Recent Literature . 
5 1 
1SS3-] 
The present instalment of Dr. Merriam’s paper does not extend to 
birds ; hence it would hardly come within our legitimate field of criticism 
were it not that its introductory portion has a direct bearing on everything 
that is to follow. Chapter 1 is divided into seven sections, under which 
the location and boundaries, geological history, topography, climate, gen- 
eral features, botany, and faunal position of the region are full}’' and very 
ably treated. 
“The Adirondack^ proper, or the area to which the subject-matter of this 
paper is restricted, can be stated, with sufficient exactness, to lie between 
parallels 43 0 15' and 44 0 45' north latitude, hence measuring about an hun- 
dred and twenty miles (193,121 metres) in a north and south direction. 
The transverse diameter of the region is approximately of equal extent.” 
.... “From a geological standpoint the Adirondacks are interesting as 
constituting one of the few islands that rose above the level of the mighty 
Continental sea previous to Paleozoic time.” Their topography “is diver- 
sified, and in some respects peculiar. The mountains and short ranges of 
high hills have no regular trend, and conform to no definite axis. They 
are in no sense a chain of mountains, .... but, on the contrary, consist of 
more or less irregular groups, isolated peaks, short ranges, and ‘hog- 
backs,’ scattered over the entire area— the highest to the eastward. .... 
Nearly thirty peaks exceed four thousand feet (1,219.20 metres) in height, 
several are about five thousand (1,524 metres), and one, Mt. Marcy, 
attains an altitude of five thousand three hundred and forty-four feet 
(1,628.851 metres).” 
The section relating to general features is especially full and interesting. 
The mountain tops, valleys, burnt tracts, beaver meadows, lake shores, 
and forest depths are treated in turn, and with a touch that shows the 
author’s familiarity with the scenes of which he writes. The following 
seems to us one of the best of his descriptive passages : — 
“Here is a sparkling trout stream, perhaps the outlet of a mountain 
lake ; let us follow its winding course through yonder thicket of alders. 
Working our way through the tangled bushes we soon emerge into the 
open grassy bottom of one of the most beautiful and interesting of na- 
ture’s many adornments— a Beaver meadow. Here, le^s than a century 
ago, might have been heard the splash and seen the hut of the sagacious 
Beaver. But, like the Moose that once roamed these mighty forests, they 
have, excepting a few isolated individuals, been exterminated or driven 
beyond our borders, till now these green meadows, with occasionally the 
buried ruin of an ancient dam, are about all that remain to remind us of 
the former existence here of one of the most curious, interesting, and 
typical of North American mammals. 
“The dam has long since disappeared, and as it gave way the pond 
again became a narrow stream, spreading its way through the broad 
muddy bottom, now verdant with marsh grasses that spring from a thick 
bed of elastic Sphagnum. Upon this moist level now stand scattered 
clumps of feathery tamaracks ; and here and there over the uniform 
light green of the meadow rise, in marked contrast, the odd-looking Blue 
