LITERARY NOTICES. 



417 



M. Whicker (American Book Company, 

 $1.25), is an attempt to respond to the call for 

 variety in the Latin authors read in American 

 preparatory schools. It aims, in introducing 

 the student to the literature of the Romans, 

 by presenting attractive and varied material, 

 to arouse the desire for further acquaintance 

 with that literature ; to cultivate in him an 

 appreciation of the beauties of language and 

 instruction ; and to help him gain, besides 

 a mastery of the mechanism of the language, 

 an insight into the thought and life of the 

 people. The selections have been carefully 

 made with reference to their difficulty, their 

 interest as literature, and, in great part, 

 their relation to Roman life and customs. 

 Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Caesar, Aulus 

 Gellius, Cicero, and Livy are represented. 



Roderick Hume ; the Story of a New 

 York Teacher, has been written by Mr. C. 

 W. Bardeen to depict certain phases of the 

 modern union school. The author says that 

 he has no hobby to ride and no gi-ievance to 

 redress, but has merely described what he 

 has seen, trusting his fancy just far enough 

 to weave into one web characters and inci- 

 dents that were real but disconnected. (Syra- 

 cuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen, 50 cents.) 



A little book on Varied Occupations in 

 Weaving has been prepared by Louisa Walk- 

 er, head mistress of Fleet Road Board 

 School, Hampstead (Infants' Department), 

 for kindergartens. The work described in 

 it has been systematically taught in the au- 

 thor's own school for the past twenty years. 

 The ways and means employed in construct- 

 ing the articles illustrated have been adapted 

 to meet the exigencies of each case, and sim- 

 plify matters for little workers. The illus- 

 trations are from actual work produced in 

 the school. The entire weaving was done 

 by infants of from five to seven years of 

 age, and the material was afterward manipu- 

 lated into useful articles by the teachers. 

 (Published by Macmillan & Co., $1.) 



The National Geographic Society has ar- 

 ranged for a series of geographical mono- 

 graphs on the physical features of the 

 earth's surface, to be published monthly dur- 

 ing the school year, at 20 cents each, or 

 $1.50 for the ten. The first two of these 

 monographs are by Major J. W. Powell. 

 The first describes Physiographic Processes, 

 treating the atmosphere, waters, and rock 



VOL. XLVII. 34 



formations as envelopes of the earth contin- 

 ually in motion and pointing out the pro- 

 cesses by which, through the action of the 

 forces generated, the principal features of 

 the earth's surface are produced. The sec- 

 ond is on the Physiographic Features of the 

 earth, and is an attempt to characterize 

 these mainly as they are dependent on the 

 three great physiographic processes, and to 

 show how fire, earthquake, and flood have 

 been involved in fashioning the land and the 

 sea. 



The Annates de la Oficine Meteorologica 

 Argentina (Argentine Weather Office), of 

 which Walter G. Davis is director, at Ro- 

 sario, South America, embodies the results 

 of observations made three times a day at 

 thirty regular stations, and voluntary rain 

 observations made by station agents at six- 

 ty-nine stations on the four principal rail- 

 roads of the republic. The observations, 

 recorded in tabular form, fill a large volume. 



The Geological Atlas of the United States, 

 now being published in parts called folios, 

 consists of topographical and geological 

 maps. The complete atlas will consist of 

 several thousand folios, each of which con- 

 tains a topographical and a geological map 

 of a small section of country, and will be 

 named after some well-known town or natu- 

 ral feature within the limits of the district 

 named. The topographical maps will show 

 the reliefs, drainage, and cultures of the dis- 

 tricts, indicated by the usual or definite con- 

 ventional marks. The geological maps will 

 show on distinct sheets the areal geology, or 

 the areas occupied by the various rocks of 

 the district ; the economical geology, or the 

 distribution of useful minerals ; the occur- 

 rence of artesian water, and other facts of 

 economical interest, showing their relations to 

 the features of topography and to geological 

 formations ; the sheet of structure sections 

 will exhibit the relations existing beneath 

 the surface among the formations the distri- 

 bution of which on the surface is repre- 

 sented in the map of areal geology ; and 

 the sheet of columnar sections will contain a 

 concise description of the rock formations 

 which constitute the local record of geo- 

 logical history. To each of these maps is 

 attached a legend fully explaining all the 

 conventional signs, marks, and colors used 

 in it ; and each folio contains a descriptive 



