LITERARY NOTICES. 



849 



jects of another chapter of equally distinct 

 interest. The graphic descriptions are height- 

 ened by pictures of scenery, human life, and 

 occupations, and the constructions of the 

 natives. " How differently," says the au- 

 thor, " a number of us are impressed in the 

 viewing of any one subject, by which ob- 

 servation we utterly fail to agree as to its 

 character and worth ! " The remark is per- 

 tinently illustrated in this book. The gen- 

 eral impression has been that there is not 

 much of value or interest in Alaska. The 

 impression is inevitable, after reading " Our 

 Arctic Province," either that Alaska is one 

 of the most interesting regions of the earth, 

 or that the author is one of those rarely 

 gifted observers who know how to seek out 

 and find matters of interest and beauty where 

 ordinary men would only grope blindly. 



A Nomenclature of Colors for Natural- 

 ists, and Compendium of Useful Knowl- 

 edge for Ornithologists. By Robert 

 Kidgway. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 

 Pp. 129, with Seventeen Plates. 

 The preparation of this book has been 

 instigated by the author's feeling of a want 

 while pursuing his own studies as an orni- 

 thologist. He could find, on one side, no 

 authoritative nomenclature of colors, and, on 

 the other hand, no compendious dictionary 

 of technical terms used in ornithology, with 

 specific references to the exact parts of the 

 bird to which they were intended to apply. 

 In both cases, approximate identification 

 was the most that could be expected. The 

 identification of color-tints offers peculiar 

 difficulties. The variations are almost infi- 

 nite, and are subject to modifications by the 

 changing aspects and incidence of the light. 

 Very few natural colors or artificial ones 

 are permanent ; most of them are liable to 

 change with time or under chemical influ- 

 ences. The author, in treating of those 

 points, gives a chapter to the discussion of 

 the " Principles of Color," in which he lays 

 down ten color-elements, formed from the 

 primary colors, which in their binary com- 

 binations give ninety more or less distinct 

 colors ; and these are susceptible of great di- 

 versites of intershadings. Seventeen pages 

 are occupied with a " Comparative Vocabu- 

 lary of Colors," giving equivalent names of 

 eolors and shades in six languages. A se- 

 ries of plates gives some two hundred of 

 vol. xxx. — 54 



these colors in actual chromatic illustrations 

 composed out of fine artists' pigments se- 

 lected from the shops of the best makers as 

 those most likely to be true and permanent 

 in tone. The bibliography gives the names 

 of eight books consulted, in the order of 

 their importance. The second part of the 

 book (the " Ornithologist's Compendium ") 

 contains a glossary of technical terms used 

 in descriptive ornithology, and comparative 

 tables of millimetres and English inches and 

 decimals. Six plates in outline are intend- 

 ed to show and localize the parts of the bird 

 and the forms of feathers and eggs. 



A Trip around the World. By George 

 Moerlein. Cincinnati : M. & R. Bur.^- 

 heim. Pp. 205, with Chromolithograph- 

 ic Plates. 



This work is attractive on account of its 

 illustrations. The author made the journey 

 which he describes in 1884-'85, for pleas- 

 ure and recreation, with two companions, 

 who went by his invitation upon a similar 

 errand. The journey included Japan, Chi- 

 na, India, and Ceylon, and other Eastern 

 countries, and Europe. The account here 

 given is confined almost entirely to the far 

 East, because it was there the party so- 

 journed the longest, and had the opportu- 

 nity of viewing the many (to them) strange 

 sights and scenes. A straightforward nar- 

 rative of what they saw and heard is given, 

 without pretense to learning or literary elab- 

 oration, with historical and statistical in- 

 formation obtained from the most reliable 

 sources. The illustrations represent vari- 

 ous phases of life and scenery in the East, 

 and are of a very satisfactory character. 

 They were carefully chosen, we are told, 

 from a collection of more than eight hun- 

 dred original pictures collected during the 

 journey, and are colored true to nature. 



Commercial Organic Analysis. Bv Al- 

 fred H. Allen, F. I. C, F. C. S. Second 

 edition, revised and enlarged. Vol. II. 

 Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 

 Pp. 583. Price, $5. 



The worth of this originally valuable 

 treatise has been vastly increased by its re- 

 vision and enlargement. The first edition 

 comprised two volumes, but the work has 

 been so much extended that it was found 

 necessary to issue this edition in three. The 



