1 882.] Recent Literature. 899 



most celebrated professors of the various sciences, with M. H. 

 Milne-Edwards for president, Messrs. Faye and Wurtz for vice- 

 presidents. 



This review will contain not only the reports of the monthly 

 proceedings of the committee, but also summary analyses, or at 

 least notices relative to all the most important scientific works 

 published in France or abroad. 



As evidenced by the issue of 1S81, this review will prove valu- 

 able to students in every department of science ; the notices are 

 often very full, amounting to a condensation of the work reviewed ; 

 no branch is neglected, and the list of names upon the committee 

 is sufficient guarantee for the excellence of the work. 



Hovey's Celebrated American Caves. 1 — This work contains 

 a full and well-written popular account of several of the principal 

 caves of the United States, including Mammoth, Wyandot, Luray, 

 Weyer's, Howe's, etc. Much space is devoted to the Mammoth, 

 which holds its own as by far the largest, grandest and longest of 

 the series of water-worn passages and domes in the limestone 

 strata that has vet been explored. Its known avenues amount to 

 223, and their length equals 150 miles, though much ot this is 

 not entered by visitors. The reader is conducted through fairy 

 grottoes and gothic arcades, among labyrinths and over bottom- 

 less pits, until finally he emerges bewildered by the multiplicity 

 and strangeness of the objects to be seen, and enriched by much 

 information respecting the history and scientific aspects of the 



Wyandot cave, Indiana, has twenty-three and a half miles of 

 explored avenues and contains domes and stalactitic formations 

 that equal in beauty those of its larger rival. Weyer's, in the 

 Shenandoah valley, would be considered a wonderful cave, were 

 it not for the fairy scenes offered by the newer and neighboring 



These caves are but the largest known out of thousands that 

 stud the limestone regions of Kentucky, Virginia and Indiana, 

 proofs of the power of water, impregnated with carbonic acid, in 

 wearing away the solid rock to the drainage level. In this region 

 every hill has its face grooved and furrowed, and thejsmall 

 streams disappear down sink-holes 

 gather together and reappear at the 

 springs or small rivers. 



The fauna of the Mammoth cave, with its thirty. six species is 

 rich compared with that of Luray. which cons.st only of a ew 

 bats, rats, spidrrs, SI s and a singlo myriopod .S nf^us ivlutci). 

 The curious M, ; , ' mi Us H,,vcy, occurs also in this cave. 



* Celebrated Ameriran Caverns especially M™<nh. Wyandot and Luray, to- 



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";'"t hn.N. l!y Horacf. C. IIovkv. W'.wi m.u- an! iwii-n.mom. 



