March 25, 1887] 



scmjsrcE. 



287 



the annual of the French Alpine club for 1884. 

 Mr. de Margerie, whose studies of our recent 

 geological literature have done much to make it 

 known in France, a few years ago prepared re- 

 views of Captain Button's monograph of the 

 Colorado Canon, and published them in the bul- 

 letin of the French geological society as well as 

 in the annual of the Alpine club, inciting thereby 

 the preparation of an admirable view of a great 

 'cirque' in the Pyrenees by Mr. Schrader, a fellow 

 club-member. " Shall it be," says Schrader, 

 "that the canon of the Colorado, so far away, 

 becomes better known in France than the Cotua- 

 tero, on the very frontier of the country?" 

 Doubtless the dimensions of the American plateau 

 and canon are greater than those of the massive 

 Cotuatero and cirque in the Pyrenees, but the 

 latter have the advantage in rising from a forest- 

 clad base to a snow-crowned summit. The colored 

 plate illustrating the Cotuatero is a thoroughly 

 artistic and appreciative work, and it is grateful 

 to find that the illustrations in our survey reports 

 have been instrumental in securing its publication, 

 and in bringing it before an interested circle of the 

 French public. 



These European Alpine clubs are producing a 

 valuable literature of their own. They have, to 

 be sure, the advantage of high snow-mountains 

 that tempt travel and climbing; their membership 

 is large, with many sectional meetings and excur- 

 sions; and their treasuries are correspondingly well 

 supplied, enabling them to publish selected ma- 

 terial in well-illustrated annual volumes. The 

 English Alpine club is more conservative than 

 most of the others in these respects, as its matter 

 is largely composed of narratives such as its adven- 

 turous members can well contribute, not only from 

 the Alps, but from the Caucasus, the Himalaya, 

 New Zealand, and the Andes, where they now 

 seek new fields, taking trained Swiss guides with 

 them. The Swiss club holds closely to its own 

 country, but gives a good share of attention to 

 scientific matters in its line, as well as to narra- 

 tives and descriptions. Forel reports, for exam- 

 ple, on the oscillations of glaciers ; and our sum- 

 mer travellers will be glad to see from his dia- 

 gram that the recession of the ice, that lately 

 threatened seriously to diminish one of the main 

 attractions of the Alps, reached its maximum 

 about 1876, and is now followed by a well-marked 

 advance. Long panoramic views from mountain- 

 summits make a characteristic feature of these 



volumes, an annual bibliography of Alpine litera- 

 ture adds much to their value, and an index lately 

 prepared for the first twenty volumes greatly in- 

 creases their utility. The first volume is unfor- 

 tunately extremely rare, as is the case in several 

 other clubs; and a republication of the early num- 

 bers, such as has been lately done by our active 

 Appalachian mountain club, would give general 

 satisfaction. 



The German-Austrian club is a union of two 

 originally independent societies, and has a very 

 large membership. Under its auspices an excel- 

 lent ' Guide to scientific observation on Alpine 

 journeys ' was published a few years ago, and is by 

 far the best book of its kind. The annual of the 

 French club is naturally more vivacious than any 

 of these others. Its articles are attractively writ- 

 ten, and many of the woodcuts are extremely 

 good. Scientific papers have a good showing, 

 though lacking the systematic sequence of those in 

 the Swiss ' Jahrbuch.' Some of the narratives have 

 so little to do with Alpine matters that the annual 

 might almost be called a geographic journal. 

 Deep-sea exploration is introduced under the title 

 of 'Les montagnes de le mer,' and Janssen de- 

 scribes his astronomical voyage in the Pacific to 

 the Caroline Islands, any thing but a mountainous 

 isle, for the solar eclipse of 1883. But to make up 

 for this, one member climbs and photographs 

 Popocatapetl, and another visits the volcanoes of 

 Java, bringing home a well-illustrated account of 

 his travels. The Alps naturally have most atten- 

 tion, but the Pyrenees come in for a good share, 

 and much information of this comparatively little- 

 known range is to be found in these attractive vol- 

 umes. It is indeed regrettable that our White 

 Mountains have not the few thousand additional 

 feet of elevation that would cover their summits 

 with snow and fill their valleys with glaciers, to 

 the admiration of all. 



A BECENT BULLETIN of the U. S. fish commis- 

 sion states that the total distribution of shad fry for 

 the season of 1886 amounted to 90,000,000. As 

 the entire number of shad taken for the market 

 is less than 6,000,000, it will be seen, that, for 

 every shad taken from the waters this season, 

 there have been artificially hatched and returned 

 to the waters fifteen young shad. Assuming that 

 the entire cost of production and distribution has 

 been $20,000, the young fish have been produced 

 and distributed over the entire United States at a 



