2o6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol XV. No. 375 



burnt stones below the surface. There are traces of villages in 

 the country surrounding the fort. The author expresses bis 

 conviction that the fort possesses nothing of a religious nature. 

 A pavement vphich has been found inside may have been 

 used as a place for the war-dances or councils of the tribes 

 assembled in the fort. The author believes that these tribes 

 were in advance of the Shawnees, the Delawares, and others 

 who occupied the territory in 1787. But they did not know 

 the art of smelting, though they used hammered copper and 

 galena. In concluding, the author calls attention to the 

 similarity of the arts of the Mandans and the tribes who in- 

 habited Fort Ancient, and expresses the opinion that they may 

 have been the builders of the works. The book proves to be the 

 result of a very careful and detailed investigation, for which 

 ethnologists will be thankful to the author, even should his 

 theories not find general acceptance. The endeavor, which 

 appears throughout the book, to represent the finds and the 

 methods in which they have been obtained as clearly as pos- 

 sible, which is supported by the excellent illustrations accom- 

 panying the descriptions, gives the work value aside from all 

 theoretical considerations. 



Railroad Engineers' Field-Book and Explorers' Guide. By H. C. 

 Godwin. New York, Wiley. 16°. 



To the many railroad engineers who do not consider themselves 

 expert mathematicians this field-book will prove of exceptional 

 value. It contains, in small compass, every thing that can rea- 

 sonably be sought for in a book of the kind, intended solely for 

 use in the field; leaving those things which pertain to exti-eme 

 accuracy, and which may be rarely needed, for a supplementary 

 or complementary volume, which may be assigned a place with 

 the camp equipage. The idea which prompted the preparation of 

 the volume is good, and we think it has been well worked out. 

 The author has avoided as much as possible the intricacies of 

 mathematics, and at the same time has produced a work of more 

 general application than might have been expected by engineers 

 familiar with books of its kind. 



The book is divided into four principal parts, the first dealing 

 with railroad location, the second witli railroad construction, the 

 third with reconnaissance and exploratory surveys. The fourth 

 is devoted to general information of a miscellaneous but no less 

 useful nature. To these are added an appendix and a set of 

 tables. The book is will adaj)ted to the use of railroad engineers 

 engaged on location and construction work, as well as to the use 

 of the explorer in making exploratory surveys. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



Readers of all classes, young and old. will be glad to know 

 that the Scribners are issuing a new book by Mrs. Frances Hodgson 

 Burnett. It will be entitled " Little Saint Elizabeth, and Other 

 Stories," and is an attractive picture of child-nature. 



— The second volume of Donald G. Mitchell's latest work, 

 '■ English Lands, Letters, etc.," will soon be published by the 

 Scribners. It will contain the author's talks about historical and 

 literary England from the time of Elizabeth to Queen Anne, 

 Shakspeare being the first, and Swift the last, personage of impor- 

 tance who passes under review. 



— A timely article is "Stanley's Emin Pasha Expedition" in 

 LippincotVs for April. A concise biographical account of Emin 

 Pacha is given, and also the reason of Stanley's exioedition, with 

 other information. 



— Mr. Marston, of the London publishing-house of Sampson 

 Low, Marston, & Co., wrote recently from Cairo, where he was 

 in company with Mr. Henry M. Stanley, "Mr. Stanley is devoting 

 absolutely the whole of his time, from early in the morning (some- 

 times as early as 6 o'clock) till late at night, in writing his great 

 book. I have read a good part of the text, and I think I may say, 

 without being accused of puffing, that it is profoundly interesting. 

 I am happy to add that Mr. Stanley was well pleased to learn 

 from me that I had completed satisfactory arrangements for si- 



multaneous publication in France by Messrs. HachettP & Co., in 

 America by Messrs. Scrilmer's Sons, in Germany by Mr. Brock- 

 haus, in Spain by Espara & Co., in Italy by Messrs. Treves, and 

 in Scandinavia by Mr. Mailings." 



— There is an article on " Egypt at Home," by Rev. Dr. W. C. 

 Winslow, vice president of the Egypt Exploration Fund, in the 

 April number of the New England Magazine. It is an account of 

 the Egyptian coUeclion in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the- 

 most important Egyptian collection in America, and is illustrated. 

 The number will also contain a full page portrait of Miss Edwards, 

 from a recent photograph by Sarony, with an article upon her 

 work by Mrs. Sallie Joy White, and several facsimiles of passages 

 from her letters and manuscripts. 



— To Shakspeare students the plan and scope of Dr. Furness's 

 "Variorum Shakspeare" are known, as are the pains, judgment, 

 and critical faculty expended upon them. Each play as it appears 

 brings into one focus all the wealth of a great Shakspearian. 

 library, so arrange'! as to be immediately accessible. "As You 

 Like It," the eighth volume of this splendid edition, will be pub- 

 lished by J. B. Lippincott Company on April 25 The volumes 

 previously issued are " Romeo and Juliet, ' "Hamlet" (two vol- 

 umes), " Macbeth," "King Lear." "Othello," and -'The Merchant 

 of Venice." 



— The publishers of the h'leetrical H^oWd have secured the ser- 

 vices of Dr. Louis Bell, who will in future have editorial control 

 of that enterprising journal. T. C. Martin and Joseph Wetzler, 

 who have heretofore edited the Electrical World, have taken 

 editorial charge of the Electrical Engineer, and that well-known 

 paper will henceforth appear as a weekly. 



— Civil-service reform has a champion in Mr. Oliver T. Mor- 

 ton, who, in a paper called "Some Popular Objections to Civil- 

 Service Reform," which appears in the Atlantic for April, is not 

 afraid to say that the spoils system "is at war with equality, 

 freedom, justice, and a wise economy, and is already a doomed 

 thing fighting extinction. Its establishment was in no sense a 

 popular revolution, but was the work of a self-willed man of 

 stubborn and tyrannical nature, who had enemies to punish and 

 debts to pay." This certainly strikes no uncertain note. The 

 article is divided into sections, each one of which is headed by a 

 paragraph which embodies some objection to the movement. 



— The April issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, pub- 

 lished for Harvard University, will contain articles by President 

 Francis A. Walker on ••Protection and Protectionism," m v^hicb 

 arguments for and against protection are temperately discussed ; 

 by Professor Taussig of Harvard, on the " Silver Situation, its 

 History and its Dangers ;" E. C. Gonner of Liverpool, Eng., on 

 " Ricardo and his Critics;" F. B. Hawley of New York, on 

 "Profits and the Residual Theory;" N. Matthews, jun., of 

 Boston, on the " Taxation of Mortgages in Massachusetts." 

 There will also be notes and memoranda on the law against 

 socialists in Germany, on recent works on finance and political 

 economy, and the usual bibliography. 



— Of the contents of Outing for April, we note " Signaling for 

 Antelope on the Staked Plains,"' by William H. Johnston, jun.; 

 " Wheel and Camera in Normandy," by J. W. Fosdick; " Melton 

 Mowbray ; or. Fox Hunting in the Shires,'" by " Merlin; " " Some 

 Defeats in Tennis," by D. C. Robertson; "Tennis Scores," by 

 William Strunt, jun.; "Bowling for Women," by Margaret Bis- 

 land; and "Yacht Racing in Great Britain," by F. C. Surai- 

 chrast. 



^ The wide-felt interest in the present discussion of the re- 

 vision of the Westminster Confession of Faith has manifested 

 itself in a steadily increasing demand for the recent publications 

 relating to the suliject. The Scribners have brought out a third 

 edition of Dr. Briggs"s •'Whither?" and the pamphlets entitled! 

 " Biblical History," and "Whither? O, Whither?" by Dr. McCosh ; 

 also a new edition of Dr. Schaff's "Creed Revision," with an ap- 

 pendix containing a report of the discussion in the Presbytery of 

 New York. The same publishers are issuing a new contribution 

 to the subject by Dr. Shedd. entitled " The Proposed Revision of 

 the Westminster Standards." 



