28o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Queensland (Australia). Report of the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Rust in Wheat Conference. March, 

 1894. Brisbane. Pp. 77. 



RadcliflEe, A. G. Schools and Masters of 

 Sculpture. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 

 593. 



Recreation- Vol. I. No. 1. Monthly. G. O. 

 Shields, Editor, New York. Pp. 40. 10 cents. 

 $1 a year. 



Ries, Heinrich. Microscopic Organisms in the 

 Clays of New York State. Pp. 5, with Plates. 



Salt, Henry S. Animals' Rights considered in 

 Relation to Social Progress. New York: Mac- 

 millan & Co. 75 cents. 



Shufeldt, R. W. Lectures on Biology. Pp. 

 102. 



Scudder, 8. H. Tertiary Rhyncophorous 

 Coleoptera. U. S. Geological Survey. Pp. 206, 

 with Plates. 



Torrey, Bradford. A Florida Sketch Book. 

 Boston: Houghton, Mifflin* Co. Pp.242. $1.25. 



United States Department of Agriculture. Re- 

 port on the Agriculture of South America. By 

 Almont Barnes. Washington: Government Print- 

 ing Office. Pp. 189. 



United Stites Pish Commission. Bulletin, 

 Vol. XII. For 1892. Marshall McDonald, Com- 

 missioner. Washington : Government Printing 

 Office. Pp. 489. 



United States Geological Survey. Bulletins 97 

 to 117. 



United States Geological Survey. J. W. Powell, 

 Director. Thirteenth Annual Report. Part I, 

 Report of the Director. Pp. 240. Part II, Geolo- 

 gy. Pp. 372, with Plates. Part III, Irrigation. 

 Pp. 486, with Plates. Washington : Government 

 Printing Office. 



University of Arizona. Third Annual Register. 

 1893-'94. Tucson. Pp. 92. 



Wall Street Man, A. The Man from the West; 

 or, from the Chaparral to Wall Street. New 

 York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. Pp. 

 246. 50 cents. 



Willey, Arthur. Amphioxns and the Ancestry 

 of the Vertebrates. New York: Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 316. $2.50. 



Williams, F. H. Walt Whitman as Deliverer. 

 Pp. 20. 



Woollcombe, W. G. Practical Work in Gen- 

 eral Physics. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 

 83. 75 cents. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Unexplored Geographical Fields. As 



among the more important fields where spe- 

 cial geographical research may still be prof- 

 itably carried on, Mr. Clements R. Markham 

 mentions the north polar area, a vast extent 

 of which is unknown ; the south polar area, 

 of which this is still more the case ; and 

 plenty of interesting work still in our own 

 quarters of the globe. Even in the British 

 islands some of the lakes were unsurveyed, 

 and were not systematically sounded until 

 the work was begun in Cumberland in 1893. 

 The topography of the Alps might be con- 

 sidered fairly complete, but there are still 

 physical inquiries of great interest that com- 



mend themselves to scientific Alpine travel* 

 ers ; such as the extent and action of ice, 

 the oscillations of glaciers, the origin of the 

 Fohn wind, and the effects of the destruc- 

 tion of forests. The historical geography of 

 the Alps is also in process of elucidation. 

 At present there are only three regions in 

 Africa of considerable area, which offer op- 

 portunities for discovery on a large scale ; 

 namely, the Sahara, the region adjoining it 

 to the south and extending across Wadai to 

 the watersheds of the Congo and Nile, and 

 the region to the east of the upper Nile, 

 stretching south of Abyssinia, through the 

 lands of the Gallas and Somalis, to the east- 

 ern seaboard of the continent. Outside the 

 regions referred to we might be said to have 

 obtained a fair knowledge of the general 

 geographical features of the African con- 

 tinent. Much detail remains to be filled in, 

 and much of the work executed in a hasty 

 and superficial manner requires to be done 

 over again. There are also regions of great 

 interest that have been visited, but which 

 would well repay detailed examination. In 

 the continent of Asia British geographers 

 have been very active during the present 

 century. Perhaps the most interesting and 

 important unknown Asiatic region is the 

 southern part of Arabia, from Yemen on the 

 west to Oman on the east, and between the 

 seacoast and the states of Nejd in the in- 

 terior. Hadramaut, with its lofty mountains 

 and cultivated ravines, its settled population 

 and historic past, is almost a sealed book to 

 us. The exploration of this district is about 

 to be undertaken. Much work is yet to be 

 done in Asia Minor. The most important 

 unexplored field includes the upper valley of 

 the Euphrates and eastern Cappadocia. 



Selection in Seed-growing. To the 



seedsman, says Mr. C. L. Allen, in an ad- 

 dress before the Horticultural Congress, 

 pul^lished by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Phila- 

 delphia, selection is not a,, cause but an 

 effect. In the development of a type, selec- 

 tion is the principal agent employed, but 

 doubly important is its ofiice in preserving a 

 type after it is secured. There are two 

 separate and distinct principles in selection, 

 and the two are antagonistic ; they are both 

 methodical, but for entirely different pur- 

 poses. In the one instance we select with 



