Be SCIEN Gis: 
Permian to Juratriassic times. For the former we are as 
yet poorly off for data, especially in Algonkian times; for 
lower Cambrian I send the student to Walcott’s map in 
Bulletin No. 61 of the United States Survey, showing 
the occurrence of lower, middle and upper Cambrian 
deposits at various points; or better reproduce the map 
and show on it at the same time the Archean exposures, 
so that it may be evident in what basin or valley each 
Cambrian section lies; then the mapping of the continent, 
first in earlier Cambrian and then in later Cambrian 
times, presents a very instructive picture to the mind’s 
eye of the waters returning from their long retreat, 
after Algonkian times, into the ocean basins and gradually 
encroaching upon the continent, first filling the valleys 
along the borders, and finally invading the heart of the 
continent itself. The retirement of the waters in later 
Carboniferous and Permian times is an equally interesting 
spectacle. 
Nor is the mere mapping of the land and water all that 
can be done. ‘The question will arise as to what sort of a 
land it was: was it level or mountainous? How high did 
the Rocky Mountain islands and other lands rise above 
the sea? Such questions can be answered approximately 
at least by a study of the sections if they are carefully 
drawn. ‘The student will discover, for instance, that the 
Archean rocks of Nevada towered up high enough not to 
be submerged by the 30,000 feet or more of Paleozoic 
sediments that were deposited in the valleys to the east- 
ward; in other words that mountains higher than any now 
existing lie buried under the modern Sierras. The student 
may represent these on his Paleozoic maps and indicate 
their gradually decreasing height from period to period. 
Something, also, can be done at locating the old 
drainage systems of these early continents. In many 
cases it will evidently be safe to infer that the modern 
rivers are in the same old channels, especially in driftless 
regions; in other cases the pre-glacial history of rivers 
has been made out; a map of the pre-glacial drainage of 
the great lake region, like that in the American Geologist 
for Feb., r891, for example, may be reproduced and hung 
on the wall, where it may be used in locating the probable 
course of the rivers of that region, in the various periods 
with which the class has to deal. 
I wish that some one who is competent to do it would 
give us a handbook of elementary geology, which should 
consist largely in the presentation, by means of maps, 
sections, rock columns, tables and text, of such facts as 
the student could use in developing by laboratory methods 
his own ‘‘ geological story briefly told.” 
THE BASIS OF SPELLING REFORM. 
BY A. MELVILLE BALL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Many efforts have been made, and renewed from time 
to time, to correct the anomalies of English spelling; 
but, for the most part, these efforts have been resultless, 
except to intensify the prevailing sense of needed 
amendment. Strangely enough, the first requisite for 
any improvement in spelling has generally been lost sight 
of—namely the improvement of the ALPHABET. We 
have to write g, we have to write 7, we have to write », 
we have to write s, we have to write 7, in thousands of 
cases where there is no g, #, 7, s, or ¢ to be pronounced. 
On account of a defective alphabet we are compelled to 
use unsounded letters to denote unrepresented sounds. 
For example, the consonant in the syllable zg has neither 
m nor g in its sound; the consonant in the syllable 7s/ has 
neither s nor / in its sound; the consonants in the words 
oath and they have neither ¢ nor /# in their sounds; and 
these two sounds,—while as different from each other as 
sand z, f and v, p and ,—are both denoted by the same 
Vol. XXIII. No. 576 
letters, #2. With such glaring defects in the alphabet, any 
attempt to improve orthography by merely dropping 
redundant letters is but trifling with the subject. A 
workman must have appropriate tools, yet we expect our 
literary workman to dispense with a large proportion of 
his most necessary implements, and to spell forty sounds 
with little more than’ half that number of letters. We 
must commence our spelling reform by providing the 
means of writing our unrepresented sounds. — Of these 
there are SIX, among consonants, as heard in the words- 
sing, wish, pleasure, oath, they, why. 
When we shall have furnished the alphabet with repre- 
sentative letters for these elementary sounds it will be 
time enough to attend to the minor discrepancies in the 
writing of vowels. All the amendment that can be hoped 
for in the latter respect—without multiplication of new 
letters—will be brought about by the application of one 
rule, namely: Omit ALL PHONETICALLY DISPENSABLE, OR 
SILENT, LETTERS. ‘This rule will, without specific detail, 
take a from head; e from have and give; ¢ from friend; 
o from feoff and people; u from build, etc. The rule has 
thus the advantage of simplicity and comprehensiveness, 
so that it may well take the place of the twenty-four rules 
of the philological societies, which only amount to the 
same precept ‘‘ writ large.” 
Of the two classes of faults in spelling—deficiency and 
redundancy of letters—the former is by far the more 
serious and should be first rectified. Redundancies can 
be dropped at any time. 
The one only drawback that can be urged against 
extension of the alphabet is that printers will require six 
additional types. But this objection is neutralized by the 
consideration that the trifling expense of additional types 
will be largely offset by the working economy of making 
six letters do the present duty of twelve. 
The new consonant letters may be so designed that 
they will make but little alteration in the aspect of words, 
and so will be intelligible at a glance to every reader. 
The suggested forms introduced in WorLD-ENGLISH 
exemplify this fact, but in that system every word is 
made phonetic for ‘‘ World” use. The present proposal 
limits inaugural improvement to the provision of letters 
for unrepresented sounds. Other improvements may 
safely be left to work themselves out by degrees, but 
there can be no radical improvement in spelling while we 
lack letters to represent one-fourth of the consonants in 
our language. 
The attention of Congress has recently been again 
called to this subject; therefore the movement is oppor- 
tune for its discussion. Let America take the initiatory 
step, and Great Britain and the English-speaking world 
will follow. * The ‘‘ initiatory step”’ will consist simply in 
an enactment that the Public Printer shall henceforth use 
prescribed forms of single letters to represent the six 
simple sounds enumerated above; and that he shall dis- 
continue the use of the double letters now employed for 
the same purpose. 
This is the true basis of SPELLING REFORM. 
—Sydney H. Vines, Fellow of Magdalen and Sherardian 
Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford, is about 
to issue a ‘‘Student’s Text-book of Botany,” based upon 
Professor Prantl’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch der Botanik,” but with the 
scope of the work so extended that, while retaining all 
that has made it of value to beginners, it will be more use- 
ful to those engaged in advanced study. The number of 
pages has been doubled by additions to all four parts of 
the book, but more especially to Part III., dealing with the 
classification of plants. |The whole book, moreover, has 
been so revised as to render the present essentially a new 
and distinct work. = 
