LITERARY NOTICES. 



419 



not the least in importance and fame are 

 the schools for negroes. 



Maryland has not obtained wide renown 

 until recent years for its higher institutions 

 of learning, yet the number and importance 

 of them have been too great to justify such 

 neglect as they have received. Though the 

 early conditions of life in the colony were 

 not such as to favor schools or colleges, a 

 plan for a college was brought forward as 

 early as 1*791 the fourth attempt for a col- 

 lege in the United States but no college 

 proved successful till Maryland became a 

 State. 



It is claimed by Director Powell, in pre- 

 senting the Twelfth Annual Report of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, covering the year 

 1890-'91, as a noteworthy feature of the 

 plan under which the work of research is 

 conducted, that the ethnologists who, as au- 

 thors, prepare the publications of the bureau, 

 personally gather the material for them in 

 the field, supplementing this material by a 

 study of all the connected literature and by 

 a subsequent comparison of all ascertained 

 facts. The continuance of the work for 

 a number of years by the same zealous 

 observers and students, who freely inter- 

 change their information and opinions, has 

 resulted in their training with the acuteness 

 of specialists, corrected and generalized by 

 the knowledge obtained from other authori- 

 ties on the same or related specialties. The 

 present report is an excellent example of the 

 application of this method of work. The 

 substance of it, after the routine matter is 

 disposed of otherwise the " accompanying 

 paper " is a Report on Mound Explorations, 

 by Dr. Cyrus Thomas, a veteran laborer in 

 this field, who brings to the task of review- 

 ing the whole subject all the advantages 

 that long experience in field and study 

 work can bestow. The explorations reviewed 

 cover eighteen States in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley, Atlantic coast, lake, and eastern central 

 regions, supplemented by papers on archaeo- 

 logical areas and distribution of types, the 

 mound-builders and comparison of their 

 works with those of the Indians, and evi- 

 dences of contact with modern European 

 civilization found in the mounds, with 344 

 illustrations. 



In Le Centre de VAfrique, autour du Tchad 

 (The Center of Africa, around Lake Chad), 



the story of the journeyings of the Maistre 

 French expedition to the region in question is 

 told by M. P. Brunache. The object of the 

 expedition, departing from the Congo, was to 

 reach the Chari River and form relations 

 with the Mussulmans of the Chad Valley. 

 The expedition did more than this, for, 

 having reached Palem beyond the Chad, 

 through a country which no European had 

 ever penetrated, it continued on through a 

 region equally virgin to European explora- 

 tion to Gueroua, and thence diverting from 

 the Bineree to strike it again at Ibi, down 

 that river and the Niger. It made several 

 geographical discoveries of interest; cor- 

 rected some errors ; made treaties with nu- 

 merous fetich chiefs; and collected anthro- 

 pological data and material. Published by 

 Felix Alcan, Paris, in the Bibliotheque Sci- 

 entifique Internationale. 



Les Auroras Polaires (Polar Auroras), of 

 M. Alfred Angot, has been developed by re- 

 vision and expansion from a series of articles 

 published in the periodical La Lumiere Elcc- 

 trique in 1882. All is brought up to date. 

 The history of auroral observations is told, 

 and the theory of the lights is discussed with 

 the clearness of style and facility in explana- 

 tion that have given the author an eminent 

 position in scientific literature. Numerous 

 carefully executed engravings illustrate some 

 of the most remarkable observations of au- 

 roras. A list is appended of auroras observed 

 from 1700 till 1890, in Europe, south of lati- 

 tude 55. The work is published by Felix 

 Alcan, in the French edition of the Inter- 

 national Scientific Series. 



We have already spoken twice of the 

 Dictionary of Birds, prepared by Alfred 

 Newton and Hans Gadow, with the assistance 

 of eminent English naturalists, and Dr. R. 

 W. Shufeldt as American contributor, pub- 

 lished by the Blacks in London, and Mac- 

 millan & Co., New York. The work is con- 

 tinued in Part III, from Moa to Sheathbill. 

 The matter is arranged alphabetically ; is pre- 

 sented in brief, clear statements and descrip- 

 tions ; and the whole is appropriately and 

 well illustrated. Price, $2.60. 



PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Agricultural Experiment Stations. Reports and 

 Bulletins. Connecticut : Eighteenth Annual Re- 

 port. Pp. 296 ; Fertilizers. Pp. lC-Cornell Uni- 

 versity : The Dwarf Lima Beans. Pp. 20 \ Early 



