LITERARY NOTICES. 



273 



enabled to visit the Pribylov Islands and 

 study the life and habits of the animals. 

 The notes, surveys, and hypotheses here pre- 

 sented are founded on his personal obser- 

 vations in the seal-rookeries of St. Paul and 

 St. George, during the seasons of 1872, 

 1873, 1874, and 1876. They "were ob- 

 tained through long days and nights of con- 

 secutive observation, from the beginning to 

 the close of each seal season," and cover, by 

 actual surveys, the entire ground occupied 

 by these animals. 



The Areas op the United States, the 

 Several States and Territories, and 

 their Counties. By Henry Gannett, 

 E. M., Geographer and Special Agent of 

 the Tenth Census. Washington: Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Office. Pp. 20, with 

 Map. 



The question, "What constitutes the 

 area of the United States ? " is by no means 

 a simple one, but involves other questions 

 of including or leaving out inlets, and the 

 measurement of numerous gores. For the 

 purpose of this work the main area was 

 procured by summing up the square degrees, 

 and the areas of the fractions of square de- 

 grees were computed after direct meas- 

 urement, with scales on the maps of the 

 Coast, Lake, and Mexican Boundary Com- 

 mission surveys. The whole contour of the 

 country is thus given by surveys whose ac- 

 curacy is unquestioned, except as to the 

 part between the Lake of the Woods and 

 Lake Superior, and a part of the eastern 

 boundary of Maine, of which exact surveys 

 have not been made. The same principles 

 were observed in computing the areas of 

 States and counties, where, however, bound- 

 ary surveys are often not so accurate as they 

 should be. 



Statistics of the Production of the 

 Precious Metals in the United States. 

 By Clarence King, Special Agent of 

 the Census. Washington : Government 

 Printing-Office. Pp. 94, with Six Plates. 



This. statistical statement is offered in 

 advance of the author's report on the pro- 

 duction of the precious metals, of which it 

 will form the concluding chapter, on ac- 

 count of its immediate interest to legislators, 

 financiers, and metallists. It consists al- 

 most wholly of statistics, presented in a full 

 and clear manner. n 



vol. xxi. 18 



Annual Report of the Chief Signal-Of- 

 ficer of the Army to the Secretary 

 of War, for the Year 1881. Washing- 

 ton City. Pp. 86. 



The Signal Service continues to manifest 

 its value, particularly in the meteorological 

 department. The present officer, General 

 Hazen, has endeavored to bring it into active 

 sympathy and co-operation with men of sci- 

 ence; and it enjoys the assistance of an 

 advisory committee of the National Acade- 

 my of Sciences. The work of the year has 

 been marked by advance in nearly every 

 department, among the evidences of which 

 we notice the establishment of a permanent 

 school of instruction at Fort Myer, Virginia ; 

 the extension of forecasts to periods of more 

 than twenty-four hours; the forecasts of 

 " northers " for the interior plateau ; the 

 extension of the special frost-warning to 

 the fruit interests ; the organization of a 

 service for the special benefit of the cotton 

 interest ; arrangements for original investi- 

 gation in atmospheric electricity, in ane- 

 mometry and in actinometry ; and in the last 

 subject, especially with reference to the im- 

 portance of solar radiation in agriculture, 

 and the absorption of the sun's heat by the 

 atmosphere ; the publication of special pro- 

 fessional papers ; the offering of prizes for 

 essays on meteorological subjects ; the or- 

 ganization of State weather services ; co-op- 

 eration in work in the Arctic regions ; ar- 

 rangements for organizing a Pacific coast 

 weather service; and a large increase of 

 telegraphic weather service, without addi- 

 tional expense to the United States. The 

 popular confidence and support of the bu- 

 reau, General Hazen says, have never been 

 impaired, and the scope of its usefulness in- 

 creases with each year. 



The Constants of Nature, Part V. : A Re- 

 calculation of the Atomic Weights. 

 By Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, S. B., 

 Professor of Chemistry and Physics in 

 the University of Cincinnati. Washing- 

 ton : Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 279. 



This work and Professor George F. 

 Becker's "Digest" of the investigations of 

 "Atomic Weight Determinations, published 

 since 1814," which forms Part IV of the 

 series of " Constants," are complementary 

 to each other. Professor Clarke began his 

 investigations in 1877, for the purpose of 



