EDITORIAL NOTES. 
389 
W. H. McAdams, the Alton, 111., geolo- 
gist and archaeologist, is now in Dakota with 
Professor E. D. Cope, exploring the geologi- 
cal formations in quest of new palseontologi- 
cal monsters. He is writing an account of 
his trip to the Alton Telegraph. 
According to the Scientific American, the 
cable railway at the Giessbach in Switzer- 
land is operated by water. On the arrival of 
a car at the upper station it is weighted with 
a sufficient quantity of water from a reser- 
voir, supplied by a spring, to draw up the 
other car ; so that each car alternately acts 
as a motor at a very small cost. This idea 
might be turned to account among the mount- 
ains of our own country, and even, perhaps, 
at Niagara Falls, where at present the trans- 
portation is so expensive. 
The Engineering and Mining Joutnal de- 
scribes an ingenious device near Virginia 
City, by which a Mr. Townshend substitutes 
sand for water in working several arastras. 
He lifts the sand into a reservoir by means of 
an endless chain of buckets, operated by a 
wind-mill, and then lets the sand pour in a 
stream upon an overshot wheel. 
The Revue Lf Ethnographic, published by 
M. le Dr. Hamy, and edited by Ernest 
Leroux, at 28 Rue Bonaparte. Paris, was 
founded in 1882 and has secured a firm foot- 
ing among standard periodicals of the day. 
It is devoted to original memoirs upon eth- 
nological and archaeological subjects; to 
reviews and analyses of books ; to accounts 
of discoveries and of remarkable collections ; 
to bibliography, and to appropriate notes and 
queries. Annual price 30 francs, single num- 
bers 5 francs. It is issued bi-monthly, and 
copiously illustrated. 
Number 48 of the Humboldt Library pre- 
sents " Life in Nature," by James Hinton, 
forty-eight pages, octavo, for 15 cents. This 
■closes the volume, which consists of 600 
pages of valuable popular science literature, 
and can be bought for ^1.50, postpaid. 
At a meeting of the stockholders of the 
Florida Ship Canal and Transit Company, 
on Tuesday, the board of directors was au- 
thorized to make a contract for the construc- 
tion of the canal, the work to be commenced 
at the earliest possible day. The canal will 
probably take the route which The Age of 
Steel pointed out last summer as the most de- 
sirable, both as regards distance and the cost 
of construction per mile. The canal will be 
between 130 aud 140 miles long, 230 feet wide, 
and 30 feet deep. 
Besides the very valuable and interesting 
article upon <' Early Man in America," by 
Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, of which we give 
the greater portion in this issue, the North 
American Review for October contains an arti- 
cle by Prof. C. A. Young, late President of 
the American Association for the advance- 
ment of Science, entitled "Astronomical Col- 
lisions;" a very full discussion of the bi- 
metal question, by Senator N. P. Hill of Col- 
orado ; a most valuable critical historical 
article upon the French Revolution and its 
histories, by Mr. Frederic Harrison; "The 
Saint Patrick Myth," by Moncure D. Con- 
way, etc. An unusually popular number in 
our estimation. 
The American Trade Journal quotes the 
London Morning Advertiser in advocating the 
ship railway system of Captain Eads, with 
Captain Eads to carry it out, in lieu of the 
ship canal of De Lesseps, with De Lesseps 
in charge ; and hopes that such an achievement 
may be added to the list of those already ac- 
complished by him. 
We are indebted to Thos. Pray, Jr., editor 
of Cotton, Wool and Iron, one of the leading 
commercial and mechanical papers of this 
country, published at Boston, for the loan of 
the electrotypes which illustrate the very in- 
teresting article in this number of the Review 
upon '' The Tools of the Pyramid Builders," 
which article is also reprinted from that 
paper, though it was originally written for 
Engineering. 
