166 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
excited by the Arege mete = voyage of Professor Nor- 
denskidld, around the north coast of Asia, cannot fail to have 
awakened a desire re further iromnuiee in regard to his eli 
Arctic explorations. This desire will te oh oe by the present 
volume, prepared by Mr. Alex. Lesli Aberdeen. It opens 
with an autobiographical sketch of Profimior Nordenskidéld; then 
follow accounts of the Swedish ie Expeditions of 1858, 1861, 
1864, 1868, 1873, also of the voyage to Greenland in 1870, in 
o the Yenissej in 1875, and again in 1876, and finally a partial 
Gack of the N ethene’ Passage expedition of 1878-1879, in the 
ega. The accounts are intended to be opular, only occasional 
brief references to the scientific results of the expedition being 
introduced, but they are well written and fully illustrated. The 
ook is a valuable addition to the many come stories of Arc- 
tic exploration, and still more is a worthy tribute to one of the 
ablest — who has entered that perilous fie 
3 t of the Magnetic Declination of the United States ; j 
by J. i so LeaRD. Washington, 1879. (U. 8. Coast and Geo- 
detic Survey, Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent.—A endi 
0. 21, Report of 1876.)—This chart of the magnetic dectination 
a. the "Duited States for 1875, by Professor J. E. Hilgard, is 
and under the direction of the General Land Office: The reduc- 
tion of the observations ars a common date has been based on the 
— a Mr. _C, A. ott on ce mgmt variation of the 
e; by Rox ERT Matuet, F.R.S., F.G.S.—Ace ording to the 
latest hypotheses as to the uantity of water on ‘the globe, its 
pressure, if evenly eae would be equal to a barometri¢ 
ean e of 204-74 atmospheres. Accordingly water, when first it 
gan to condense on the ssane of the globe, would condense at 
amuch higher temperature than the — pee 32m ce 
ordinary cireumstan nces. e first rops 0 f water 
cooling surface of the globe may not impossibly have been at ihe 
temperature of molten iron. As the water was precipitated, con- 
densation of the remaining vapor took place at a lower tempera 
tu 
pencree® by solar heat than the present, and the difference of 
temperature between polar and equatorial regions would be 
greater; so that, in the later geological times, ice may have formed 
in the one, while the pier was too hot for animal or vegetable 
life. — Phil. Me ag., Jan., 18 
How to Work with he Microscope. 5th edition, enlarged 
and revised. 518 pp. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1880 (Presley Blak- 
