.384 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and California, to take and preserve the 

 ancient archives of those provinces, rich in documents and well preserved till 

 then. Where are they now? Our government took no steps to preserve them 

 at all; it left everything to decay and destruction, and in New Mexico, as though 

 theft and carelessness did not work quick enough, one of the wretched beings 

 sent there as governors actually sold great quantities of the ancient archives for 

 waste-paper, destroying documents that can never be replaced. 



Mr. Collet's noble volume will after great toil and labor bring together much 

 relating to the early history of Upper Louisiana, and the public will owe him a 

 great debt which I hope it will appreciate, I shall not only be among the sub 

 scribers for the " Historical Record," but shall take occasion to call the attention 

 •of scholars to the work to add a few more. 



John Gilmary Shea. 



The work will be printed in first-class style and as the edition will be limited 

 'to 500 copies, subscriptions should be sent in without delay. 



F. F. H. 



OTHER PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Report of the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army, for 1879; Report of the U. 

 S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries, for 1879; Humboldt Library, No. 36, 

 Lectures on Evolution, by Thomas H. Huxley, 15c; The Consulting Engineer of 

 Canada, Vol. I, No. i, monthly, Toronto, $1.00; Washington University, 25th 

 Anniversary, An Address by Chancellor W. G. Eliot; Knowledge, Part X, Vol. 

 II, London, edited by Prof. R. A. Proctor, Weekly, los. lod. per annum; 

 Report on the Character of 600 Tornadoes, John P. Finley, Signal Corps, U. S. 

 A.; The Poultry Review and Stock Journal, Monthly, Washington, D". C, $1.00 

 ;per annum. Annual Report of the Kansas City Public Schools, 1881-2, Prof. J. 

 M. Greenwood. 



SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. 



— A 



- SOME RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MECHANIC ARTS. 



BY F. B. BROCK, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Novel Steamship. — In the construction of this improved steamship the hull 

 is made to curve inwardly above the water-line, and an elevated cabin is support- 

 ed above and is of less width than the hull, whereby the waves are caused to act 

 with less force upon the vessel, and the tendency to tip or roll is diminished. 



