808 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 360. 



engineeriDg, ethnology, forestry, geography, 

 geology, mineralogy, ornithology, paleontology 

 and zoology. Along all these lines the re- 

 searches were energetic and successful; and the 

 more general results are incorporated in the 

 two volumes just issued, and in a series of special 

 memoirs now in the course of publication by 

 the Washington Academy of Sciences, but de- 

 signed for ultimate reissue in volumes supple- 

 mentary to those under notice. These volumes 

 themselves, produced as they were by leading 

 authorities, must form a standard source of 

 knowledge concerning Alaska ; and when the 

 series is completed it will undoubtedly com- 

 mand a high place among the classics of place 

 and country. 



The body of the first volume opens with a 

 narrative of the expedition by John Burroughs ; 

 then follow chapters on the ' Pacific Coast 

 Glaciers,' by John Muir, and on the ' Natives of 

 the Alaska Coast Eegion,' by George Bird 

 Grinnell. The second volume comprises ' The 

 Discovery and Exploration of Alaska,' by 

 William Healey Dall ; ' Days Among Alaska 

 Birds,' by Charles Keeler ; ' Forests of Alaska,' 

 by Bernard E. Fernow ; ' General Geography, ' 

 by Henry Gannett ; ' The Alaska Atmosphere,' 

 by William H. Brewer ; ' Bogoslof, Our Newest 

 Volcano,' by C. Hart Merriam ; 'The Salmon 

 Industry,' by George Bird Grinnell ; and 'Fox 

 Farming in Alaska,' by M. L. Washburn. 

 There is also a preface by Mr. Harriman and 

 an introduction by Dr. Merriam, together with 

 an opening poem by Charles Keeler ; while the 

 work ends (save for the excellent Index) with 

 an efiectivepoem by Dall, captioned ' The Song 

 of the Innuit ' and (somewhat tautologically) 

 listed as 'The Innuit People.' It would be 

 impracticable to abstract the papers prepared 

 by the several contributors ; it must suffice to 

 note that they are, without ei^ception, excel- 

 lent, authoritative, well written, and carefully 

 edited by a participant in the expedition, him- 

 self a recognized authority in scientific matters. 

 Merely as examples, it may be noted that the 

 chapter on glaciers came from the pen of the 

 world's most sympathetic student of ice fields 

 and ice streams ; that the historical chapter 

 was written by the leading authority on Alas- 

 kan exploration ; and that the account of 



Alaskan geography and the accompanying 

 maps were prepared by our foremost practical 

 geographer. The maps, although small, show 

 the general features of the territory satisfacto- 

 rily ; they are, of course, quite up to date, em- 

 bracing the results of all surveys up to 1900, 

 including those of the expedition itself, as well 

 as those of the U. S. Geological Survey and the 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The volumes are especially notable for the 

 beauty and fidelity of the illustrations, most of 

 which were based on photographs. The litho- 

 graph plates have never been excelled in deli- 

 cacy and refinement of both color and forni; 

 many of them are pictorial gems, displaying 

 landscape and waterscape, mountain and valley, 

 flower and foliage, fur and feather, with a faith- 

 fulness seldom sought and never passed. The 

 photogravures are of corresponding excellence ; 

 while the text figures combine artistic quality 

 and graphic fidelity in remarkable degree. The 

 typography, paper and binding are correspond- 

 ingly sumptuous ; so that the book is a thing of 

 beauty as well as an object of utility. 



Perhaps the most serious defect of the work 

 (despite evident 'editorial care, which might 

 well have been more prominently acknowl- 

 edged) is the discontinuity naturally growing 

 out of the multiple authorship ; another defect, 

 which must somewhat discommode librarians 

 and dealers as well as students, is the absence 

 of a definite title. 'Alaska,' indeed, stands out 

 boldly on the title-page in carmine ink, while 

 the publisher's imprint and the expeditionary 

 superimprint and vignette are uniform, but 

 otherwise the title-pages are diverse — and worst 

 of all, the title on the back is not that of the 

 book but that of the expedition, ™. _ __ 



The Protozoa. By GARY N. Calkins, Ph.D. 



Columbia University Biological Series, Vol. 



VI. New York, Macmillan Co. Price, |3. 



It is no easy task to compress into a volume 

 of scarcely more than 300 pages a resume of 

 even the more important facts and theories re- 

 lating to a large group of organisms like the 

 Protozoa. The difficulty of the task is appar- 

 ent when one stops to consider that the very 

 position of the Protozoa in the animal kingdom 

 has of necessity enveloped them in a nimbus of 



