July 2, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



31 



XSV. Some Notable Irrigation and Hy- 

 dro-electrical Developments. By C. E. Grun- 

 sky. — Here the actual achievements of irriga- 

 tion referred to in the preceding chapter are 

 the subject matter. The projects of the U. S. 

 Reclamation Service and a large number of 

 private undertakings for irrigation and power 

 are taken into account. No irrigation bonds 

 are offered for sale. 



XXVI. Chemical Resources and Indus- 

 tries. By Harry East Miller. — A review of 

 the chemical industries, based largely on nat- 

 ural mineral and agricultural products. 



XXVII. Mountaineering on the Pacific 

 Coast. By Joseph N. LeConte. — -For the man 

 or woman who accepts no challenge from any 

 ■upturned angle of the earth, this chapter is a 

 suggestion of things to do. 



XXVni. Outdoor Life and the Fine Arts. 

 By John Galen Howard. — A pleasant account 

 of the development of the Forest Theater and 

 Mountain Plays, of the combination of out- 

 of-doors with the drama, to which the western 

 climate has lent the guarantee of success. 



XXIX. Literary Landmarks of the Pacific 

 Coast. By 8. S. Seward, Jr. — Bret Harte, 

 Mark Twain and Stevenson, in passing; Am- 

 brose Bierce (lately discovered by the East), 

 Joaquin Miller, Edwin Markham, Edward 

 Roland Sill, John Muir, Jack London, make 

 a pyramid of " land-marks " of which the cap- 

 stone is only laid when we add the nsime of 

 Gelett Burgess. 



XXX. Legal and Political Development 

 of the Pacific Coast States. By Orrin K. Mc- 

 Murray. — A suggestive account of the de- 

 velopment of the legal code from the unformed 

 code of the miners' camps and frontier civili- 

 zation, a few permanent effects of the Span- 

 ish procedure and a brief sketch of the later 

 history of jurisprudence and its controlling 

 conditions. 



XXXI. Scenic Excursions. By A. 0. 

 Leuschner. — A condensed Baedeker of the out- 

 of-doors to a multitude of delectable spots, 

 with the price per spot. 



The form of the book, 12mo, makes it handy 

 for the pocket, but as for the paper and typog- 



raphy, these meritorious essays must feel 

 strangely indecorous in their black-and-tan 

 dress of fat, round, gray-black type on yellow 

 paper, most unhappily tiring to the eyes. 



John M. Claeke 



Catalogue of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa 



in the British Museum. Vol. III. By G. A. 



BouLENGER. London, 1915. 



It was originally intended to complete the 

 account of the freshwater fishes of Africa in 

 three volumes, but so many new species have 

 accumulated during the progress of the work, 

 that a fourth volume has become necessary. 

 The third volume, now issued, is principally 

 concerned with the Cichlidse, but also includes 

 a number of smaller families. In all, 394 

 species are described, the great majority also 

 figured. No less than 231 of these species have 

 been first described by Dr. Boulenger, whose 

 labors on African fishes far exceed in magni- 

 tude and importance those of any other writer, 

 or perhaps all other writers combined. 



The CichlidsB are of particular interest be- 

 cause of their abundance in Africa and South 

 America, suggesting to some minds a former 

 direct land connection between these conti- 

 nents. In this ease we fortunately have posi- 

 tive evidence of a former more northern dis- 

 tribution, a genus of these fishes (Priscacara) 

 being found in the Eocene of Wyoming. 

 Boulenger recognizes no less than 41 genera of 

 African Cichlidse, all distinct from the 26 

 genera which Eigenmann catalogues for the 

 neotropical region. No less than 21 genera 

 are confined to Lake Tanganyika, so far as the 

 records show. In the large genera Tilapia and 

 Paratilapia we are told that the scales are 

 " cycloid or ctenoid," but there is some con- 

 fusion in the use of these terms, owing to the 

 fact that weak and minute ctenoid structures 

 are overlooked, and the scales pass as cycloid, 

 as for example in Tilapia nilotica. For a cor- 

 rect understanding of the scale-structure of 

 all these genera, the scales must be removed 

 from the fishes and examined microscopically. 



The Cyprinodontidae or Poeciliida present a 

 very different case from that of the Cichlids, 

 having still a northern distribution, and pos- 



