562 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



F. Becker, on the " Comstock Lode and the 

 Washoe District " ; of Mr. Lester F. Ward, on 

 " Vegetable Paleontology " ; and of Messrs. 

 J. Howard Gore and Gilbert Thompson, on 

 " Triangulations and Topographical Sur- 

 veys." The " accompanying papers " are 

 those of Professor 0. C. Marsh, on " Birds 

 with Teeth " ; of Roland D. Irving, on the 

 " Copper-bearing Rocks of Lake Superior " ; 

 of Israel C. Russell, on the " Geological 

 History of Lake Lahontan " ; of Mr. Arnold 

 Hague, on the "Geology of the Eureka 

 District " ; of Mr. T. C. Chamberlin, on the 

 " Terminal Moraine " ; and of Dr. C. A. 

 White, on the " Non-Marine Fossil Mollusca 

 of North America." Mr. Hague's prelimi- 

 nary report promises much interesting in- 

 formation when the papers are published in 

 full, concerning the lithological structure of 

 the volcanic cones of Mounts Rainier, Hood, 

 Shasta, and Lassen's Peak, which play so im- 

 portant a part in the geology of the Sierra 

 Nevada and Cascade Ranges. Mr. Chamber- 

 lin's paper reveals the interesting facts that 

 the glacial moraine formation consists, not 

 of a single moraine, but of a group of three 

 or more concentric and rudely parallel ones, 

 that sometimes coalesce and sometimes 

 separate, so as to occupy a belt occasion- 

 ally twenty or thirty miles in width ; that 

 the individual moraines, instead of being 

 sharp ridges, consist of a broad belt of ir- 

 regular, tumultuous hills and hollows, giv- 

 ing rise to a peculiar knob-and-basin topog- 

 raphy ; that the massiveness of the moraine 

 finds its development in great width rather 

 than in abrupt and conspicuous height ; that 

 throughout a considerable portion of its 

 course, instead of pursuing a direct or mod- 

 erately undulatory line, it is disposed in 

 great loops, formed at the margins of ice- 

 tongues, between which re-entrant portions 

 formed extensive intermediate moraines ; 

 and that these ice -tongues occupied the 

 great valleys of the interior, and manifestly 

 owed their origin to topographical influ- 

 ences. Mr. Becker mentions the interest- 

 ing fact that in the caves above the ore- 

 bodies, on Ruby Ilill, the crystals of ara- 

 gonite are still in process of rapid forma- 

 tion ; and Mr. Curtis is conducting accurate 

 experiments to ascertain the rate of growth 

 and the physical and chemical conditions 

 attending their formation. 



Tables to facilitate Chemical Calcula- 

 tions. Compiled by W. Dittmar, F. R. S. 

 Second edition. London : Williams & 

 Norgate. Pp. 43, small 4to. Price, 5 

 shillings. 



This little volume contains tables of 

 atomic weights, analytical factors, loga- 

 rithms, reciprocals, physical constants of 

 gases, etc., together with rules for gasome- 

 try, a chapter on the arithmetic of gas 

 analysis, and other minor data, of value for 

 daily reference in the laboratory. Its utility 

 to the analyst is obvious, although, to a 

 well-trained chemist, much of the matter 

 contained in it is too familiar to need quota- 

 tion in this form. To the elementary stu- 

 dent, on the other hand, works cf this char- 

 acter are of questionable value. The pupil 

 who works out his analysis by the aid of 

 factors too often fails to learn the principles 

 upon which they depend, and does not ac- 

 quire that command of stoichiometry which 

 every good chemist should have. Of its 

 kind, however, and in its proper place, the 

 volume appears to be satisfactory. It is 

 announced as being preliminary to a forth- 

 coming work upon chemical arithmetic, 

 which, when issued, will replace it. 



Contributions to North American Eth- 

 nology. Vol. V. Washington: Gov- 

 ernment Printing-Ofnce. Pp. about 400, 

 with Plates. 



In this volume are bound up the mono- 

 graphs of Mr. Charles Rau, on " Cup-shaped 

 and other Lapidarian Sculpture in the Old 

 World and in America " ; of Dr. Robert 

 Fletcher, on " Prehistoric Trephining and 

 Cranial Amulets " ; and of Dr. Cyrus Thom- 

 as, on the " Manuscript Troano." The last 

 two works have already been fully noticed 

 by us. Mr. Rau's paper relates to some curi- 

 ous kinds of rock-sculptures, which are de- 

 scribed as "cups" of various sizes, rings 

 surrounding the " cups," or independent of 

 them, and other designs, which have been 

 found on rocks, and on and near megalithic 

 stones and buildings, in various parts of Eu- 

 rope, and similar figures which have been 

 discovered in America. The origin and pur- 

 pose of these designs have been variously 

 accounted for. Some persons regard them 

 as Phoenician Baal sculptures ; some as origi- 

 nating at a remote period in the history of 

 the Aryan race ; some as having a phallic 



