556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



present work is a first installment toward a 

 history of our fossil Coleoptera, or beetles, 

 of which one hundred and ninety-three spe- 

 cies are treated. Although it can not be 

 supposed that more than a mere fragment 

 of the vast host of insects entombed in the 

 Tertiary rocks has been identified, such a 

 variety and abundance of forms have been 

 discovered as to make it clear that there has 

 been but little important change in the in- 

 sect fauna of the world since the beginning 

 of the epoch to which they belong. In the 

 earlier Tertiaries we have in profusion repre- 

 sentatives of every one of the orders of in- 

 sects ; and every dominant type which exists 

 to-day has been recognized. Even many of 

 the families which have now but a meager 

 representation have been discovered; and 

 though many extinct genera have been 

 recognized, no higher groups, with a single 

 exception or two, have been founded on 

 extinct forms. The parasitic groups are 

 represented, and many of those which in the 

 present time show peculiar modes of life. 



BCLLETINS OF THE UnITED StATES GEOLOGI- 

 CAL Survey. Nos. 97 to 117. Wash- 

 ington : Government Printing Office. 



No. 97 is a description of the Mesozoic 

 Echinodermata of the United States, by W. B. 

 Clark; No. 98, an Account of the Flora of 

 the Outlying Carboniferous Basins of South- 

 western Missouri, by David White; No. 99, 

 a Record of North American Geology for 

 1891, by N. H. Darton; No. 100, a Bib- 

 liography and Index of the Publications of 

 the Geological Survey, with the laws gov- 

 erning their printing and distribution, by 

 P. C. Darton; No. 101, Insect Fauna of the 

 Rhode Island Coal Field, by S. H. Scudder ; 

 No. 103, a Catalogue and Bibliography of 

 North American Mesozoic Invertebrata, by 

 C. B. Boyle; No. 103, High Temperature 

 Work in Igneous Fusion and Ebullition, 

 chiefly in relation to pressure, by Carl 

 Harus ; No. 104, The Glaciation of the Yel- 

 lowstone Valley north of the Park, by W. H, 

 Weed; No. 105, The Laramie and the over- 

 lying Livingston Formation in Montana, with 

 map, by W. H. Weed (with report on Flora, 

 by F. H. Knowlton) ; No. lOG, The Colorado 

 Formation and its Invertebrate Fauna, by 

 T. W. Stanton ; No. 107, The Trap Dykes of 

 the Lake Champlain Region, by J. F. Kemp 



and V. H. Masters; No. 108, A Geological 

 Reconnoissance in Central Washington, by 

 J. C. Russell; No. 109, The Eruptive and 

 Sedimentary Rocks at Pigeon Point, Minn., 

 and their Contact Phenomena, by W. S. 

 Bayley; No. 110, The Palaeozoic Section in 

 the Vicmity of Three Forks, Montana, by 

 G. P. Merrill; No. Ill, Geology of the Big 

 Stone Gap Coal Field of Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky, by M. R. Campbell; No. 112, Earth- 

 quakes in California in 1892, by C. D. 

 Perrine; No. 113, Report of Work done in 

 the Division of Chemistry during the Fiscal 

 Years 1891-'92 and 1892-'93, by F. W. 

 Clarke; No. 114, Earthquakes in California 

 in 1893, by C. D. Perrine; No. 115, a Geo- 

 graphic Dictionary of Rhode Island, by 

 Henry Gannett; No. 116, a Geographic Dic- 

 tionary of Massachusetts, by Henry Gannett ; 

 No. 117, a Geographic Dictionary of Con- 

 necticut, by Henry Gannett. 



A History or the United States for 

 Schools. By John Fiske, Litt. D., LL. D. 

 With Topical Analysis, Suggestive Ques- 

 tions, and Directions for Teachers, by 

 Frank Alpine Hill, Litt. D. Boston : 

 Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. xxi + 474. 

 Price, $1 net. 



It has been said that children's text-books 

 should be written by the best authors, and 

 the wisdom of the remark is evident from 

 an examination of this treatise from the pen 

 of the thoroughly equipped and facile author 

 and lecturer, John Fiske. Prof. Fiske tells 

 the story of America, from the voyages of 

 the Norsemen down to the events of 1893, 

 with such vividness that the pupil is not 

 likely to neglect his history lesson (unless to 

 read ahead), and with such regard for logical 

 connection that he can not fail to gain from 

 it a comprehensive view of the march of 

 events. Indeed, the chief interest of this 

 book from the scientific standpoint is that 

 historical events are arranged in it so as to 

 link them in natural sequence and to aid in 

 teaching the great lesson that every effect 

 has its cause and every cause must produce 

 an effect. The illustrations are a striking 

 and valuable feature of the book. Portraits 

 are especially numerous ; they include the 

 bewigged and beruffled worthies of explo- 

 ration and colonization times, British and 

 American generals of the Revolution, our 

 Presidents and other statesmen from Wash- 



