700 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



a railroad from Cairo, Egypt, through Port Said and Damascus to connect with 

 the Euphrates Valley Railway, about to be built by an English company. Branch 

 roads and extensions are also provided for by the charter. The Turkish govern- 

 ment has been applied to for a concession of the necessory right of way. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



The Younger Edda. By Rasmus B. Anderson. Crown 8 vo., 302 pp. S. C. 



Griggs & Co , Chicago; 1880. $2.00. 



The Older Edda was written in verse, and has been styled the mother of 

 Scandinavian poetry. The Younger Edda is a collection, in prose, of the myths 

 of the gods, and of explanations of the types and metres of the Pagan poetry of 

 the Northland, and may be regarded as a completion of and commentary upon the 

 Older. It is doubtless a compilation of the works of several authors, though com- 

 monly credited to Snorro Sturleson alone. The volume before us is a translation 

 by Prof. Anderson, of the University of Wisconsin, and bears the marks of his al- 

 most unequaled knowledge of the Scandinavian languages, as well as of his exceed- 

 ing fitness for the task of rendering into readable English this quaint compendium 

 of Jewish, Christian, Greek, Pagan, Roman and Icelandic legends concerning the 

 origin of the world, the history of the Scandinavian mythology, etc. It is more 

 complete than any other English or German translation, and gives to the lover of 

 antiquities the most complete and succinct idea of the ancient Teutonic faiths and 

 beliefs, yet published. To such readers this work will have a powerful interest, 

 while to nearly all, the explanatory introduction, copious notes and full index 

 will render it interesting and attractive. 



Notes on Railroad Accidents. By Charles Francis Adams, Jr. G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, New York. 12 mo., 280 pp. For sale by the Kansas City 

 Book and News Company. $1.25. 



While the bulk of this work is made up of accounts of various railroad disas- 

 ters occurring within the past fifty years in this country and Europe, a good 

 portion of it is devoted to bringing before the public in this practical and forcible 

 way, the advantage of the Miller Platform and Buffer, the Westinghouse Brake, 

 and the Interlocking and Electric Signal Systems. 



Mr. Adams was, for ten years, one of the railroad commissioners of Massa- 

 chusetts, and as such, necessarily became familiar with the causes and results of 

 railroad accidents of most kinds, an i naturally gave much attention to remedies 

 and preventions. The work is written in narrative style and possesses far more 

 attractions to the general reader than the subject would suggest. 



It is probably the only compilation of the kind published, and, if for no oth- 



