566 



POPULAR SCIE^^CE MONTHLY. 



Loomis, Eben J. An Eclipse Party in Africa. 

 (Illuetrated.) Boston: Roberts Bros. Pp. 218. 

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Loew, Oscar. The Energy of Living Proto- 

 plasm. London: Keegan Paul, Trench, Triibner 

 & Co. Pp. 115. 



Mattbews, Charles Thompson. The Story of 

 Architecture. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 4G8. $3. 



New York State Board of Charities, Annual 

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Niewenglowski, G.H. La Photographie et la 

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Perkins, Charles A. Outlines of Electricity 

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Photographic Annual for 1897. New York: 

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Poulton, Edward B. Charles Darwin and the 

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Putnam, George Haven. Books and their 

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Reprints. Mills. Wesley: Psychic Develop- 

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 Trelease, William: Botanical Opportunity (Botan- 

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Richardson and Pierce. The National Elec- 

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Ruedebusch, Emil F. The Old and the New 

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Shinn, Charles Howard. The Story of the 

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Waldo, Prank. Elementary Meteorology. 

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Wright, G. F. The Ice Age in North America. 

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XilQWltuXs jcrt .^jcIjcujc^. 



American Man in the Ice Age. Very im- 

 portant evidence has been found during tlie 

 past year of the existence of man in North 

 America during the Ice age, or at least the 

 latter part of it. The two chief items, com- 

 ing from different parts of the country and 

 established by the evidence of different ob- 

 servers working independently, are of suffi- 

 cient force to make the conclusion exceeding- 

 ly probable. First, we have the discovery by 

 Mr. Volk, reported to the American Associa- 

 tion by Prof. Wright and enlarged upon by 

 Prof. Putnam, of argillite implements in the 

 undisturbed glacial gravel near Trenton. 

 The excavations, carried on during two years 

 by Mr. Volk, in such a manner and through 

 such formations that mistake was practically 

 impossible, revealed a disturbed upper layer 

 of sand and gravel, in which were imple- 

 ments of flint and argillite, and beneath this 

 an undisturbed layer, compact and distinctly 

 stratified, in which only implements of argil- 

 lite were found. The opinion, reached by 

 Prof. Wright and Prof. H. Carvill Lewis fif- 

 teen years ago, assigning this formation to 

 " a period when the land stood one hundred 

 and fifty feet below its present level, and 

 when the cold waters from the melting gla- 

 cier bore ice rafts which dropped their bowl- 



ders," is confirmed by Prof. Salisbury in his 

 last New Jersey Geological Report, who holds 

 that "it seems certain that the formation 

 (Jamesburg) was produced during the sub- 

 mergence of the area which it covers," and 

 that it has been only slightly eroded, contra- 

 ry to the view of Prof. Chamberlin that 

 the glacial deposit was an older one than 

 this, and has suffered great erosions. The 

 fact that only argillite implements were found 

 in the lower stratum, while both flint and 

 argillite are found in the layers above, con- 

 tradicts the theory that they drifted down 

 through cracks, root holes, etc., for in such 

 drifting there could have been no selection 

 of one kind of implements and exclusion of 

 the other kind. The second piece of evi- 

 dence was presented by Prof. E. W. Claypole, 

 who described the finding of neolithic axes 

 in digging a well in the blue till, twenty feet 

 below the surface, at New London, Huron 

 County, Ohio. The account of the workman 

 who found the implements, given in full, de- 

 scribing the formations through which he 

 passed in the digging, and confirmed by 

 Prof. Claypole's personal inspection of the 

 premises, is so distinct as apparently to 

 leave no room for doubt. The circumstan- 

 tial evidence sustaining his testimony is of 



