Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/559

Rh 

Cooking-School Text-Book. By Juliet Corson. New York: Orange Judd Co. Pp. 240.

Outline of General Geology. By Theo. B. Comstock. Ithaca, New York: University Press. Pp. 82.

Coal: its History and Uses. Edited by Professor Thorpe. London: Macmillan & Co. 1878. Pp. 360. $4.

Red Eagle. By G. C. Eggleston. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1878. Pp. 346.

Elements of Comparative Anatomy. By Carl Gegenbaur. London: Macmillan & Co. 1878. Pp. 645. $7.

The Bride of Gettysburg. By J. D. Hylton. Palmyra, New Jersey. 1878. Pp. 172.

The Reign of God not "the Reign of Law." By Thomas Scott Bacon. Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers. 1878. Pp. 400. $1.50.

Political Economy. By William Roscher. New York: Holt & Co. 1873. Two vols., pp. 464 and 465. $7.

The Labor Side of the Great Sugar Question. New York. 1878. Pp. 30.

Researches in Telephony. By Professor Dolbear. From "Proceedings of the American Academy of Science and Arts." Pp. 15.

Report on Life-Saving Apparatus. By Lieutenant D. A. Lyle, of the Ordnance Department. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1878. Pp. 100, with numerous Plates.

The Temperaments. By Dr. D. H. Jacques. New York: S. R. Wells. Pp. 289. $1.50.

Transmission of Power by Compressed Air. By R. Zahner. Now York: Van Nostrand. Pp. 133. 50 cents.

Mansill's Almanac of Planetary Meteorology for 1879. Rock Island, Illinois: R. Crampton. Pp. 52. 50 cents.

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. Vol. IV., Nos. 2, 3, 4. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1878.

Bulletin of the United States National Museum. Nos. 10 and 12. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Bibliography of North American Invertebrate Paleontology. Pp. 119. Catalogue of Photographs of Indians. Pp. 122. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Birds of the Colorado Valley. By Elliott Cones. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 822.

Drift from York Harbor. By G. Houghton. Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1879. Pp. 48.

Total Abstinence. By Dr. B. W. Richardson. London: Macmillan & Co. Pp 119.

Handbook of Alabama. By S. Berney. Pp. 338, with Map. Paper, $1..50.

Noxious and Beneficial Insects of Illinois By Dr. C. Thomas. Springfield, Illinois: Lusk print. Pp. 290.

Reptiles and Batrachians of California. etc. By Dr. H. C. Yarrow. Pp. 23. Marine Fishes. By the same author. Pp. 7. Washington: Government Printing-Office.

Physiology of the Spermatozoa. By Dr. S. S. Herrick. Pp. 7.

Text-Books and Methods of Instruction in English. By J. M. Garnett. ("Educational Journal of Virginia.") Pp. 20.

Almanac for Use of Navigators for the Year 1879. Washington: Bureau of Navigation. Pp. 259. 50 cents.

Difficult Labor. By Dr. E. M. Hale. Pp. 94.

Native Wild Flowers and Ferns. By Thomas Meehan. Parts 13, 14, 15, 16. Boston: Prang & Co.



Reorganization of the Government Surveys.—We have already briefly stated the conclusions reached by the Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, appointed to consider what changes might be desired in the method of conducting the surveys of the Territories. We have since received an official copy of the Committee's report, and consider its subject matter of sufficient importance to justify a fuller abstract. The Committee interpreted the act of Congress directing their inquiry as applying only to surveys of the public domain, and hence did not take into consideration surveys or investigations which have for their objective point engineering works: such surveys, in the judgment of the Committee, should be conducted by the engineer corps of the army. The surveys which, in their opinion, were intended by the act to be inquired into were those popularly known as Wheeler's, Hayden's, Powell's, and the Land Surveys under the supervision of the Land-Office. Besides these, though not enumerated in the law, there is the Coast and Geodetic Survey. All the work done by these different corps may be classed under two heads: 1. Surveys of mensuration; 2. Surveys of geology and economic resources of the soil. The surveys of mensuration are at present conducted by five independent organizations, already named. There is no coördination between these five surveys, and their results show many contradictions. The geographical work of Wheeler's, or Hayden's, or Powell's survey is of little value for the parceling of land, while the land surveys are of correspondingly slight topographical and geographical value. The opinion of the Committee is, that "the Coast and Geodetic Survey is practically best prepared to execute the entire mensuration system required." But the Committee recommend that this survey be transferred from the Treasury to the Department of the Interior, and that in addition to its original field of work it should also assume the entire mensuration of the public domain.

The Geological Survey should have a separate organization. "To meet the requirements of existing laws in the disposition of the agricultural, mineral, pastoral, timber,