444 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians of historic times or of their 
immediate ancestors. 
It is a valuable work, full of suggestive points fortified by proofs collected' 
from a multiplicity of sources. 
Eighth Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioners of Missouri^ 
8vo.,*pp. 193. State Journal Co., Jefferson City, Mo., 1883. 
This is the report for 1882, made by the Commissioners, Messrs. A. M. 
Sevier, Geo. C. Pratt, and James Harding, who seem to have covered the ground 
very thoroughly. 
When Missouri created this Board only eleven of the States had them ; now 
there are twenty-two such boards, showing that their services have been found 
beneficial. The number of miles of railroad constructed in the State during 1882 
was 260.97, giving a total of 4501.58 in operation at the close of that year. Out 
of 115 counties in Missouri only seventeen were without railroad facilities within 
their borders, and we presume that by this time even that number has been re- 
duced by the construction of the Kansas City & Memphis" Road through the south- 
eastern portion of the State. There are over eighty main lines and branch roads- 
in the Statej operated by twenty-six companies. The net earnings of these roads 
for 1882 were $2,198 per mile of road, or thirty-five per cent of the gross earnings.. 
This report is very full and statistical, and closes with a compilation of the 
laws of the State governing railroads. 
Annual Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1881 : 
Octavo, pp. 839. Government Printing Office, 1883. 
This volume, as usual, consists of the Proceedings of the Board of Regents, 
the Annual Report of the Secretary, Prof. S. F. Baird, the Report of the Execu- 
tive Committee and the General Appendix, comprising a record of recent progress- 
in the principal departments of science, and special memoirs, original and selected,, 
of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Institution, teachers, and 
others engaged in the promotion of knowledge. 
The Astronomical Report is made by Prof. E. S. Holden, Director of the 
Washburn Observatory, Madison, Wisconsin ; that upon Meteorology, by Cleve- 
land Abbe ; Physics and Chemistry, by Prof. George F. Barker, of the University 
of Pennsylvania ; Botany, by Prof. Wm. G. Farlow ; Zoology, by Theodore Gill ; 
Anthropology, by Prof. Otis T. Mason, of Columbian College ; History of Smith- 
sonian Institution Exchanges, by Geo. H. Boehmer. 
The feature of including these reports is an admirable one and gives great 
additional value to the volume. If it could be made possible to publish the 
Report near the close of the same year, instead of two years afterward, it would 
be an improvement that would be most highly appreciated. The Smithsonian Re- 
port is always looked for with eager anticipation and received with warm wel- 
