LITERARY NOTICES. 



561 



senses, the imagination, thinking, the sensi- 

 bilities, language, the will, learning music, 

 the use of books, and "training for free- 

 dom." There must be method in the per- 

 formance of the teacher's work ; hence we 

 have a series of chapters on "Methodology." 

 In " Man and his Method " the principle is 

 enforced that, important as the method may 

 be, the man behind it, who should inspire it, 

 is more so. Method in questioning and in 

 teaching arithmetic is treated with some full- 

 ness. The value and purpose of examina- 

 tions are estimated. "The Ideal School- 

 master " holds up the objective toward which 

 every teacher should strive. " The True 

 Function of a Normal School " is a paper 

 which was awarded the prize of the Ameri- 

 can Institute of Instruction in 1885. "Ad- 

 vice to Young Teachers " embodies the sub- 

 stance of several addresses to graduating 

 classes of the normal school. In them 

 " Independent Thinking " and " Training for 

 Citizenship " are prominent topics. 



Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of 

 the Pacific Slope, with an Atlas. By 

 George F. Becker. Washington : Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Office (United States 

 Geological Survey). Pp. 486, with seven 

 Plates. Atlas, 14 sheets. Price, $2. 



The field work of the investigations re- 

 corded in this volume occupied the most 

 of three seasons, beginning in 1883. There 

 remained to complete the examinations sat- 

 isfactorily the investigation of some impor- 

 tant general problems affecting the whole 

 region. Among these were indications af- 

 forded by the paleontology and structure of 

 a previously undetermined non-conformity 

 existing in the Coast Ranges, These were 

 confirmed. Another investigation related to 

 a possible connection between the forma- 

 tion of ore deposits and the metamorphism 

 of the Mesozoic rocks. A third special in- 

 quiry was directed to determining whether 

 the deposition of cinnabar is still taking 

 place at Sulphur Bank and Steamboat 

 Springs, and, if so, under what conditions 

 the solution and precipitation of cinnabar 

 and the accompanying mineral occur. The 

 author finds that the quicksilver deposits lie 

 along the great axes of disturbance of the 

 world. One of these is on the line of the 

 principal mountain systems of Europe and 

 Asia, and the other coincides with the west- 

 vol. xxxvi. 36 



era ranges of the Cordilleran system of 

 America. The principal mines are at Al- 

 maden in Spain, Idria in Austria, Huan- 

 cavelica in Peru, and those in California. 

 From 1850 to 1886 California supplied 

 nearly half the product of the world, but is 

 not probably destined to maintain the same 

 rank in the future. Quicksilver was first 

 recognized as occurring at the croppings of 

 the new Almaden mine in 1845. But few 

 other minerals occur in considerable quanti- 

 ties with the ore. Among them are pyrite 

 or marcasitc, arsenic and antimony, and 

 sometimes copper ores, while other metal- 

 liferous minerals arc comparatively rare. 

 The principal gangue seems to be silica or 

 carbonates. The cinnabar appears to have 

 been deposited solely in pre-existing open- 

 ings, and never by substitution for rock. 

 The fissure systems, which are always pres- 

 ent, are very irregular, and deposits can not 

 conveniently be classified according to exist- 

 ing systems. All of them seem to have proba- 

 bly been deposited in the same way from hot 

 sulphur springs. At Sulphur Bank cinnabar 

 is now being precipitated from heated waters 

 largely by the action of ammonia ; at Steam- 

 boat Springs it is being deposited without 

 complications from the presence of ammonia. 

 In dealing with the processes by which the 

 ore has been dissolved and precipitated in 

 nature, it has been shown by experiment 

 and analysis that cinnabar unites with sodi- 

 um sulphide in various proportions, forming 

 soluble double sulphides, and that these 

 compounds can exist in such waters as flow 

 from Sulphur Bank and Steamboat Springs, 

 either at ordinary temperatures or above the 

 boiling-point. The quicksilver is probably 

 derived from granitic rocks by the action of 

 heated sulphur waters, which rise through 

 the granite from the foci of volcanic activity 

 below that rock. 



Coal and the Coal Mines. By Homer 

 Greene. Boston and New York : 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 246. Price, 

 75 cents. 



This is a volume of the attractive " Riv- 

 erside Library for Young People," and is 

 intended to tell readers, in a style free from 

 minute details and technicalities, all that re- 

 lates to coal and to procuring it from the 

 earth. The information has been gained for 

 the most part, the author says, from per- 



