4 13 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the fact that there was no native work 

 which fully treated of and illustrated rapid 

 methods of hill-shading, and it is now writ- 

 ten not only to explain these and other 

 methods now used, either separately o.* in 

 conjunction with them, but also to present 

 the subject of topographical sketching in a 

 form suited to a beginner." 



The book is divided into two chief parts, 

 topographical drawing and topographical 

 sketching. The first is the exact repro- 

 duction, while the second is a more ready 

 and quick, although not so exact, reproduc- 

 tion of the ground. The twenty-four plates 

 form a very complete collection of all the 

 instruments used by the surveyor and the 

 draughtsman ; they are very valuable, and 

 contain, besides examples of work, conven- 

 tional signs, hill - shading as executed on 

 maps in this country and abroad, conven- 

 tional tints, and projections for maps of 

 large areas. The first nineteen plates are 

 devoted to drawing, while the other five il- 

 lustrate the instruments and methods used 

 in sketching. Although sketching is not so 

 exact and accurate as topographical draw- 

 ing, it is, nevertheless, in many cases desir- 

 able to have the sketches as accurate as it 

 is possible to obtain them. All the resources 

 of modern science are called to help to as- 

 sist in obtaining this desired result. Among 

 these, photography also plays a not unim- 

 portant part. 



It would be difficult to say whether the 

 text has been written to explain the plates, 

 or whether these have been made in order 

 to illustrate the text. The two are so ne- 

 cessary to each other that they could not be 

 separated. 



Lieutenant Reed's work can not fail to 

 recommend itself both to the beginner and 

 to the veteran topographer. Even those 

 whose special study is not in this line, will 

 find it interesting in more than one respect. 



Fourteenth Report of tiie Commissioners 

 of Fisheries of the State of New 

 York. Albany: Weed, Parsons k Co. 

 Pp. 209. 



In accordance with the spirit of the 

 legislative act under which the commis- 

 sion was instituted, hatching-stations have 

 been established on the Hudson River for 

 shad; at Caledonia, Livingston County, for 

 the propagation, principally, cf the trout 



kind — with a source of supply at Rochester 

 for black bass, perch, pike, banded perch, 

 and bull-head ; at Cold Spring Harbor for 

 anadromous fish, trout, and sea-fish ; at 

 Lake Brandon, Franklin County (Adiron- 

 dack hatchery), for fish of the trout kind ; 

 and at Clayton, Jefferson County, for salm- 

 on, trout, white - fish, rainbow - trout, and 

 perch-pike. The total production from 1870 

 to 18S6, at the two stations in full opera- 

 tion (Caledonia and Cold Spring Harbor), 

 was 102,549,624 of all kinds. The details 

 of operations at the several stations, min- 

 utes of the proceedings of the Board of 

 Commissioners, and the reports of game 

 and fish protectors and protection societies, 

 are given in the report. 



The Age of Electricity. From Amue?.- 

 Socl to Telephone. By Park Benja- 

 min, Ph. D. New York : Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons. Price, $2. 

 The chief wonders of the modern world 

 are the marvelous applications of electricity 

 which have recently appeared in quick suc- 

 cession. To those who would have an in- 

 telligent knowledge of what has been done 

 in this field, and would understand, in some 

 measure, how it has been arrived at, this 

 book is addressed. It is a book to be read 

 rather than one to be studied, although, in 

 a work describing any of the peculiar mani- 

 festations of electricity there must be pas- 

 cages which require the reader's close at- 

 tention, unless he is content to pass them 

 by. Not many pages are needed for sketch- 

 ing the electrical discoveries made before 

 1820, of which the most important were 

 galvanism, and Franklin's demonstration 

 that electricity and the lightning are iden- 

 tical. The author then takes up the chief 

 topics of his subject singly, describing, in 

 successive chapters, the galvanic battery, 

 the electro-magnet, the dynamo-electric ma- 

 chine, the electric light, electro-motors for 

 land, water, and aerial use, electro-deposi- 

 tion of metals, and the storage-battery, the 

 telegraph, including multiple and auto- 

 graphic telegraphy, the telephone, and the 

 induction-coil, closing with a chapter on ap- 

 plications of electricity to the arts of war, 

 railroading, medicine, dentistry, music, do- 

 mestic economy, etc. In the chapter on the 

 telephone, are described the microphone 

 and the phonograph ; also the instrument 



