Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/296

284 American Juvenile Speaker and Songster. By C. A. Fyke. Cincinnati: F. W. Helmick. Pp. 127. 40 cents.

The Mother's Guide in the Management and Feeding of Infants. By John M. Keating, M.D. Philadelphia: II. C. Lea's Son & Co. 1881. Pp. 118. $1.

Florida, for Tourists, Invalids, and Settlers. By George M. Barbour. With Maps and Illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1882. $1.50.

The Labor Question, or an Exact Science of Equivalents. Chicago: Legal News Co., Printers. 1881. Pp. 186.

Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. By Rev. T. W. Webb, F.R.A.S. New York: Industrial Publication Co. 1881. Pp. 493.

first Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey. By Clarence King, Director. Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1880. Pp. 79. With Map.

Antiseptic Surgery. The Principles, Modes of Application, and Results of the Lister Dressing. By Dr. Just Lucas-Championnière. Translated and edited by F. H. Gerrish, M.D. Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon. 1881. Pp. 239. $2.25.

An Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology and Folk-Lore. By Rev. Sir George W. Cos, M.A. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1881. Pp. 330. $1.75.



The Mammoth Cave.—Professor II. C. Hovey made some interesting statements at the last meeting of the American Association concerning recent discoveries, measurements, and temperature observations in the Mammoth Cave. No exact measurements of the cave have ever been given, and most of the statements that have been published rest upon the representations, seldom accurate, of guides and proprietors. Even after Professor Hovey had received permission to make his observations, he was requested by the manager of the cave not to make any of the facts he had gained public. This is for the fear that other land-owners near the cave may learn where to look to find a rival entrance to the one that is now known. A fairly correct survey was made about forty years ago, the results of which, after they had been purposely confused to some extent, were embodied in the map of "Stephen Bishop, the Guide," but the map gave tun correct information to suit the jealous proprietors, and was destroyed. Only one copy of it is now known to exist. Dr. Forwood's map, published in 1870, was declared to contain several deviations from accuracy. Dr. Blackall, of Chicago, made a careful survey, several years ago, on the basis of which he prepared a lecture, but was prevented from delivering it by an injunction. Another survey was made by Jeffreys, but the person who had possession of the notes has died, and they can not be found. Mr. Klett, the manager of the cave, is making a thorough survey, the results of which, it is hoped, the proprietors may be induced to allow to be published. Professor Hovey is himself trying to collect all the descriptions of American caverns, and has accumulated quite a voluminous mass of cave literature, embracing more than a hundred distinct treatises of greater or less importance. The cave is stated in Owen's "Geological Report of Kentucky" to include two hundred and twenty-three avenues. Professor Hovey visited fifty-three avenues, and could get accounts of only eighty. A curious property was observed in Echo Hall, in that at a point about midway in the stream, when the notes of a full chord are sounded in slow succession, they are repeated by the arched wall overhead in arpeggio, and accompanied by a wonderful deep undertone. In regard to the question whether carnivorous animals accustomed to living in the open air would make their abode in caves, a dog, which had made repeated trips to the cave, finally staid at a point beyond Echo River, seemingly happy and contented, and refused to go out. The highest temperature of the cave in the hottest season does not exceed 56° Fahr. The lowest temperature was 33°. Professor Hovey spoke of the extensive saltpeter works that were instituted at the cave during the War of 1812, whence immense quantities of the salt were carried to Philadelphia on mules and in ox-carts, the débris of which still exist in great heaps of lixiviated earth, but of which no adequate record has been made.

The Floating Gardens of Cashmere.—The floating gardens of the Lake of Serinagur, Cashmere, are among the most curious specimens of horticultural art. A group of them when viewed in the evening gives an effect much like that of a harbor with its fleet of ships rising and falling with the swell of the waves. The foundation of the garden is formed by planting long stakes in the lake in two or three rows, at distances 