402 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
Geographical Society. The Red Indians are, like so many unfortu- 
nate natives of other lands, being driven out by our colonies of 
Vancouver Island and Columbia from their old hunting grounds 
through the forcible purchase of their land, which the Indians would 
willingly keep if they were allowed. It is the old story, the 
European makes use of the power that civilization gives him to act 
as an uncivilized savage would be ashamed to act, and then it is 
said that no barbarous nation can exist where educated man touches 
upon his borders. One rather awkward-looking fact accompanies 
the advance of the European. ‘The price of wives increases as one 
nears the white settlements, and a regular slave trade is known to 
exist. A strong desire has been exhibited by the colony of British 
Columbia to be admitted into the confederacy with Canada and the 
other settlements of British America, provided only that a means of 
communication with these latter colonies be made from Lake 
Superior over the Rocky Mountains. The other parties to the con- 
federacy seem willing to meet their wishes, and it is to be hoped 
that a strong alliance may be found to resist any attempts to 
alienate or seduce any of these our dependencies, or to sow discord 
where unity is so essential. The new territories of the United 
States are each in their turn explored by Government officials, and 
the various productions, mineral and vegetable, are described and 
catalogued. Nebraska has in this way been rendered accessible, and 
expeditions are still in progress in Colorado and Dakotah. Lignite 
has been found over a large extent of country in the former territory, 
and iron ore is in abundance in the same neighbourhood. Unlike 
the adjoming British colony, the Americans of California are not 
content with a mere road, but have already made lines of railway 
where no European would dream of laying a tramway, but one of 
the most extraordinary of these undertakings, and a very successful 
one too, is the Central Pacific Railway, which commencing in 
California passes the Sierra Nevada through a tunnel, and is descend- 
ing into the plain of the great Salt Lake city to Utah. The 
rails are being laid at the rate of a mile a day. When this is 
finished there will be no more occasion for those trying journeys 
across the prairies so well described in Hepworth Dixon’s ‘ New 
America,’ nor for the scarcely less unpleasant journey round by 
Central America. But little seems to be known about this latter 
country, to judge from a late correspondence in which it is contended 
by one of the opposing parties that there is a water communication 
between the Lakes Managua and Nicaragua, whilst the other denies 
this. The explanation seems to be that some years ago the dry 
seasons lowered the former lake to such an extent that there was 
no overflow of water along the channel which has since been navigated 
by one of the correspondents. ‘The Panama railroad, however, has 
its historian and guide, Dr. F. N. Otis, and around books of the 
