^34 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 249 



While in 1883 and 1884 a great number of flat icebergs, most of 

 which were the scattered remains of one enormous berg, filled the 

 Sound and the neighboring parts of Davis Strait, this form was not 

 observed during the last years ; all bergs, with one single exception, 

 being very high and pointed. 



The ice-chart of Cumberland Sound, which accompanies these 

 notes, has been compiled from observations made by F. Boas in 

 the winter of 1S83-84, and from reports of American and Scot- 

 tish whalers. The edge of the floe as indicated on the map shows 

 the greatest extent of the ice in each year, which is attained about 

 the end of February. Besides this, the water-holes, which are kept 

 open throughout the winter by swift-running tides, are indicated on 

 the map, and so are the places where the ice is worn through by 

 the currents in March and April. 



British Columbia. — Dr. G. M. Dawson has kindly sent us a 

 more detailed account of his work in British Columbia. Leaving 

 Victoria early in May, the expedition reached Fort Wrangel, from 

 which point they proceeded up the Stikine River to Cassian. The 

 expedition consisted of two branches. Dr. Dawson leading the geo- 

 logical department, while Mr. W. Ogilvie made an instrumental 

 survey of the country, on behalf of the Dominion Land Office. His 

 surveys extend from the seacoast by way of the Lewis River, up the 

 Yukon to the 141st meridian, which constitutes the eastern bound- 

 ary of Alaska, and his measurements will serve as a basis for 

 further work in the district. The object of Dr. Dawson's researches 

 was a thorough exploration of the tributaries of the upper Yukon. 

 Messrs. R. G. McConnell and James McEvoy were his special as- 

 sistants. His party proceeded up the Stikine River as far as Dease 

 Lake, where they built three boats. As soon as the ice broke up 

 and left the lake, which was on the i8th of June, later than it ever 

 has been known, they went down the Dease River and into the 

 forks of the Dease and Liard Rivers. Here Mr. McConnell sepa- 

 rated from the rest of the party for the purpose of descending and 

 surveying the Liard and the Mackenzie Rivers. Dawson went 

 up the Liard and Frances Rivers to Francis Lake, which drains 

 into the Liard, and not into the Pelly River, as shown in most 

 maps of that country. From Francis Lake, the party crossed a 

 difficult portage of about fifty miles to the Pelly River. From here 

 Dawson sent back the five Indians who had accompanied him from 

 the coast, and then proceeded down the Pelly River, accompanied 

 by Mr. McEvoy and Messrs. Lewis and Johnston of Victoria, in a 

 small canvas boat which they had built on reaching Pelly River. 

 At the confluence of the Pelly and Lewis Rivers, Mr. Ogilvie and 

 his party were met. After whipsawing the lumber and building 

 another boat for the purpose, the Dawson party ascended the 

 Lewis River, which Mr. Ogilvie had already surveyed instrumen- 

 tally. A geological survey of the country along the Lewis River was 

 made. Then the party crossed the Chilcat portage to the head of 

 Lynn Canal, and came by canoe to Juneau, where, after waiting 

 for a few days, the steamer ' Ancon ' was taken for Victoria. Mr. 

 Ogilvie, in separating from the rest of the party, continued down the 

 Yukon River, prosecuting his survey. He intends wintering on 

 that river, and resuming his work in the spring, continuing it over 

 to the Mackenzie River. He will return next fall to Winnipeg by 

 way of that stream and the Hudson Bay Company's route to 

 Carlton on the Saskatchewan. Mr. McConnell will probably win- 

 ter at Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River, and continue his ex- 

 plorations from that point next summer. 



BOOK -REVIEWS. 

 Our Heredity from God, consisting of Lectiires on Evolution. By 

 E. P. Powell. New York, Appleton. ii". 

 We have not yet recovered from the re-adjustment of the views 

 of life brought about by the new knowledge which the movement 

 of which Darwin is the centre has accumulated. From the very 

 first, the notion of evolution was most strongly opposed, because it 

 was antagonistic to certain widely spread but in no way verified be- 

 liefs. As the facts in favor of a derivative theory became more com- 

 plete and the theory more invincible, a shifting of the ' theologist's ' 

 position took place. Some held that evolution simply described a 

 method, but in no way removed the necessity of an anterior cause ; 

 others attempted a twisted and allegorical interpretation of the 



authoritative beliefs so as to minimize the antagonism between 

 them and the doctrines of evolution ; but in every direction, and 

 without regard to the final outcome, evolution has introduced into 

 ethical discussion a healthy ferment, the fruits of which the next 

 generation will appreciate even more than the ' liberals ' of this. 

 The variability of moral codes and their close interdependence with 

 the environment and thought-habits of different peoples have been 

 emphasized ; and the too dogmatically asserted connection between 

 moral actions and religious rites and beliefs has been broken 

 through. That among the products of this violent fermentation 

 should be found much that is analogous to waste-matter is not 

 striking. Truth-loving disciples of science do not hesitate to admit 

 that some of their over-ardent brethren have overstepped the lines 

 of strict validity in claiming for evolution the solution of many of 

 the vexed world-problems of mankind. The very fact that this 

 aggressive kind of writing has been taken up by the lower ranks of 

 evolutionists, while its leaders have rather acted upon a policy of 

 reserve and awaited developments, makes it easy to admit that one 

 does not always open a book treating the moral aspects of evolution 

 with an anticipation of pleasure or instruction. Mr. Powell's book 

 is both deeply interesting and scientifically valuable. 



' Our Heredity from God ' is a poor title ; not only because the 

 author uses the term ' God ' in an unusual sense, but because the 

 book is really a study of evolution with special reference to its 

 moral and religious bearings. Mr. Powell avows himself a disbe- 

 liever in any personal deity, and is among that ever-increasing body 

 of thinkers who draw their enthusiasm and inspiration from a con- 

 templation of the vastly suggestive generalizations of science, and 

 the deep significance of a natural morality. The author has not 

 inherited this position, but has worked his way to it through a 

 period of traditional sectarianism ; and this leaves its mark in the 

 many references to the biblical cosmogony. It may well be ques- 

 tioned whether it is still worth while antagonizing this biblical ac- 

 count of genesis as though it posed as a scientific explanation 

 (which its truest admirers never claimed). With this exception, 

 Mr. Powell is content to let the facts speak for themselves, simply 

 placing them in such a light that their ethical import may be re- 

 flected, and adding to the exposition a depth of natural feeling that 

 leads to an admiration of the man. Science is certainly not as cold 

 as she is often pictured to be. It is impossible to give even in out- 

 line a sketch of the long and accumulative argument by which 

 the moral beauty and religious satisfaction of the evolutionary 

 aspect of nature is unfolded in Mr. Powell's mind. All that can be 

 done is to cite a few sentences which shall at the same time illus- 

 trate the attractive style and happy suggestiveness that make the 

 pages readable. What Mr. Powell means by the title of his book 

 may perhaps be gathered from these words : " The hypothesis of 

 evolution opens our eyes to the magnificent panorama of an eternal 

 unfolding of relations of life, full of purposive love, which rising 

 from the vast unfathomableness of the sentient universe, at last 

 lifts us as conscious beings near to the heart of the Supreme All in 

 All ; and with Him, and in Him, and by Him, bid us consciously to 

 live, and move, and have our being. This I call our heredity from 

 God. To trace our descent from animal progenitors is but a frac- 

 tion of the problem : the longer sweep of vision beholds an ances- 

 try that embraces all life and all purposive being." 



The author holds that the widest gap is not between man and 

 the animals, but between savage and civilized man : he adores civ- 

 ilization as man's handiwork, and regards as most immoral all 

 that hinders its progress. Many of the notions associated with 

 religious doctrines are thus condemned and fearlessly denounced. 

 The view, however, is broad enough to see in many such beliefs 

 stages of ethical development. They are denounced, not because 

 they never formed an advance step in moral evolution, but because 

 they cease to do so any longer. Contrasting, thus, man's present 

 with his past history, — still epitomized in the early stages of each 

 one of us, — Mr. Powell sees a glorious future, when the develop- 

 ment of ethipal notions, now barely dreamt of, will be wide-spread, 

 in accordance with the sound ethical nature of the universe. 



Among the sentences worth repeating for their own sake are the 

 following ; " Suspension of judgment is another faculty that is steadi- 

 ly becoming the common property of mankind. It is a growing 

 power, under civilization, to hold the mind in hand, to restrain it by 



