January 16, 1885. 



SCIENCE 



61 



state university, as it contains the only complete set of 

 the Wisconsin rocks and fossils collected by the State 

 geological survey. The sixth volume of the Transac- 

 tions of the academy is nearly through the press, and 

 will soon be distributed. 



— The ' stately procession ' of quarto volumes issu- 

 ing from the census office has recently been increased ■ 

 by the addition of vols. ix. and x. The former con- 

 sists of the report of Prof. C. S. Sargent upon the 

 forests of North America (exclusive of Mexico).. The 

 six hundred and twelve pages of the report are divided 

 into three parts. Part i., relating to forest-trees, 

 sketches the general distribution of forests and of 

 arborescent species and genera, while the great bulk 

 of the chapter is devoted to an exhaustive descriptive 

 catalogue of the forest-trees of the region. Part ii. 

 treats of the economic qualities of the principal 

 woods, their specific gravity, fuel value, strength, etc. 

 Part iii. is devoted to the lumber industry, treating 

 incidentally, also, of many minor points connected 

 more or less directly therewith, such as forest-fires, 

 the pasturage of woodlands, etc. The maps in the 

 report, of which there are no less than thirty-nine, 

 illustrate the different degrees of density of the dis- 

 tribution of woodland, the distribution of merchant- 

 able timber, and the areas deforested, the extent of 

 forest-fires during the census year, and the character 

 of the fuel used in various parts of the country. 

 The report is accompanied by an atlas of cumbrous 

 size, containing thirteen maps of the United States 

 and of North America, illustrating the distribution 

 of forests in general, and of a number of genera of 

 forest-trees; showing the position of forest, prairie, 

 and treeless regions, and the natural divisions of the 

 North-American forests. Vol. x. contains three 

 monographs bound together: 1°, 'On the production, 

 technology, and uses of petroleum and its products,' 

 by Prof. S. F. Peckham; 2°, 'The manufacture of 

 coke,' by J. D. Weeks; and, 3°, 'Building-stones of 

 the United States, and statistics of the quarry indus- 

 try," by George W. Hawes et al. The report upon 

 petroleum is exceedingly full, comprising three hun- 

 dred and one pages, illustrated by numerous cuts and 

 maps. It is divided into three parts, the first of which 

 relates to the history of the subject, the geology, 

 geography, and chemistry of petroleum, and contains 

 the statistics of production. The second is devoted 

 to the technology of petroleum, and the third to 

 its products and uses. The report upon coke (a 

 hundred and fourteen pages) opens with the statistics 

 of the industry, followed by descriptive matter relat- 

 ing to its extent and importance in the United States 

 and in foreign countries, and closes with the chem- 

 istry and technology of the subject. The report is 

 illustrated by numerous cuts. The report upon 

 quarries and building-stones (four hundred and ten 

 pages) opens with a discussion of general matters 

 pertaining to the subject, followed by chapters upon 

 microscopic structure and chemical composition of 

 building-stones, and the methods used in quarrying. 

 The statistics of the industry follow, accompanied by 

 detailed descriptions of quarry regions. The succeed- 

 ing chapter is devoted to the extent of stone-construc- 



tion in the leading cities, in the course of which is 

 found an admirable article upon stone-construction 

 in New- York City, by Prof. A. A. Julien. This well- 

 known authority makes a further contribution to the 

 report in the form of a chapter upon the durability 

 of building-stones in New- York City. The work is 

 illustrated with eighteen heliotype plates from micro- 

 scopic photographs of rock-slides, and thirty-two 

 chromo- lithographs (by Bien & Co.) of polished rock- 

 surfaces. These are among the finest specimens of 

 the lithographic art which have yet been produced in 

 this country. 



— The bark Helen Isabel recently arrived at St. 

 John, N.F. While in latitude 38° 51' north, longitude 

 29° 55' west, Dec. 18, a terrific earthquake was ex- 

 perienced, lasting fifteen minutes. The submarine 

 roaring was appalling, and the vessel was shaken in 

 every fibre. The weather was calm and fine at the 

 time. This is of interest in connection with the 

 recent earthquakes in Spain. 



— The commander of the British steamship Bul- 

 garian reports that on Dec. 29, in latitude 49° north, 

 longitude 34° 30' west, at two p.m., while the sea was 

 smooth and the wind moderate from south and west, 

 he ran through a regular bore. The water boiled 

 and seethed. The surface of the bore was about two 

 feet above the general level of the ocean, and its ex- 

 tent about six miles long and from three to five miles 

 wide, moving to the north-east. This is a very un- 

 usual phenomenon for such a place. 



— In a report by the committee on the metric sys- 

 tem of weights and measures, of the Boston society 

 of civil engineers, attention is called to a number of 

 instances in which the metric system is now used in 

 this country. A number of makers of surveyors' 

 tapes now graduate them on the metric system, as 

 well as in feet and inches. About the only case re- 

 ported of the introduction of the system for trade 

 purposes is that of the Minneapolis flour-mills, which 

 put up flour in bags containing fifty and a hundred 

 kilos, for export to Europe. 



— A Journal of mycology is announced by W. A. 

 Kellerman of Manhattan, Kan., under the charge 

 of J. B. Ellis of Newfield, N.J., and W. A. Keller- 

 man, as editors. It is proposed to make the journal 

 a monthly of from twelve to fifteen pages. It is to 

 be hoped that the undertaking may prove successful; 

 but it is very doubtful whether there can be need for 

 so special a journal, when we consider that it will be 

 supported solely by American students. 



— We have received a copy of an interesting statis- 

 tical pamphlet, "Die stundenplane fur gymnasien, 

 realgymnasien und lateinlose realschulen in den be- 

 deutendsten staaten Deutschlands, zusammengestellt 

 von G. Uhlig" (Heidelberg, Winter, 1884). The tabu- 

 lar views of each group of schools are first separately 

 given ; summaries compare in tables the number of 

 hours given to each topic in the schools of the vari- 

 ous states of the German empire ; and seventeen 

 closely printed pages of resultate discuss these statis- 

 tics with great completeness, and yet with great con- 

 densation. It will be seen that we have here an 



