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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



teen maps drawn by the geographers of this 

 period. In the second chapter, the continu- 

 ous narrative of exploration and conquest 

 begins with the first voyage of Columbus. 



The author shows that the princes and 

 navigators of this period had plenty of 

 faults. The sovereigns of Spain joined to 

 their zeal in increasing geographical knowl- 

 edge, and in extending the domain of the 

 holy Roman Church, a lively solicitude for 

 their own power and revenue. The author 

 finds, both from his study of Spanish au- 

 thorities and from the admissions of Pres- 

 cott, that Queen Isabella has been far too 

 highly lauded by both Prescott and Irving. 

 Even Columbus, who generally gets so much 

 pity for the ungrateful treatment he re- 

 ceived, is shown to have had weaknesses 

 and faults which brought many of his mis- 

 fortunes upon him. 



The American natives do not suffer 

 much from a comparison with their white 

 conquerors. If they sometimes showed a 

 thirst for Spanish blood, it was because the 

 means employed to make them good Catho- 

 lics and citzens were, to say the least, no 

 gentler than those in use in the Old World. 

 " They were more children than wild beasts. 

 .... Seldom was the Indian treacherous 

 until he had been deceived." 



Mr. Bancroft has consulted many books 

 and manuscripts in preparing this work, 

 and the list of authorities quoted, which 

 occupies forty-eight octavo pages, together 

 with the references in the foot-notes on spe- 

 cial topics, give the volume great biblio- 

 graphical value. The numerous foot-notes 

 give interesting details in regard to ships, 

 trading, methods of administration, of di- 

 viding land, and of locating towns. The 

 volume is well supplied with maps, and the 

 chronicle is enlivened by many amusing and 

 illustrative anecdotes. 



Statement of Work done at the Harvard 

 College Observatory, 1 811-1 882. By 

 Edward C. Pickering, Director of the 

 Observatory. Cambridge, Massachusetts : 

 John Wilson & Son. Pp. 23. 



The observatory has enjoyed for four 

 years the revenue derived from an annual 

 subscription of five thousand dollars. The 

 last installments of the subscription expire 

 in the present month, and an effort is now 

 making to replace it with a permanent en- 



dowment of one hundred thousand dollars. 

 The director calls attention to the fact that 

 the increased amount of work made possible 

 by the increased income is quite out of pro- 

 portion to the augmentation of funds, be- 

 cause the expenses are largely the same 

 in either case, and the increase is, there- 

 fore, directly available for scientific results. 

 Fiftetii assistants are attached to the ob- 

 servatory, and, by the division of labor ren- 

 dered possible by so large a force, each 

 man may be assigned the kind of work to 

 which he is peculiarly adapted. In this 

 way researches can be carried out in a few 

 years which are beyond the reach of observ- 

 atories where the corps of assistants is 

 small. 



Proceedings of the American Society of 

 Microscofists. Fifth Annual Meeting. 

 D. S. Kellicot, Secretary, Buffalo, New 

 York. Pp. 292, with Plates. 



The meeting of the society was held at 

 Elmira, New York, August loth to 17th 

 last, under the presidency of George E. 

 Blackham, F. R. M. S. The record contains 

 a considerable number of papers of interest 

 to specialists and students of microscopy, 

 many of them well illustrated, of which two 

 or three relating to organisms in Lake Erie 

 and the water-supply of Buffalo and a me- 

 moir of Charles A. Spencer, the eminent 

 maker of microscopes, deserve especial no- 

 tice and are of more general interest. 



Contributions to the Anatomy of Birds. 

 By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D., United States 

 Army. Washington, D. C Pp. 210, in- 

 cluding Twenty-four Plates. 

 This monograph is also embodied in the 

 twelfth annual report of Professor Hayden's 

 " Geological and Geographical Survey of 

 the Territories," from which it is extracted. 

 It contains descriptions, abundantly illus- 

 trated, of the osteology of the Speotyto, or 

 burrowing owl ; the Ereniophila Alpestris, 

 or horned lark ; the Tetraonidce, or grouse 

 family ; the Lanius, or Shrike ; and the Ca- 

 (harlidce, or buzzards. 



Poems. By Minot J. Savage. Boston: 

 George H. Ellis. 



Mr. Sayage sings his unpinioned thought 

 and free religion as well as preaches it. Not 

 that he has made a hymn-book for his Bos- 



