256 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 137. 



up over the same line of fracture. Viewed in 

 their totality, they occupy a belt of country 

 which is very long (over four thousand miles) , 

 and relatively narrow. Any one can judge for 

 himself how far this arrangement is linear. 

 Much the same may be said of the whole cir- 

 cuit of the North Pacific. In this volcanic 

 girdle, there are man}^ distinct volcanic areas, 

 and more or less elongated belts ; but the inter- 

 vals between them are wide, and no inter-de- 

 pendence has hitherto been shown to exist. Of 

 course a line can be drawn through them all 

 if it be crooked enough, and makes no note of 

 the enormous gaps and echelons. 



The generalization that volcanoes are near 

 the sea, or in it, has also been overstrained. 

 How far from the sea may a volcano stand, 

 and still be said to be near it? If we say ten 

 miles, then ver}" few land- volcanoes are near 

 the sea. If we say two hundred and fifty miles, 

 then the statement holds good, but is shorn of 

 a large part of its meaning. The reader must 

 judge for himself whether a point a hundred 

 and twenty miles or more from the sea is 

 ' near ' it ; and the great volcanoes of North 

 and South America are, on an average, about 

 that distance from the ocean. Even in this 

 qualified sense, the statement ceases to be trae 

 the moment we recur to those volcanoes which 

 were active in middle and late tertiar}^ time ; 

 for many of them in our own country were five 

 hundred to a thousand miles away from any 

 body of water, and those of central France 

 and German}^ were almost as far from the ocean 

 as the configuration of Europe would permit. 



The last chapter of Mr. Wlain's book, and 

 the briefest of all, treats of the causes of vol- 

 canic action. In common with man}' others, he 

 regards as the most acceptable view that lavas 

 are squeezed out of a melted nucleus through 

 a rock}^ crust by the contraction of the earth's 

 interior by secular cooling. C. E. Dutton. 



BOLTON'S CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC 

 SERIALS. 



It can hardly be true, that the series of sci- 

 entific publications, whether in the form of 

 independent journals, or as publications of soci- 

 eties, can be found more complete in American 

 libraries than in European ; but it certainly has 

 fallen to the new world to give to the old the 

 best lists of such periodicals extant. Scud- 

 der's '• Catalogue of scientific serials,' published 



A catalogue of scienti/ic and technical periodicals (1665-1882), 

 together with chro7iological tables, and a library check-list. Bj' 

 H. C. Bolton. Washington, Smithson. itist., 1885. 8°. 



in 1879, was almost the first attempt to em- 

 brace in one volume the bibliography of publi- 

 cations of this class ; and the present volume, 

 which brings the literature down to the close 

 of the year 1882, has improved in many re- 

 spects upon its predecessor. Especially is this 

 the case in the fulness of the titles. The dif- 

 ference between these two publications is prin- 

 cipally in that Scudder's catalogue was mainly 

 restricted to pure science, while Bolton's ex- 

 tends to nearly all the fields of applied science, 

 excepting medicine ; but, on the other hand, 

 with few exceptions, it does not include serials 

 published by learned societies. The pains 

 taken by Dr. Bolton is evident on every page 

 of the catalogue, and it will long remain a 

 most important auxiliary to every scientific 

 library. 



Besides various forms of index which add 

 markedlj' to its value, especially the library 

 check-list, enabling one to find at a glance 

 where in America a given series may be found, 

 we desire to call special attention to the chro- 

 nological tables which follow directly the main 

 list. In this, Bolton has followed a suggestion 

 made many years since by Dana, but never 

 hitherto carried into eflject : it indicates the ex- 

 act year for which each volume of certain long 

 series of publications was issued ; and it is 

 an interesting study to see with what ingenuity 

 the various changes undergone by such publi- 

 cations as the Edinburgh philosophical maga- 

 zine for instance, with its various splits and 

 absorptions, have been tabulated. In this list 

 are included about five hundred of the most 

 important journals; and it will save a vast 

 amount of labor on the part of many a writer, 

 who, with an eye to 'priority,' will wish to 

 know in what year a certain volume of a given 

 publication was issued. 



The only criticism, which, it appears to us, 

 can be made to the work, is on a matter which 

 deals purely with typography. The type is 

 much larger than is requisite or convenient for 

 such a purpose, expanding the volume to 

 nearly eight hundred pages : had it included, 

 as we certainly wish it had, all publications of 

 societies, its extent must have been doubled, 

 and its bulk altogether unfortunate. This 

 fault is especially seen in the chronological 

 tables, which should have been compressed to 

 nearly one-half their present space. It is one 

 of the prime qualities of a good index, that 

 it should be as compact as possible ; and these 

 tables, sharing as they do the nature of an 

 index, ought thus to have been compressed. 

 These, however, are faults only of style : con- 

 cerning the body of the work, its method 



