406 Scientific Intelligence. 



previous experience of the behavior of rivers that one cannot 

 help feeling continuous astonishment at the novel sight. The 

 • monotony which might otherwise have intervened in a ten-days' 

 march-past of ice was continually broken by complete changes in 

 the scene. Sometimes the current was up-stream, sometimes it 

 was down, and occasionally there was no current at all. Fre- 

 quently the pack ice and ice floes were so closely jammed together 

 that there was no apparent difficulty in scrambling across them, 

 and occasionally the river was free from ice for a short time. At 

 other times the river was thinly sprinkled over with ice blocks 

 and little icebergs, which occasionally " calved " as they traveled 

 on, with much commotion and splashing. The phenomenon 

 technically called "calving" is curious, and sometimes quite 

 startling. It takes place when a number of scattered ice blocks 

 are quietly floating down stream. All at once a loud splash is 

 heard as a huge lump of ice rises out of the water, evidently 

 from a considerable depth, like a young whale coming up to 

 breathe, noisily beats back the waves that the sudden upheaval 

 has caused, and rocks to and fro for some time before it finally 

 settles down to its floating level. There can be little doubt that 

 what looks like a comparatively small ice block floating inno- 

 cently along is really the top of a formidable iceberg, the greater 

 part of which is a submerged mass of layers of ice piled one on 

 the top of the Gther, and in many places very imperfectly frozen 

 together. By some accident, perhaps by grounding on a hidden 

 sandbank, perhaps by the water getting between the layers and 

 thawing the few places where they are frozen together, the bot- 

 tom layer becomes detached, escapes to the surface, and loudly 

 asserts its commencement of an independent existence with the 

 commotion in the water which generally proclaims the fact that 

 an iceberg has calved. 



Finally comes the last march-past of the beaten forces of win- 

 ter, the ragtag and bobtail of the great Arctic army that comes 

 straggling down the river when the campaign is all over — worn 

 and weather-beaten little icebergs, dirty ice floes that look like 

 floating sandbanks, and straggling pack ice in the last stages of 

 consumption that looks strangely out of place under a burning 

 sun between banks gay with the gayest flowers, amidst the buzz 

 of mosquitoes, the music of song birds, and the harsh cries of 

 gulls, divers, ducks, and sandpipers of various species." — 

 Geograph. Journal, Oct., 1893. 



2. An Elementary Treatise on Analytical Geometry ; by 

 W. J. Johnson, M.A. pp. 425, 8vo, 1893 (Macmillan and Co., 

 London and New York.) — This volume is stated to be based upon, 

 and designed as an introduction to, Salmon's well know mathemati- 

 cal series. For this purpose we are inclined to regard Salmon's 

 conic sections as preferable ; but the book will be acceptable to 

 such as desire a limited course, selected paragraphs being marked 

 out for their use accompanied by copious exercises. 



