420 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



aspects, both as regards the general town supply and also in reference to 

 individual household filtration. The physical forces and forms with which 

 we have to reckon are next considered under Rain, Ice, Snow, and River 

 and Stream Water. In these chapters are considered the importance of a 

 pure ice supply, the influence of forests on rainfall, and the proper care of 

 a watershed. The care and purification of stored water is next discussed, 

 such questions as the preparation of reservoir bottoms, growth of algae in 

 stored water, covered reservoirs, and lake water being taken up. The im- 

 portant and much-disputed questions relating to ground water receive 

 attention in chapter eight. Among the subtitles we find : Contamination 

 by Privy Vaults, Testing Wells for Possible Contamination, Viability of 

 Cholera and Typhoid Germs in Soil. The reliance to be placed upon Puri- 

 fication by Filtration through Soil, Deep-seated Water, including the driv- 

 ing of artesian wells, and related questions are next discussed. Then come 

 two long chapters on the chemical and bacteriological examination of 

 water, the quantity of per capita daily supply, and the very important 

 question of the action of water on metals, especially its corrosion, and 

 solution of iron and lead pipes, form the subject-matter of the two final 

 chapters. 



The book seems to be the result of much careful work, is up to date, not 

 technical, and fairly comprehensive. It should be owned by local alder- 

 men and trustees, and in fact every city official whose judgment may be 

 called upon in deciding questions relating to public sanitation and water 

 supply ; even the average householder will find much of value and interest 

 in it, and for the modern engineer and physician it seems quite an essential 

 part of his library. Illustrations are numerous and well chosen. 



GENERAL NOTICES. 



The chapter in American history relat- 

 ing to the cowboy, says the editor of The 

 Story of the West Series, introducing Mr. 

 Hough's account of that singular character 

 of the plains,* " demands preservation for 

 reasons aesthetic and practical alike." It 

 concerns a feature of American life that is 

 passing away has, in fact, almost passed 

 away never to be seen again. The story 

 has found a competent teller in Mr. Hough, 

 who is familiar with the cowboy's life and 

 knows how to present its most salient fea- 

 tures in their legitimate prominence. His 

 book is remarkably vivacious and full of 

 incident, and his accounts are picturesque, 

 without his having ever found it necessary 

 to exaggerate or descend to vulgar sensa- 

 tionalism. While the cowboy's life has, 

 as the editor well says, been subjected to 

 literary abuse, literary justice is done it in 



* The Story of the Cowboy. By E. Hough. 

 (Story of the West Series.) New York : D. Ap- 

 pleton and Company. Pp. 349. Price, $1.50. 



this story, which treats it soberly and dis- 

 passionately without detracting from the 

 raciness which " indolent and unscrupulous 

 pens " have sought to impart to it by inven- 

 tion. First is presented to the reader " the 

 long range," or the cattle trail from the 

 south to the north, on which so many herds 

 were driven twenty years ago in search of 

 the fattening grasses of the north, how it 

 was opened and how developed ; then the 

 cattle ranch, in the south and in the north ; 

 the cowboy's outfit and his horse, the marks 

 and brands that were put on cattle, the rules 

 or customs that grew up or were enacted 

 concerning the use of grass and access to 

 water ; the occupations and incidents of the 

 cowboy's business of tending cattle, de- 

 scribed in several chapters ; " society in the 

 cow country," and the elements that came 

 in to modify or disturb it the " nester " or 

 settler who established farms in the land; 

 the great herders who tried to monopolize 

 the country and fence it in, and the way 



