362 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 88. 



initiation, and a communion with consecrated 

 cakes of sugar, flour, and butter ; while caste 

 distinctions were positively condemned. 



It is only an exaggeration to say, that ' the 

 language changes every ten miles : ' but two- 

 thirds of the people speak some form of Pun- 

 jabi ; one-fifth, some form of Hindi ; one elev- 

 enth, Sindhi. 



Abstract 63 shows that from 1875 to 1880, 

 inclusive, fifty-six hundred and ten books were 

 published in the Punjab, only two hundred and 

 twenty-seven of which were in English. This 

 suggests what an extensive literature is yet to 

 be brought to the knowledge of western schol- 

 ars. An incidental reference indicates that 

 Punjab pupils learn the multiplication table to 

 one hundred times one hundred. 



The migrations and changes b} T which pres- 

 ent conditions have been reached are treated 

 in considerable detail. 



This volume is a part of the record of the 

 -second effort to gain a complete census of the 

 British dependencies throughout the world, — 

 the first, indeed, which approximated full suc- 

 cess. Its treatment of ethnic religions and 

 social facts adds greatly to the available ma- 

 terial for western sociologists. Mr. Ibbetson 

 thinks the whole of the types of primitive 

 superstitions in Tylor's ' Primitive culture,' so 

 laboriously gathered from forgotten records, 

 could be illustrated in current customs of Pun- 

 jab villages. In the omitted chapters there 

 seems to have been an abstract of the popula- 

 tion of all India, not easily restored b}- one 

 on this side of the globe from diverse provin- 

 cial reports. Abstract 45 gives the number of 

 those in each ten thousand of the people 

 professing each leading religion for each prov- 

 ince of India, and other abstracts give kin- 

 dred ratios to which one is desirous to add 

 particulars. No summary shows the number 

 of castes, nor are marriage statistics given. 

 While superstitions are detailed for days under 

 English names, we look in vain for a hint of 

 the origin of the Indian Sunday. The com- 

 plete report would make good some lack in 

 this volume. The text, however, was pre- 

 pared under great pressure for time, and there 

 is a mass of material in official hands not util- 

 ized. There is such an amount of new infor- 

 mation furnished, that defects of indexing or 

 of arrangement are secondary, even when the 

 printer sets a couple of pages wrong side up, 

 and arranges tables so that one must often 

 turn the book up side down to read sub-titles. 

 There is, unfortunately, no uniformity in the 

 spelling of oriental words bj T English officials. 

 Among peculiar spellings here are Quran (the 



sacred book of Islam), Musalman, Mughal or 

 Mongol, Shekh, and Faqir. 



GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL-HISTORY 

 SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Reports of progress for 1880-82. Alfred R. C. 

 Selwyn, director. Montreal, Dawson, 1883. 

 About 200 p., 12 pi., 9 maps. 8°. 



This volume is one of the reports of prog- 

 ress of the Canada survey. Like all such 

 preliminary reports of survey work, it is of a 

 varied and somewhat scrappy nature. A re- 

 port of progress must, in order to justify its 

 name, have some of the valuable, if not divert- 

 ing, qualities of a log-book. 



There is no record of any final or definitely 

 finished work in this account of varied and 

 important labors. This absence of completed 

 work in any part of the vast field of study 

 before the survey will be apt to increase the 

 friction which it now encounters. There is 

 much to say in favor of the reconnoissance 

 system, when a survey is charged with the 

 exploration of such an imperial wilderness as 

 the Dominion of Canada. Special considera- 

 tions may, and often will, determine the elab- 

 orate study of particular districts ; but the 

 principal work should be, at least for years, the 

 rapid study of the areal geology of the country, 

 including the outlines of its commercial prob- 

 lems. This reconnoissance work seems fairly 

 well carried on by the Canada survey. The 

 reports lack the beauty of finish of the United- 

 States publications ; still, they represent the 

 labor of devoted men, who are wrestling with 

 bad food, swamps, and black flies for the most 

 of their daj^s in the field. 



The first forty-five pages of this volume are 

 occupied by the general report of the director. 

 We note in it, that the notorious weather- 

 prophet, Mr. Venner, who for many years was 

 employed by the geological survey, had sev- 

 ered his connection with it. There is a good 

 deal of tedious, and little valuable, detail in 

 this synopsis of the survey work. Next we 

 have a brief account of the system of geologi- 

 cal nomenclature and map-coloring used by 

 the survey. The s} T stem of coloring is con- 

 venient and sufficiently graphic ; in the nomen- 

 clature, the author feels the need of the divis- 

 ion Cambro-Silurian, a term that is now pretty 

 well fixed in the science. The third paper, 

 also by the director of the survey, is entitled 

 ' Notes on the geology of the south-eastern 

 portion of the Province of Quebec.' This 

 interesting region contains the gold-bearing 



