1868.] 



The Voice in Singing: 



727 



sists. They average about three feet in width and in depth, and are 

 frequently six hundred feet in length. Clianges of level are in- 

 geniously remedied by locks. The conception and execution of such 

 enterprises presuppose a very high degree of foresight and intelli- 

 gence. 



The eighth chapter treats of the various modes of trapping the beaver, 

 which are of course based upon an intimate knowledge of the animal's 

 personal habits. In conclusion, we have a chapter on " Animal Psy- 

 chology," in which many interesting facts and deductions are presented 

 bearing on the metaphysics of the subject. Mr. INIorgan advocates the 

 claim oF his beavers to "a thinking and reasoning and perhaps an im- 

 mortal principle," with enthusiasm at least, if not with success. He is 

 not disposed to be jealous of oKoya (a>a, nor to think that it detracts at 

 all from his own intellectual prerogatives as a talking being to concede 

 to these intelligent mutes whatever " fragments of soul and tatters of 

 understanding" they may furnish evidence of possessing. His volume 

 contains some curious scraps of " beaver lore," of which the following 

 may serve as a specimen. When the young beavers attain maturity, 

 they are sent out from the lodge ; if they fail to mate, they arc allowed 

 to return to the domicile, and remain till the ensuing summer ; but, as a 

 mark of parental disapprobation, they are put to hard labor in repairing 

 the dam. They are then sent away again ; if they fail a second time 

 to mate, they are not permitted to return, but become thenceforth " out- 

 cast beavers." The Indians and trappers firmly believe in the exist- 

 ence of such a class of Pariah beavers ; and even Mr. Morgan seems 

 to indorse the legend, when he suggests that they " are probably such 

 beavers as, having lost their mates, refuse afterwards to pair. A 

 similar story is the fiction of the slave beavers, related by Zacharia 

 Ben Mahmoud Kazwyny, an Arabian naturalist of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury. 



The book is altogether one of the most valuable and interesting re- 

 cent contributions to Natural History. 



10.— The Voice in Singing. Translated from the German of V^MilA. 

 Seiler, by , a Member of the American Philosopliteal Society. 

 Philadelphia: J. B.Xif)pincott & Co. 186S.,- IGmo. pp. 168. 



This little book is worthy of the' most thorough criticism, which is 

 already saying muck for It. It is an attempt " -to. bring into harmony 

 things whiiih- have always been treated separately, — the science and 

 ttxs-atrt of singing": an attempt begun in the right spirit, cautious, 



