 50 to 80lbs. a bunch; and as to yams, "specimens eight feet long, and weighing 100lbs., are by no means rare in the group." The islands contain also fine timber, some of the Dammara pines rivalling those of New Zealand, in size. Here also are the iron wood and paper mulberry trees; the former being handy for clubs, etc., and the bark of the latter to make the native clothing. Passing these, and numerous others, we must notice that trade is carried on in arrowroot, tortoise-shell, oil, provisions, and articles of native fabrication. As regards the growth of cotton, which is just now a matter of importance, Dr. Seemann states, "if I understand the nature and requirements of cotton aright, the Fijis seem to be as if made for it . . . . . in fine, every condition required to favour the growth of this imporant production seems to be provided." Surely this will be a cotton-growing group, and if not so serviceable to England, will feed the Manchesters of Australia. And we shall be surprised if the general, as well as the scientific reader, does not find himself interested in the rich and beautiful Flora of Fiji, as described in so pleasing a style.

.....

All those who have had the opportunity of visiting a large Chinese city, or seaport, have noticed baskets of black-looking substances, like pieces of charred leather-and something similar is trepang, or bêche-de-mer, of which the celestials make " a very rich and palatable soup and dress it in different kinds of stews." This bêche-demer-an echinoderm-is found in large quantities upon the reefs in Fiji, and Dr. Seemann gives us a notice of the character of the trade, and to what an extent the people depended upon it for barter. The Americans seem to have monopolized the trade, and, as "a whole cargo which cost 1200 dollars" has been sold for 12,000 dollars, they make fortunes occasionally by it. In the historical remarks, at p. 405, et seq., we have some interesting particulars respecting the early traders in this "sea-slug" and sandalwood-the former referring to the tastes, the latter to the superstitious worship of the Chinese. It was by means of these traders that Europeans were led to visit these islands, and open up an intercourse which is now ripening into friendly association for the purposes of commerce.

We are glad that Dr. Seemann's book is not encumbered by a heterogeneous massing of so-called manners and customs, but that observation for the most part takes the place of hearsay oddities. Besides, so much has been done in this direction, that we must begin

Specimens of various kinds of trepang may be seen in the Chinese division of the Food Collection at the Kensington Museum.

364 SEEMANN ON THE INHABITANTS OF THE FIJI ISLANDS.

de novo, and, clearing away much of the rubbish, systematize the really good evidence which remains. This has been done to a great extent in Chapter xix, more especially relating to the Fijian religion. Here we find the usual feeling of connection in some way with the departed -a belief in the creation, flood, and destruction of the world-of a kind of heaven which is rather difficult to reach-of a punishment for cowards, etc. Their priests are certainly odd characters, and evidently make good use of their friendly relations with the gods, the offerings to which they carefully look after.

Not only may parallels be found between Old-World and Fijian customs, but, to carry comparisons further, the Fijian language does, in Dr. Seemann's estimation, vie with our soft Spanish or Italian in euphony. We should bear in mind that the Sclavonic languages look alarming when written, but are far different spoken. The Fijian, like the Greek language, has its three numbers-which one would hardly imagine-and in reading the names, b is sounded mb, d-nd, g-ng, g-ngg, and c like th soft. Repetition is in great use colloquially, and some of the ordinary compound words are scarcely shorter than formidable German composites, for instance, an "ill-tempered man," would be a "tamata dauvakacudrucudruya."

And now the question arises, what will become of Fiji? Its value is before the world. Who will occupy it? England refuses the offer of Cakobau the king; will the French do so? However, Dr. Seemann's critical observations enable him to say, "I have no doubt as to the future of Fiji." Nor have we. "The importance of the group once recognized, nothing will stop our race from taking possession of it, and replacing barbarism and strife by civilization and peaceful industry." It appears that colonization is rapidly taking place. Land is being purchased by our countrymen, trade is spreading, and as a consequence of this, vessels are carrying the means and the instruments of civilization to the group, and collecting the fruits of this new West Indies for the Australian and other markets. Another point of interest attaching to this group is-as will be seen on reference to the appendix-that in the event of mail communication between Panama and Sydney, the island of Kandavu would be a good central position for a coaling station and general depôt for the Pacific. Besides, as the French are masters of Tahiti and New Caledonia—naval and military stations in the Pacific-our shipping would be entirely exposed on this great ocean without a place of refuge or defence.

Au reste, some books of travel are written to sell, and hence they refer to the imagination only; but this is a book evidently intended

to instruct, and to speak throughout to the mind of the reader. And if important topics are not treated so fully as might be, and information in some respects is scanty, we must remember this collection of facts, notes of travel, and general observations, was made by the author while busily and devotedly engaged in a particular duty. Throughout, we perceive the experienced traveller, the practical philosopher, and the man of science, and our great regret is, that Dr. Seemann had not the opportunity and means of devoting himself to the critical examination of the ethnology and ethnography of the Fijian Islanders as he has of the botany of their islands. However, amid a good deal of confused information on these islands, it is refreshing to read a book like this, and feel, that its facts are reliable, its observations forcible, and its arguments to the point—that it is, in fact, a good authority on these islands, and one which the general and the scientific reader will peruse with both satisfaction and profit.

THE RELATION OF MAN TO THE INFERIOR FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE.

BY CHARLES S. WAKE, Esq., F.A.S.L.

IMPORTANT as is the question of the relation between man and the lower animals, there can be no doubt that all inquiries as to the real nature of that relation have hitherto failed. Both materialists and spiritualists have been alike at fault. Neither of them has got beyond the mere external points of resemblance, the one of the body, the other of the mind; whereas the true question is, not in what do man and the lower animals agree, but in what do they differ so as to cause man's great superiority? The reason why the metaphysicians have thus failed is that, shackled as they have been by the prejudices of a too jealous theology, they have so framed the fundamental idea of their science, that the application of its truths to the subject of man's relation to the lower animals could not have any satisfactory result. On the other hand, the materialists, although their facts are abundant, have failed, because they have sought to deduce their theories from mere physical data, almost ignoring the influence of the spiritual powers in the phenomena of animal being and action. They have

been content to refer man's superiority to his possession of a greater capacity and finer texture of brain, combined with that of a refined organ of touch, forgetting that such superiority, with the higher nervous structure itself, may both be due merely to the operation of spiritual causes. Although Professor Huxley is by no means of this latter opinion, yet he may be quoted as an authority against any theory founded on mere structural differences between man and the lower animals; for he says "no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves." Whether his explanation of man's superiority is sufficient will be shortly seen.

Before endeavouring to ascertain by the application of the principles of psychology, the relation of man to the lower animals, it will be necessary to examine rather more fully the question of man's higher nervous structure. Of course it is impossible to demonstrate what influence over mental development the brain may have, or what ratio the development of the one bears to that of the other. It is quite evident, however, that the brain proper is not really essential to the exercise of mental power. If we take the invertebrata, creatures that have no brain, but merely one or more small nervous ganglia in its place, we see the exercise of great mental activity, and of a process of reasoning, simple though it may be in its nature. Comparing the actions of the invertebrata with those of the vertebrata, although we observe a marked advance in reasoning power, yet the increase is by no means proportioned to that of the nervous development as seen in the vertebrate brain. Judging from that fact, and from the small difference comparatively in the development of their respective brains, we should expect to see in man but little advance in mental development over the higher mammalia. It is not so, howThe superiority of man over the highest of the mammalia is far greater than that of any of the latter over the invertebrata. Nor is it merely an increase of intelligence. It is rather an enlargement of the mental powers, leading to the accumulation of stores of knowledge utterly unattainable by brute creatures, proving in man a mental development in some sense differing in kind as well as in degree.

ever.

Nor does the addition of a refined sense of touch account for man's superiority. As Sir Charles Bell has well said, "the hand corresponds to the superior mental capacities with which man is endowed. The instrument is capable of executing whatever his ingenuity suggests. Nevertheless, the possession of the ready implement is not the cause

of man's superiority, nor is its aptness for execution the measure of his attainments. So we rather say with Galen, that man has a hand, because he is the wisest of creatures, than ascribe to his possession of a hand his superiority of knowledge." It may be added that the argument just drawn from a comparison of the development of the brain in different animals, with the amount of intelligence seen in their actions, may be equally drawn from a comparison of that intelligence with the development of the organ of touch. Superior as is the human hand over that of the ape, that superiority is by no means equal to man's intellectual superiority over the most intelligent of the lower animals. As an instrument of communication with the outer world, and as a means of obtaining a true knowledge of form, size, and distance, man is perhaps as much indebted to the hand as to the eye; but without the mental faculty of combining their various sensations, the human hand would have no superiority in result over that of the ape.

Equally weak is the reasoning which ascribes brute inferiority to the want of the power of speech. True it is that language is the great instrument of man's progress in knowledge, but it is no less true that man's possession of the gift of speech can only be accounted for by the supposition that he is of a superior spiritual nature, language itself being the chief outward sign of such superiority. The lower animals themselves not only use certain sounds by which to express certain emotions, but they are able also to communicate their ideas to each other. In those sounds we have the rudiments of the speech of man, and they are as perfect for the use for which they are designed as are the operations of the mental powers which interpret them. The peculiar structure of the human organs of speech as little explains man's possession of a language, as does his superior brain development the greater development of his intellectual powers. Those organs are no doubt especially fitted in man for articulation, but many animals can produce sounds as articulate as those of man; and some birds can even speak with remarkable clearness and volubility. This shows convincingly that "the main difference lies in the internal faculty or propensity. . . . . The perfect correspondence between the vocal instrument, and the laws governing the motions of the air is a contrivance, but that which prompts to the first efforts at articulation is in our intellectual nature."

In endeavouring to ascertain the true nature of the relationship between man and the lower animals, it will be necessary to treat of that relationship as of a twofold nature-that of the body, and that