GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 



Rand- McNally War Atlas, with Marginal Index. Pp. 16. Chicago and 

 New York : Rand, McNally & Co. 1898. 25 cents. 



Bulletin of the Department of Labor. No. 16. May, 1898. Pp. 216. 

 Washington, 1898. 



Statistical Abstract of the United States. 1897. Twentieth Number. Pre- 

 pared by the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department. Pp. xii -f- 412. 

 Washington, 1398. 



It was surely a happy thought on the part of Rand, McNally & Co. to 

 select from one of their high-priced atlases a series of maps of those por- 

 tions of the world to which public attention is being directed in connection 

 with the war with Spain, and to place them within the reach of every one 

 by binding them up together for sale at 25 cents. The atlas is everything 

 that can be desired, in its way. It is marvelously cheap, and cannot fail 

 to have an enormous sale. 



The May bulletin of the Department of Labor is largely devoted to a 

 report on The Alaskan Gold Fields and the Opportunities they offer for 

 Capital and Labor, by Mr Sam. C. Dunham, a special agent who was sent 

 out to the Klondike by the Commissioner of Labor in July last. The re- 

 port is accompanied by maps and illustrations and contains much valuable 

 information. While written in a becomingly dignified style, it is occa- 

 sionally enlivened by a vein of quiet humor, which adds greatly to its 

 readability. Good examples of this are found in the statement : " If a vis- 

 itor to the gulches prefers to ride, he can secure a saddle-horse in Dawson 

 for $60 a day," and in the author's description of the proceedings of tbe 

 improvised courts, the creation of a justice-loving community that has no- 

 regularly constituted judicial system or officers of the law/ 



As a compendium of information relative to the population, finance, 

 commerce, agriculture, mining, railroads and telegraphs, immigration, 

 education, public lands, pensions, postal service, prices of commodities,, 

 shipping, etc., of the United States, the Statistical Abstract has become 

 an absolute necessity, not only to all economic writers and students, but 

 to every one who would keep abreast of the growth of our institutions 

 and the development of our resources as a nation. The Abstract has been 

 almost completely transformed under the direction of Mr Worthington C. 

 Ford, and it is not-easy to see how it could be made more useful, except 

 by increasing its circulation. 



J. H. 



Ninth Annual Report, on the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the 

 year ending June 30, 1896. Prepared by the Statistician to the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission. Pp. 709 and map. Washington, 1897. 



This report follows the same general #lan and presents the same technical 

 excellence that have rendered all the reports prepared by Prof. Henry C_ 



