110 



jsciujsrcu. 



[Vol. rx., No. 209 



mission to report to congress the character and 

 value of the historical and other manuscripts be- 

 longing to the government, and what method and 

 policy should be pursued in regard to editing 

 thena. 



— The Yellowstone park bill was passed by the 

 senate last week. It defines the park boundaries, 

 places it under the exclusive jurisdiction of the 

 United States, and sets the territory apart as a 

 public park and pleasure-ground for the benefit 

 of the people. The secretary of the interior is 

 authorized to make rules for the management and 

 care of the park, and provision is made for a 

 detail of troops to protect its beauties. All hunt- 

 ing of wild animals or birds, except animals dan- 

 gerous to human life, fishing with nets or traps, 

 is prohibited, and violations are punished by fine 

 and imprisonment. The President is to appoint a 

 commissioner, who is to reside in the park, and 

 act as a justice of the peace in placing offenders 

 within the jurisdiction of a district court. 



— One of the most complete and most valuable 

 collections of Indian folk-lore yet published is the 

 volume of ' Indian traditions of north-western 

 Canada' (Traditions Jndiennes du Canada Nord- 

 west), which has just appeared in the series of 

 * Les litteratures populaires de toutes les nations ' 

 (Paris, Maissonneuve Fr^res et Ch. Leclerc). The 

 author, the Eev. Emile Petitot, who was for 

 twenty years a missionary among the tribes of the 

 far north, is well known to scholars by his excel- 

 lent comparative grammar and dictionary of the 

 Dene-DindjiS dialects, and by many other useful 

 works on the philology and ethnography of north- 

 ern America. The present collection is chiefly 

 devoted to the legends and traditions of the far- 

 spread Athabascan tribes — styled DSne-Dind jiS by 

 the author — occupying the vast region between 

 the Eskimo of the northern coasts and the Algon- 

 quin and Dakota tribes of the Red River and Sas- 

 katchewan countries on the south. The stories 

 are given in the bald simplicity of a literal version, 

 with no attempt at literary garnishing, — a fact 

 made clear by the addition, in some cases, of the 

 original, with an interlinear translation. Even in 

 this rude guise, evidence of no small imaginative 

 power is frequently apparent. What is chiefly 

 remarkable is that (with a very few exceptions) 

 these Athabascan legends differ totally, in their 

 incidents and their mythology, from the folk-tales 

 of their neighbors, — the Eskimo on the one side, 

 and the Algonquin and Dakota tribes on the other. 

 The exceptions are in a few of the stories of the 

 more southern tribes, which differ widely from 

 the rest, and are clearly borrowed from the Algon- 

 quin Crees. This distinct character of the Atha- 



bascan legends confirms the fact, which has been 

 noticed by Major Powell and other careful ob- 

 servers, that the Indians of each linguistic family 

 have their own special mythology, different from 

 all others, — a fact certainly of great and far- 

 reaching importance in ethnological science. M. 

 Petitot has some fanciful theories about a connec- 

 tion between the Indians and the ten tribes of 

 Israel, and also — what seems rather inconsistent 

 — about the reference of some of the legends to the 

 glacial era, the change in the earth's axis, and 

 other primeval events. As in the case of that 

 learned and estimable but somewhat visionary 

 writer, the late Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, — 

 of whom our author much reminds us, — readers 

 can accept the valuable facts which he honestly 

 gives them, without troubling themselves about 

 his peculiar hypotheses. 



— Following the monograph on ' Co-operation 

 in a western city,' by Albert Shaw, Ph.D., the 

 American economic association announces the 

 publication of a history of ' Co-operation in New 

 England,' by Edward W. Bemis, Ph.D., to be 

 issued Feb. 5. Dr. Bemis has made a study of 

 co-operation, and this work will be a guide for 

 co-operators, and contain many facts to interest 

 the student of the labor problem. Copies may be 

 had of Dr. Richard T. Ely, secretary, Johns Hop- 

 kins university, Baltimore, Md. 



— Mr. G. W. Hill of the Nautical almanac 

 oflace, Washington, was awarded the gold medal 

 of the Royal astronomical society, at the Deceia- 

 ber meeting, for his laborious and masterly re- 

 searches upon the ' Lunar theory.' 



— The Royal society of New South Wales offers 

 its medal and a money prize for the best commu- 

 nication (provided it be of suflScient merit) con- 

 taining the results of original research or ob- 

 servation upon each of the following subjects : — 

 Series vi. (to be sent in not later than May 1, 

 1887) : No. 30, ' On the silver-ore deposits of New 

 South Wales,' the society's medal and £25 ; No. 

 31, ' Origin and mode of occurrence of gold-bear- 

 ing veins and of the associated minerals,' the 

 society's medal and £35 ; No. 33, 'Influence of 

 the Australian climate in producing modifications 

 of diseases,' the society's medal and £35 : No. 23, 

 'On the Infusoria peculiar to Australia,' the 

 society's medal and £35. Series vii. (to be sent in 

 not later than May 1, 1888) : No. 24, ' Anatomy 

 and life-history of the Echidna and Platypus,' the 

 society's medal and £35 ; No. 35, ' Anatomy and 

 life-history of Mollusca peculiar to Australia,' the 

 society's medal and £35 ; No. 86, ' The chemical 

 composition of the products from the so-called 

 kerosene shale of New South Wales,' the society's 



