The Naturalist in Nicaragua | Page 8

supposed to act as its substitute in the lower orders.
In reference to their methods of obtaining food, ants have been classified as hunting, pastoral, and agricultural, "three types," as Lord Avebury remarks, "offering a curious analogy to the three great phases in the history of human development." As regards their social condition they differ from mankind in having successfully established communism. At the present day all the social hymenoptera possess a unique interest on account of their working-order or neuters. These, as is well-known, are females whose normal development has been checked. Are we to assume that "once upon a time" a woman's rights movement sprang up in bee-hives and ant-hills which ended in reducing the males to a very unimportant position and in limiting the number of the fully developed females? Are we to expect that the "strong-minded" women arising among us are the forerunners of a "neuter" order and the heralds of a corresponding change in human society?
"It is full of theories," says the author, writing of his book; modestly adding, "I trust not unsupported by facts." And so naturally does he dovetail the two together that the theories often seem portions of the facts. On all kinds of subjects suggestive reasons are proposed:--why the scarlet-runners which flowered so profusely in his garden never produced a single pod; why the banana and sugar-cane are probably not indigenous to America; why gold veins grow poorer as they descend into the earth; why whirlwinds rotate in opposite directions in the two hemispheres; why the earthenware vessels of the Indians are rounded at the bottom and require to be placed in a little stand--on all the varied matters that come under his observant eyes he has something interesting to say. You learn how the natives obtain sugar, palm-wine, and rubber; what is the use of the toucan's huge beak, and how plants secure the fertilisation of their flowers. You watch the tricks of the monkey, the humming-bird's courtship, the lying in wait of the alligator, and all the ceaseless activity of the forest--that forest so monotonous in its general features, but fascinating beyond measure when the varied life-histories working out within it are realised--and you share in the keen joy of the naturalist who has written with such simple eloquence of the beauty, the wonder, and the mystery of the natural world.
A.B.
The following is a list of the works of Thomas Belt:--
An inquiry into the Origin of Whirlwinds, Philosophical Magazine volume 17 1859 pages 47-53. Mineral Veins: an Inquiry into their Origin founded on a Study of the Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia, London 1861. On some Recent Movements of the Earth's Surface and their Geological Bearings [1863] Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science Proceedings and Transactions volume 1 part 1 1867 pages 19-30. List of Butterflies observed in the Neighbourhood of Halifax, Nova Scotia [1863] Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science Proceedings and Transactions volume 2 part 1 1867 pages 87-92. On the Formation and Preservation of Lakes by Ice Action, Geological Society Quarterly Journal volume 20 1864 pages 463-465, Philosophical Magazine volume 28 1864 page 323, Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science Proceedings and Transactions volume 2 part 3 1867 page 70. The Glacial Period in North America [1866] Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science Proceedings and Transactions volume 2 part 4 1867 pages 91-106. On some New Trilobites from the Upper Cambrian Rocks of North Wales, Geological Magazine volume 4 1867 pages 294-295. On the "Lingula Flags" or "Festiniog Group" are the Dolgelly District, Geological Magazine volume 4 1867 pages 493-495, 536-543; volume 5 1868 pages 5-11. The Naturalist in Nicaragua, London 1874 2nd edition revised and corrected 1888. Glacial Phenomena in Nicaragua, American Journal of Science volume 7 1874 pages 594-595. An Examination of the Theories that have been proposed to account for the Climate of the Glacial Period, Journal of Science volume 4 1874 pages 421-464. The Steppes of Siberia, Geological Society Quarterly Journal volume 30 1874 pages 490-498, Geological Magazine Decade 2 volume 1 1874 pages 423-424. The Glacial Period, Nature volume 10 1874 pages 25-26. Niagara: Glacial and Post-Glacial Phenomena, Journal of Science volume 5 1875 pages 135-156. The Drift of Devon and Cornwall: its Origin, Correlation with that of the South-West of England, and Place in the Glacial Series, Geological Society Quarterly Journal volume 32 1876 pages 80-90; Geological Magazine volume 2 1875 pages 622-624, Philosophical Magazine volume 1 1876 pages 159-161. On the Geological Age of the Deposits containing Flint Implements at Hoxne, in Suffolk, and the Relation that Palaeolithic Man bore to the Glacial Period, Journal of Science volume 6 1876 pages 289-304. On the First Stages of the Glacial Period in Norfolk and Suffolk, Geological Magazine volume 4 1877 pages 156-158. The Steppes of Southern Russia, Geological Society Quarterly Journal