856 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Franklin. Pp. 192. No. 4. The Complete Anpler. 

 By Izaak Walton. Pp. VH. No. 5, Tlie Mun of 

 Feeling. By Henry Maekenzie. Pp. 191. New 

 York : Cassl'll As Co. 10 cents each. 



Three Years of .:\jctic Service. By Adolphus 

 W. Greely. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

 2 vols. Pp. 428 and 444, with Maps and Plates. 

 Sold by subscription. 



The Fisheries and Fi.shery Industries of the 

 United States. By Georso Brown Goode. Wa.sh- 

 in<jton : Government I'rinting-Ollicu. 'i vols. Pp. 

 XX and 895, with 277 Plates. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



The Study of American Lani^nagies. — 



Dr. D. G. Brinton has published an addrc-ss, 

 which he recently delivered before the Penn- 

 sylvania Historical Society, on the impor- 

 tance of studying American languages. Re- 

 ferring to the prominent place which is given 

 to language in the study of ethnology, he 

 shows that its study is particularly essential 

 in the ethnology of America, for " language 

 is almost our only clew to discover the 

 kinship of those countless scattered hordes 

 who roamed the forests of this broad con- 

 tinent." Through the aid of this study 

 alone, Dr. Erinton says, we have already 

 reached the positive knowledge that most 

 of the area of South America, including the 

 whole of the West Indies, was occupied by 

 three great families of nations, not one of 

 which had formed any important settlement 

 on the northern continent. By similar evi- 

 dence we know that the tribe which greeted 

 Bonn when he landed on the site of Phila- 

 dcli)hia was a member of one vast family — 

 the Algonquin stock — whose various clans 

 extended from Carolina to Labrador, and 

 from the easternmost cape of Newfound- 

 land to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, 

 over 20° of latitude and 50° of longitude. 

 We also know that the general trend of 

 migration in the northern continent has 

 been from north to south, and that this is 

 true of the more nearly civilized as well as 

 of the more savage tribes. But such exter- 

 nal information is only a part of what these 

 languages are capable of disclosing, for 

 when rightly used they may reveal the inner 

 life of the aborigine and the origin of his 

 customs, laws, superstitions, and religions. 

 Yet the number of those who are giving at- 

 tention to the study of them is small. In 

 Germany there are Von Tschudi, who has 

 published a volume on the"Qquichua of 

 Peru"; Dr. Stoll, who makes a specialty of 



the languages of Guatemala; Mr. Julius 

 Platzmann; and Professor Friedrich Miil- 

 ler ; in France, the Count de Charency, M. 

 Lucien Adam, and a few other students ; 

 while Maisonncuve has published a com- 

 mendable series of American grammars. 

 In the United States we have the investiga- 

 tions of the Bureau of Ethnology ; Dr. John 

 Gilmary Shea, who began a " Library of 

 American Linguistics " ; Mr. Horatio Hale ; 

 Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull; Dr. Washing- 

 ton Matthews ; the Abb6 Cuoq, and others ; 

 all of whom have worked without reward 

 or the hope of reward, without external 

 stimulus, and almost without recognition. 

 Dr. Brinton thinks that some of our col- 

 leges, learned societies, or patrons of sci- 

 ence should offer inducements for this study, 

 and asks the pertinent question, "Shall 

 we have fellowships and professorships in 

 abundance for the teaching of the dead lan- 

 guages and dead religions of another hemi- 

 sphere, and not one for instruction in those 

 tongues of our own land which live in a 

 thousand proper names around us, whose 

 words we repeat daily, and whose structure 

 is as important to the philosophic study of 

 speech as any of the dialects of Greece or 

 India ? " 



The Southern Limits of Glacial Action. 



— Since Mr. H. Carvill Lewis described 

 his tracing of the terminal glacial moraine 

 across Pennsylvania, attention has been 

 called by different observers to what ap- 

 peared to them local evidences of glacial 

 action in the region south of the line fixed 

 by him. Eleven such spots have been par- 

 ticularly mentioned, one of which is as 

 far south as West Philadelphia. Mr. Lewis 

 has made personal examinations of all 

 these places for the purpose of ascertain- 

 ing whether the supposed evidences were 

 real, and states, in the paper which he has 

 published on the subject, as the result of 

 his investigations, that he has found no rea- 

 son to change his definition of the terminal 

 line. In every instance he has found posi- 

 tive evidence of glacial action wanting, and 

 that the marks relied upon bytho.se who 

 have supposed such action, in support of 

 their views, can be amply accounted for as 

 effects of water, or of atmospheric or other 

 agencies than that of glacial ice. The 



