402 Recent Literature. [April 
high stage of the water and since the final subsidence; and it 
seems that the region of the eastern margin of Lake Bonnevillehas 
recently fallen and is still subsiding. Mr. Gilbert has also 
that a recent fault has taken place along the Wasatch range, notyet 
completed in the rear of Salt Lake city, and that the Wasatch 
range, the greatest mountain mass of Utah, has recently increased 
in height, and is supposed to be still growing. 
The remains of Lake Bonneville is now but a great shallow 
brine pool, and resting on the surface of a broad plain. “Is 
mean depth is scarcely fifteen feet, and only a slight oscillatory 
movement of the plain would be necessary to decant its waters 
into another portion.” It thus appears that the Mormons are & 
posed to the liability not only of losing their lake, but also their 
chief city ! 
HOoPLEY’S SNAKES, CURIOSITIES AND WONDERS OF ipl 
Lire.!—This pleasantly written book ought certainly to cure — 
its many readers of their inherited hatred of snakes. pea 
duction brings out amusingly the confusion of names an oad that 
which prevails among humanity, and the publisher s dread š 
i : kes in his 
he should lose subscribers if he put snakes 1 f these pp 
e 
scribe from the life how snakes feed ; what the tongue restrict tel ; 
how snakes breathe and hiss ; how they climb and pe arrange? | 
prey; and how their teeth and fangs are constructed gr spot 
The author avers that a few years ago she knew Po i 
snakes, and it is this fact, joined with sound Nieto’ speaks 0 
observation, that has enabled her to write a book t uestions # 
those who do not know. When she discusses such K ;" aa 
“Do snakes drink?” “Do they incubate their eer critical 
“Do they afford a refuge to their young?” she ei of het 
examines the opinions of others, but adds obse iow Jamai 
own that seem convincing. For example, the y Ns snake kef 
boa’s method of imbibition, is thus described: joo 
its mouth just below the level of the water, an 
or movement seen was at the back of the head, 
gulps. This is the ‘suction’ which writers € 
in of the liquid; but the lips do not take part m ne 
Catherine C. Nes 
1 Snakes, Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life ew 
, — BY. 
Farran, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, and E. $- 
York, 1882. 
