1882.J Analyses of Books. 613 
Lake Winnipeg, and find the country easy and inexpensive. 
York Factory is nearer to Liverpool than is New York. The 
proposed line will afford a route for the introduction of emigrants 
which will entirely avoid the United States and the populous 
parts of Canada, and, on the other hand, will afford a convenient 
outlet for the North-west territories, which “ embrace hundreds 
of millions of acres of fine lands destined to become the greatest 
wheat-field in the world.” 
A very interesting portion of the work of the Survey has been 
the mapping out of thirty of the principal forest trees of the 
Dominion, showing their northern limits. The map constructed 
is of no small importance, both botanically and from a climato- 
logical point of view. The conclusion is drawn that the present 
divisions of prairie and woodland are of very ancient date, and 
are not due to forest fires. 
As appendices to this Report we have a list of plants collected 
in the Hudson’s Bay country, running to the number of 261. 
The majority of these belong to the Ontario flora. There is a 
list of Coleoptera, collected in 1880 in Manitoba, and between 
Lake Winnipeg and Hudson’s Bay. The forms, as might be 
expected, are boreal. The Lamellicornes are few and small, the 
Buprestidae and Elateridae scanty, and the Longicornes less 
developed than might have been expected in a richly-wooded 
country. 
The report on the Magdalen Islands, a small group situate in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is accompanied by a local flora, from 
which it would seem that the climate is scarcely warm enough 
for the cultivation of wheat. 
The flora of Nova Scotia is characterised by ferns, which, for 
North America, are numerous both in species and individuals. 
It is to be noted that many species are common to this region 
and to Britain, such as Polypodium vulgare, Pteris aquilina , 
Asplenium Trichomanes, A. Filix-fcemina , Phegopteris Dry - 
opteris , A. Filix-mas, A. lonchitis , Osmunda regalis , &c. 
It is to be hoped that the Dominion Government will not 
allow Mr. Selwyn’s hands to be tied from want of the necessary 
funds. 
Geology of Wisconsin. Survey of 1873 — 79. Vol. III. Pub- 
lished under the Direction of the Chief Geologist, by the 
Commissioners of Public Printing. 
Not a few of the States of the American Union are displaying 
no less zeal in the geological examination of their respective 
districts than is the Federal Government in its grand survey of 
