82 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 289 



to precede the former, and we believe greater care in its technical 

 execution would have been desirable. As the map is intended t3 

 explain the meaning of hill-shading, the view of the hills r.i ,. 

 the map ought to be clear, and it ought to be possible to co;npare 

 them down to minute details. The fourth plate explains the sys- 

 tem of meridians and parallels and the curvature of the earth's 

 surface. The rest of the maps are well selected, and do not call 

 for any special comment. The maps of the British Isles are very- 

 good. We think, however, that a hypsometric map like No. ii is 

 of no great value for educational purposes, as contour-lines, unaided 

 by hill-shading, do not convey to the child a good idea of the 

 physical features of a country. Considered as a whole, the atlas 

 must be commended as a great improvement upon the ordinary 

 school atlas. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The United States Fish Commission is undertaking an exten- 

 sive series of explorations of the fish fauna of the rivers of the 

 Alleghany region. The work is in charge of Prof. D. S. Jordan, 

 assisted by Prof. P. P. Jenkins, Prof. B. W. Evermann. and Mr. 

 Barton A. Bean. The basins of the James, Kanawha, Roanoke, 

 Holston, French Broad, Yadkin, and Catawba will be included in 

 the work of the present summer. Similar explorations of the 

 smaller lakes of Michigan are under direction of Mr. Charles H. 

 Bollman. 



— The jfourth article in the Railway Series now appearing in 

 Scribner's Magazine will be contributed to the September number 

 by Gen. Horace Porter, who writes of ' Railway Passenger Travel.' 



'The Record of a Human Soul ' is the title of an anonymous 



little book to be published shortly by Longmans, Green, & Co. It 

 is the honest account of the struggle of a sceptic, who ardently but 

 unavailingly desired to believe, from the coming of the doubt until the 

 hour when the doubter at last sees a light in heaven. It is intro- 

 spective and subtle, but not morbid ; its language is simple and 

 direct ; and the record is likely to be useful to not a few who have 

 only the honest doubt in which there may be more faith than in half 

 the creeds. 



— The Canadian Institute, Toronto, Ont., is desirous of collect- 

 ing, and incorporating in its Proceedings, reliable data respecting 

 the political and social institutions, the customs, ceremonies, be- 

 liefs, pursuits, modes of living, habit, exchange, and the devolu- 

 tion of property and office, which obtain among the Indian peoples 

 of the Dominion. It feels that this department of research has not 

 been so fully cultivated in Canada as its importance demands, fears 

 that the opportunity of gathering and carefully testing the neces- 

 sary facts may with the advancing tide of European civilization soon 

 pass away, and is of opinion that much light may be cast upon the 

 genesis and growth of government as well as upon legal, socio- 

 logical, and economic thought by an accurate study of the Indian 

 tribes in their existing conditions and organizations. Contributions 

 to the philology of the Indian tongues, and additions to their folk or 

 myth lore, will be welcomed as heretofore. At the same time the 

 institute begs leave, without desiring to contract the field of obser- 

 vation, to direct attention to the sociological matters. 



— A new process for protecting iron against corrosion, now em- 

 ployed by a company at Port Chester, N.Y., is said to give satsfac- 

 tory results. The company is now manufacturing sanitary soil- 

 pipes treated by this method, which is described by Mr. H. Haupt 

 as foUovys : " After the pipes have been lowered into the retorts by 

 means of a traveller, the retorts are closed for about fifteen minutes 

 until the contents are heated to the proper temperature. Steam 

 from a boiler at sixty pounds pressure is then introduced into the 

 superheater, which it traverses, and from which it escapes at the 

 temperature of the iron, upon which it acts for about one hour. A 

 measured quantity of some hydrocarbon is then admitted with a jet 

 of steam, followed again by a fixing bath of superheated steam, which 

 completes the process." Professor Gesner, the director of the works, 

 says there is no pressure in the retort, and that there are no free ex- 

 plosive gases. The water-seals attached to the retorts show only 

 slight oscillations, but not an inch of pressure ; and when the covers 

 are removed and air admitted there is no explosion, as there always 

 is when free hydrogen or carbonic oxide is present. The absence 



of pressure and of explosive gases is a proof that all the operations 

 have been so nicely regulated as regards material used, quantity, 

 and time of application, that a perfect absorption and union of the 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen with the iron has been effected. 

 The protec'ion thus afforded to the iron is not a mere coating, like 

 paint, but is said to be an actual conversion, to a greater or less, 

 depth, into a new material. When properly treated, this material 

 does not seem to be detachable by pounding, bending, hammering. 

 :• l';!;;, or liealing. Th-.- p j>es treated at Port Chester have been 

 inn.. ■■;ed in baths of i i!i te sulphuric acid and exposed to the 

 salt air for wjiks n^iioit change, while untreated pipes were 

 quicl<ly covered witli le^i o\-idc, or with sulphate of iron. 



LETTERS 'lO THE EDITOR. 

 Re-appearance cf Song-Birds. 



The- appearance of birds is always quite irregular, so far as 

 numbers are concerned, with the possible exception of one or two ■ 

 varieties like the migratory thrush. We will find in any locality 

 that the oriole is very plentiful for a few years, and then compara- 

 tively scarce for a few years. This cannot be mistaken by those 

 on whose gardens he makes his inroads. The absence of gross- 

 beaks and then their great abundance is equally marked. So of 

 nearly all familiar birds. The cause is probably that they range 

 over a large territory, and select different nesting-centres. It is 

 well known that pigeons will cover the sky for two or three springs, 

 moving to a camp in the farther north, and then for years not a 

 pigeon be seen. I believe my catbirds alone have so taken to ■ 

 me that I can always count on their familiar forms and delicious 

 notes. 



The extraordinary abundance of song-birds is no doubt a simple- 

 coincidence or accidental agreement of action on the part of several 

 species. In my own grounds I do not see any such unusual mi- 

 gration ; for the reason, probably, that I have for many years so- 

 protected and fed them, that it is a paradise for birds. Yet it is- 

 true that several sorts of birds are on the increase here ; owing, 

 possibly, to finding their quarters disturbed elsewhere. The line- 

 of migration can be much more easily swerved than the ponderous 

 and slow movements of animals. I think you may be sure that 

 the abundance in some quarters is balanced by the deficit in other 

 quarters. New influences constantly arise, affecting the peace and 

 content of birds. I have all summer been fighting a band of 

 pseudo-scientists ; that is, boys who carry papers permitting them- 

 to shoot our birds to make collections for so-called scientific pur- 

 poses. Before the law to protect our song-birds, no decent 3'oung 

 man would prowl about near our residences to shoot the pets. 

 But now they are 'scientists ; ' and we have no rights to be con-- 

 sidered. They crack their guns under our very noses. But I have 

 vowed to have a lawsuit with every budding Audubon that comes 

 this way, and am at present ahead. 



Now, here is a law that works not at the muzzle, but the but. 

 Its effect is to scatter our birds in their favorite haunts. My 

 grounds cover nine acres only, but several neighbors are in full ac- 

 cord ; and there are full fifty acres of flowers, hedges, and fruit 

 where the song-birds are wonderfully abundant. But how long 

 would they remain with us if one after another fell victims the 

 moment they flew outside our lines .■* Another year we should 

 lament the absence of our birds, and somewhere else people would 

 rejoice in their superabundance. E. P. Powell. 



Clinton, N.Y., Aug. 7. 



The Physical Aspect of the Planet Mars. 



There has been so much said of late, in the newspapers and 

 elsewhere, in regard to the parallel canals of Mars, that perhaps a 

 brief discussion of the facts observed in regard to them may be of 

 interest. And first of all it may be remarked, that, of all the dif- 

 ferent methods of accounting for the appearances observed, perhaps- 

 the least probable is that they are water-canals. 



Let us see what are the facts in the case. According to the ob- 

 servations of Schiaparelli [Rcale Accademia dei Lined 1881 and 

 1886) they lie almost entirely between 50° north and south latitude 

 (that is, in the torrid and warmer portions of the temperate zones), 

 and extend across the continent from the northern to the southern. 



