38 GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



departments. The President's decision is gratifying not only as the final settle- 

 ment of a question into the discussion of which an astonishing amount of feeling 

 and even some misrepresentation have been imported, but also and especially 

 for the reason that it is founded specifically upon the fact that Puerto Rico is 

 the form in local use, thus sustaining that important feature of the policy of 

 the board which makes local usage the principal factor in the determination of 

 theolHcial spelling of geographic names by the government of the United States. 

 That the odicial form will speedily come into general use can scarcely be doubted. 

 That rich legacy of Spanish names, so euphonious and so fullof meaning, which 

 constitutes a large part of the geographic nomenclature of California and the 

 states and territories of the southwest, has been accepted by the American people 

 MMthout question, as have also the Indian names so common in many jiarts of 

 the country. There is no demand for nor tendency toward the simplification 

 of names far more dithcult, b(jth as to spelling and pronunciation, than Puerto 

 Rico, and the proper spelling of the name of our new island possession will un- 

 doubtcdlv comnu'iid itself to the countrv at large. 



J. H. 



GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



HdUHiiiini AiiU'rira : So)iirlIii)iij of its Histori/, Rrsoiirces, (ukI Proi^perls. Yiy Caspar 

 Whitney. Pp. 357, with maps and illustrations. New York and London: 

 Harper A Bros. IS!)!). 

 This is a history of the islands and a ilescription of their present industrial, 

 social, and jjolitical condition, written in an easy, entertaining style, and pro- 

 fusely illustrated with admirable half-tone cuts. It contains five maps, four of 

 which are somewhat detailed charts of the islands. H. G. 



The Neic-boni Cuha. By Franklin ^latthews. Pp. 380. New York and Lon- 

 don : Harper ct Bros. 18!)!). 

 This is the story of the early stages of reconstruction in Cuba, a page of his- 

 tory not yet a year old. It tells of the installation and working of the military 

 government, of the sanitation of the towns, the relief of the starving, and the 

 attitude of the people toward the future. The author sums up his conclusions 

 at the end of the preface as follows: "Cuba's future, it is safe to predict, will 

 reveal ami justify the wise and beneficent acts of the American olficials during 

 the most critical part of American occui)ation, namel^v, its beginning and early 

 growth. . . . Whatever may be the result of later complications, American 

 occupation of Cuba assuredly was starti'd right." The book is beautifully illus- 

 trated with half-tone cuts. H. G. 



Prnclical Exercises in Elementary Meteorohxj}!. By Robert DeCourcy Ward, In- 

 structor in Climatology in Harvard University. Pp. xiii -f 199. Boston : 

 Ginn »<: Comiumy. 1899. ^\.-b. 

 The especial attention of teachers should be called to this important publica- 

 tion, which is simply a manual for their guidance in teaching meteorology in 

 high schools and academies. It is, in fact, an orderly publication of the many 



