LITERARY NOTICES. 



275 



work in question is merely a collection 

 of dry facts and data. On the contrary, 

 written by one evidently thoroughly famil- 

 iar with the ground covered, the book pre- 

 sents in a most interesting manner a vast 

 amount of information of the greatest prac- 

 tical value. The style is clear and concise, 

 and the book will form most pleasant read- 

 ing, even for one not directly interested in 

 applied geology. 



Fifth Annual Report of the United States 

 Geological Survey to the Secretary 

 of the Interior. 1883-84. By J. W. 

 Powell, Director. Washington : Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 469, with 

 Plates and Pocket Map. 



The topographic work of the survey has 

 been prosecuted in New England, of which 

 the preparation of a map has been begun, 

 and where the State of Massachusetts is co- 

 operating with the survey; in an area of 

 19,750 square miles in Western Maryland, 

 West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, West- 

 ern North Carolina, and Eastern Tennes- 

 see ; and in various parts of the districts of 

 the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, 

 and the Pacific. The geologic work em- 

 braces the survey of the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park, by Mr. Arnold Hague ; studies 

 in Dakota and Montana, by Dr. Hayden ; 

 of glacial phenomena, by Professor T. C. 

 Chamberlain; of the archaean rocks of 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Dako- 

 ta, by Professor Roland T. Irving ; of the 

 Quaternary lakes of the Great Basin, by Mr. 

 G. K. Gilbert ; of the Cascade Range, by 

 Captain C. E. Dutton ; a survey of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia and adjacent territory by 

 Mr. W. J. McGee ; economic studies in Col- 

 orado, by Mr. S. F. Emmons ; and surveys 

 of the Sulphur Bank, Knoxville, and New 

 Idria quicksilver-mining districts, by Mr. G. 

 F. Becker and Dr. W. H. Melville ; and of 

 the Eureka District, by Mr. J. S. Curtis. 

 The paleontologic work includes Professor 

 Marsh's labors on vertebrate fossils and 

 those of Dr. C. A. White, Charles C. Wal- 

 cott, and others, on invertebrates, and the 

 investigations of Mr. Lester F. Ward and 

 Professor Fontaine in fossil plants. Chem- 

 ical analyses have been carried on by Pro- 

 fessor Clarke and Dr. T. M. Chatard, and 

 physical investigations by Carl Barus. Spe- 

 cial papers representing a considerable num- 



ber of these investigations are incorporated 

 in the volume containing the report. 



Gyrating Bodies. An Empirical Study. 

 Illustrated by upward of Fifty Figures 

 " from Life." By C. B. Warring, Ph. D. 

 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Pp. 106. With 

 Three Plates. 



A gyrating body is defined as " a body 

 revolving on an axis passing through its 

 center of gravity, and acted upon by a con- 

 tinuous force tending to make it revolve on 

 another axis at right angles to the first." 

 The term includes the top, the gyroscope, 

 several toys to the principle of which these 

 furnish the key, and, according to the au- 

 thor, the earth. Such bodies have some 

 curious and paradoxical properties, which, 

 though they may have been carelessly ob- 

 served without being remarked upon, will 

 be looked upon as strange when attention is 

 called to them ; for they seem to contradict 

 our ideas of the operation of the laws of mo- 

 tion. Mr. Warring's studies cover several 

 instruments of the class, and were prosecuted 

 for the purpose of investigating these prop- 

 erties and explaining them. Having reached 

 an explanation, he finds that similar proper- 

 ties reside in the complicated movements of 

 the earth, and that by them such phenomena 

 as nutation and precession may be account- 

 ed for. 



American Diplomacy and the Further- 

 ance of Commerce. By Eugene Schuy- 

 ler. New York: Charles Scribner's 

 Sons. Pp. 469. Price, $2.50. 



The author of this work is able to pre- 

 sent, in evidence of his understanding of the 

 subject, a record of seventeen years of con- 

 tinuous service in diplomatic positions un- 

 der our Government, in Russia, Constants 

 nople, England, Rome, Roumania, Greece, 

 and Servia, in all of which stations he has 

 proved himself a useful and efficient agent, 

 and has reflected credit on the American 

 name. The substance of the book is derived 

 from courses of lectures which he delivered 

 last year at Johns Hopkins and Cornell Uni- 

 versities, the purpose of which, in the first 

 series, on our consular and diplomatic serv- 

 ice, was to explain the actual workings of the 

 State Department, and to set forth the use- 

 fulness and needs of those services to young 

 men who are shortly to be called upon to 



