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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 916 



in snow-huts and tents, without fires, cheer- 

 fully enduring the most terrible climate imag- 

 inable." They are gradually coming under 

 missionary influences, to their marked benefit. 



It is pleasant to know from such authority 

 that the eskimos of Labrador are living cleanly 

 and under moral conditions, that they have 

 elected elders who control quietly and effec- 

 tively the whole community. Crime is prac- 

 tically unknown, and the success in banish- 

 ing liquor-making is a notable instance of 

 their power of self-government. Most persons 

 will be surprised to learn that in literacy the 

 eskimos of Labrador surpass the people of the 

 United States, for, we are told, every eskimo 

 child above twelve years of age can read and 

 write. Every year an eskimo paper is pub- 

 lished, and from time to time pamphlets, etc., 

 in the native dialect. They are " a kindly, 

 hospitable people, quick to anger and quick 

 to forgive." The Moravian missionaries have 

 wisely urged the continuance of native meth- 

 ods as to dress, customs and food. 



Altogether these two volumes are among the 

 most valuable that have appeared relative to 

 American aborigines in several years. 



A. W. Geeely 



Reminiscences of the Yukon. By the Hon. 



Stratford Tollemache. Longmans, Green 



and Co. Illustrated. $3.50 net. 

 The Conquest of the Great Northwest. By 



Agnes C. Laut. New ed. 2 vols, in one. 



Moffat, Yard and Co. 



The new and cheaper edition of the " Con- 

 quest of the Great Northwest " will be most 

 acceptable to the many desirous of possessing 

 this vividly told story of the Hudson Bay 

 Company, with the preliminary voyages of 

 Henry Hudson, and the rise of the opposition 

 Northwest Company. 



The passing of the Hudson Bay Company, 

 and the supplanting of its fur-trade by the 

 gold-seekers of the Yukon Valley, naturally 

 transformed the economical and human his- 

 tory of northwest arctic America. Well told 

 as it is, few now take special interest in the 

 account of the Klondike rush in 1898, the up- 

 building of Dawson, and the extension of 



gold discoveries in adjacent regions. These 

 events marked an epoch that has been told 

 and retold in many scores of volumes. 



Mr. Tollemache has, however, made a most 

 acceptable addition to life in the Yukon in 

 his reminiscences of eleven years of frontier 

 existence. His experiences on the Pelly and 

 McMillan rivers as a trapper cover a phase of 

 frontier life of which little has been published. 

 His accounts of the methods followed in trap- 

 ping, and remarks on the game of the country 

 — fish, fowl and beast — are contributions to an 

 accurate knowledge of the natural history of 

 the Yukon watershed that will be eagerly 

 read. 



Probably the most interesting chapter in 

 the volume, certainly so to scientists, is that 

 on color protection and big game, though a 

 disappointingly small part is devoted to the 

 color scheme. The account of the Indians is 

 discouraging to the well-wishers of the abo- 

 rigines, but doubtless correct in its general 

 features. The illustrations are of interest in 

 their presenting methods of trapping with 

 which most general readers are unfamiliar. 



A. W. Greelt 



Sewage Disposal. By George W. Fuller. 



New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co. 1912. 



Pp. 767. 



This book is, according to the author's pref- 

 ace, a resume of the progress that has been 

 made in this country during the last quarter 

 century by one who has been intimately as- 

 sociated with the work. No one could be bet- 

 ter qualified to write such a book than Mr. 

 Fuller and no better book on the subject has 

 been written. Its nearly eight hundred pages 

 make a very formidable document, but the 

 dismay of the reader will vanish when he dis- 

 covers that the material is excellently ar- 

 ranged, clearly printed and paragraphed, and 

 well indexed. Brevity has been sacrificed to 

 clearness, and repetition has been employed 

 for the sake of emphasis. The principal 

 reason for the size of the book, however, is 

 that the author has, as he says, drawn fully 

 from the writings of others and from the pro- 

 fessional papers and reports of the firm of 



