v 
Marcu 21, 1884.| 
others, who have considerably modified Bell’s 
system, are practically ignored. Sweet ought 
to have received careful attention ; and Sievers 
surely deserved more than a curt footnote 
saying that the first edition of his book on 
phonetics had treated better than the second a 
certain class of vowels. The vowels meant have 
not yet been fully observed, but the Russian 
jery is one of them. Observations made sev- 
eral years ago in Leipzig, and renewed very 
recently in Boston by the writer of this notice, 
on the sound in question as pronounced by 
native Russians, are decidedly opposed to the 
theory accepted by Techmer; and Techmer’s 
own hardly seem to favor it. ‘That theory as- 
sumes that the sound is produced by w-position 
of the tongue, and 7-position of the lips, while 
the English system makes it a vowel formed with 
the tongue in the ‘mixed’ position. In the 
present state of vowel-analysis, a correct ac- 
count of this sound is of great importance, and 
vowels of the same class form one of the most 
marked features of the English scheme. Now, 
Techmer himself says he has only been able to 
observe a special form (spielart) of this class 
of vowels ; namely, the Russian sound: and this 
he marks as formed with partially passive lips, 
like English vowels, and (sometimes only ?) 
SCIENCE. 
365 
with an approach toward mitilere zungenartiku- 
lation. ‘This comes very near the English de- 
scription ofthe sound. The whole of Techmer’s 
article is less clear and less interesting than 
Sievers’s work, and makes the impression of 
resting more on theory than on unprejudiced 
observation of actual speech. To put, for ex- 
ample, a in the centre of the vowel-scheme 
must seem to many phoneticians a fundamen- 
tal error. Still, the article contains much that 
is valuable, and is not to be neglected. 
The second article, that on the graphic rep- 
resentation of speech-sounds, is open to objec- 
tion for the same reasons. The account of 
English e in err, and wu in but, certainly needed 
justification. They are represented as some- 
what incomplete varieties of a sound to be 
classed with German 6 and w,—a statement 
which can only be accepted by one who agrees 
with Techmer as to the place of a, if, indeed, 
by any one. Also the English and American 
ry sound ought to have been carefully dis- 
tinguished from the rolled or trilled r’s, as 
Sievers has done. , 
If the journal lives, it will certainly contain 
much valuable matter. It is only to be feared 
that its rivalry will injure others already estab- 
lished, such as Kuhn’s Zeitschrift. 
INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey, 
Division of the Pacific.— This division includes 
those parts of California, Oregon, and Washington 
Territory the drainage of which flows to the Pacific 
Ocean. An exception is the Lewis Fork of the 
Columbia River, which rises within the limits of 
the Great Basin. 
The work undertaken in this division is divided 
into two classes; viz., the investigation of the mining- 
industries, and the study of the volcanic rocks. As 
preliminary to the latter, topographic work has been 
carried on for two seasons in northern California. 
Some of the details of this work, in the vicinity of 
Mount Shasta, have already been published. 
Examination of quicksilver deposits.— 
Mr. George F. Becker and his assistants have been 
engaged in an examination of the quicksilver depos- 
its of California. During the season of 1883 Mr. 
Becker’s personal attention has been devoted to in- 
vestigations in the vicinity of Sulphur Bank. In 
August a trip was made to the North Fork of Cache 
Creek and to Lower Lake, the only localities in that 
section where fossiliferous strata occur. The latter 
part of August and early part of September were 
spent in this section in order to complete the map of 
the Clear-Lake region of California, Returning to 
Sulphur Bank, soundings of the lake were taken, 
and the final examinations of the mines made, after 
which the party returned to San Francisco to pre- 
pare for the winter’s office-work. 
In the New Idria district, topographic work in 
connection with Mr. Becker’s work was carried on 
throughout the whole season by Mr. Hoffmann. The 
survey was made with the utmost care, and in great 
detail. Contour lines, eighty feet apart vertically, 
were run; and intermediate forty-foot contours were 
interpolated by means of slope-measurements in the 
steeper parts, and by running curves in the more 
level portions. The entire area surveyed includes 
twelve square miles, and the field-work for the map 
was completed early in 1884. 
Geologic work.—Mr. Turner, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Becker, undertook an examination of the 
region in the vicinity of Knoxville, after a trip from 
Clear Lake to the latter point, during which, notes on 
the general geology of the line of travel were taken. 
His work was interfered with by sickness, which 
obliged him to enter the hospital at San Francisco for 
treatment. Later in the season, however, he returned 
to the field, and throughout January, 1884, was busy 
mapping the formations in the region about Knox- 
ville, 
