Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/579

Rh margin of the continent can hardly be established without larger collections of fossils from Western localities. The fishes, though so far as yet known representing only six genera and about twenty-five species, are locally very numerous, and are found in many places. The principal sites represented in the volume are Boonton, N. J.; Durham, Conn.; and Turner's Falls, Mass.; while they have also been obtained at Plainfield, Milford, Newark, and near Hoboken, N. J., and at Middletown, Sudbury, Chicopee, Amherst, and Hadley's Falls, in the Connecticut Valley. The several species are described in detail and illustrated by figures apparently of the size of nature. We are glad to learn that the author's collection, which is the largest yet made, is safely deposited in the fire-proof Geological Museum of Columbia College.

Argentine Meteorological Office was established in 1872, and was organized under the direction of Dr. B. A. Gould, whom Mr. Davis succeeded on his retirement after twelve years of service. It has gradually extended its sphere of operations to the most remote parts of the country, and now receives observations of the more important weather phenomena from sixty-six stations, and of rainfall from ninety more. The six volumes of the publications of the office embody the results of observations taken at twenty-six points, with analytical discussions of the data, and deductions of the general laws of atmospheric changes; and the annual reports contain a large part of the results reached in the corresponding years. But a more compact work was needed to embody a summary of these results adapted to practical use; and the attempt is made to supply this need in the present volume, which is intended to put within reach of the colonist, the farmer, and the doctor such meteorological facts as bear upon their industrial enterprises and hygienic studies. Twenty-one stations are selected as typical of the various climatological conditions that prevail in all parts of the republic. The lines extend from the Atlantic coast to the western points of the country, and from latitude 54° 53' in Tierra del Fuego to Salta in latitude 26° 46' 20"; the altitudes range from 8 metres to 2,845 metres above the level of the sea. To each of these stations is allotted its given space for general description, with tables representing the various meteorological facts in detail and a graphic chart. The publication thus furnishes a summary of the local climates, deduced from several years' observations of the various districts of which the particular stations are the centers.

is abundant reason for including monopoly among the "Questions of the Day," as is done in this volume. Trusts and monopolies exist, as the author shows at length in a series of chapters, in manufacturing, mining, transportation, trade, and labor. There are monopolies constructed directly by those who profit from them, monopolies created by municipal enactments, and monopolies supported by governmental policy. The author next examines the theory of universal competition, after which he states the laws of modern competition. He denies that "the prevalence of monopolies evidences the decay of the nobler aspirations of humanity." He regards them as an outgrowth of the modern conditions of industry, and, while they involve evils, he affirms that "the remedy for the evils of monopoly is not abolition, but control." He then specifies some of these evils, and names also some ameliorating influences. The remedies that have been proposed are based on one or the other of the opposite principles, individualism and societism, or communism. Mr. Baker maintains that neither should be adopted wholly, and in his concluding chapter advocates the owning of all railroads by the Government, and their operation by corporations which should pay a rental for the privilege; the owning of mines by the States, which should lease them to private parties for operation. Water-works, gas and electric lighting plants, street railways, and similar local enterprises should be owned by the cities in which they are located, and also