LITERARY NOTICES. 



401 



The Railway in its Relation to Public 

 AND Private Interests. Bv Simon 

 Sterne. New York, 1878. Press of 

 the Chamber of Commerce. Pp. 38. 



Mr. Sterne advocates governmental con- 

 trol of the railway lines. The cry that this 

 is "centralization" does not frighten him, 

 because " whether centralization is objec- 

 tionable depends upon whether it is good 

 or bad, and whether it supersedes a better 

 or a worse system." And he quotes with 

 approval the remarks made by Burke : " If 

 I am not able to correct a system of oppres- 

 sion and tyranny that goes to the utter ruin 

 of 30,000,000 of my fellow-creatures, but by 

 some increase of the influence of the crown, 

 I am ready here to declare that I, who have 

 been active to reduce it, shall be as active 

 and strenuous to restore it again. I am no 

 lover of names ; I contend for the substance 

 of good and protecting government, let it 

 come from what quarter it will." 



Golden Songs of Great Poets. Illustrated 

 by Darley, Moran, Hart, Fredericks, 

 Smillie, and McEntee. New York : 

 Sarah H. Leggett. Price, $5. 



Few books have fallen into our hands 

 having a more distinguished paternity than 

 this one. It contains six poems, not else- 

 where published, from six of the leading 

 American poets of the century, and its 

 pages are embellished with thirty-six beau- 

 tiful illustrations, by artists of scarcely in- 

 ferior rank. Holmes contributes the intro- 

 duction, " On the Threshold ; " Bryant fol- 

 lows with a pleasant bit of Nature entitled 

 " The Song Sparrow ; " and Longfellow 

 writes of what he is supposed to know most 

 about, " The Poets." "June on the Merri- 

 mac," by Whittier, is a gem well worth the 

 price of the book, and there follows Lowell 

 on " The Fire-Fly," and Bayard Taylor on 

 "The Lost Caryatid" The printer and 

 binder have done their share of the work in 

 befitting style, making the volume, taken 

 altogether, one of the handsomest and most 

 interesting holiday books we have seen. 



Geology OF Wisconsin. Vol.11. Madison: 

 Published by the Commissioners of Pub- 

 lic Printing, 1877. Pp. 797. 

 Though this volume is numbered II., it 



is in fact the first of the series in the order 



of publication, and Vol. I. is yet to follow. 



Tlie reason of this reversal of the logical 

 VOL. XIT. — 26 



sequence is that, while the matter belonging 

 to Vol. II. is completed, that which of right 

 belongs to Vol. I. has to await the comple- 

 tion of the survey. The volume, which, by- 

 the-way, is highly creditable to Wisconsin 

 lithography and typography, consists of four 

 parts, viz. : Part I., containing the annual 

 reports for 1873, 1874, and 1875, now first 

 published. During the two former years, 

 the survey was under the general direction 

 of Dr. Increase A. Lapham, and during the 

 last year under Dr. 0. W. Wight. Part II. 

 treats of the geology of Eastern Wisconsin, 

 and is written by the geologist-in-chief, Mr. 

 T. C. Chamberlin. Part III., by Roland D. 

 Irving, treats of the geology of Central Wis- 

 consin. Finally, Part IV., on the " Geology 

 and Topography of the Lead-Region," is by 

 Moses Strong. Accompanying the volume 

 is a set of maps, fourteen in number. Nu- 

 merous colored and plain lithographic plates 

 and wood-engravings serve to embellish the 

 volume and to illustrate the text. 



First Annual Report of the United States 

 Entomological Commission, for the Year 

 1877, relating to the Rocky Mountain 

 Locust. With Maps and Illustrations. 

 Washington : Government Printing-Of- 

 fice, 1878. Pp. 787. 



The vast fund of information acquired 

 by the Entomological Commission during 

 the first year of its labors is in this report 

 laid before the agricultural population of 

 the States and Territories exposed to the 

 locust-plague. The commissioners, Messrs. 

 Riley, Packard, and Thomas, justly con- 

 gratulate themselves on the success which 

 has attended their efforts to determine cer- 

 tain cardinal points touching the origin and 

 distribution of the Rocky Mountain locust — 

 its breeding-grounds, geographical range, 

 migrations, habits and natural history, the 

 means of checking its ravages, etc. Much, 

 indeed, has been done toward accomplish- 

 ing the purpose for which the commission 

 was appointed ; but still more remains to 

 be done, both in the way of research and, 

 above all, in the way of applying on the 

 large scale the remedies and devices for ex- 

 terminating the locust which are here ex- 

 plained. " Further surveys need to be made 

 of the permanent breeding-grounds in the 

 Northwestern Territories ; more facts are 

 needed to perfect our knowledge of the mi- 



