Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/292

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Radcliffe, A. G. Schools and Masters of Sculpture. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 593.

Recreation Vol. I. No. 1. Monthly. G. O. Shields, Editor, New York. Pp. 40. 10 cents. $1 a year.

Ries, Heinrich. Microscopic Organisms in the Clays of New York State. Pp. 5, with Plates.

Salt, Henry S. Animals' Rights considered in Relation to Social Progress. New York: Macmillan & Co. 75 cents.

Shufeldt, R. W. Lectures on Biology. Pp. 102.

Scudder, 8. H. Tertiary Rhyncophorous Coleoptera. U. S. Geological Survey. Pp. 206, with Plates.

Torrey, Bradford. A Florida Sketch Book. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 242. $1.25.

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University of Arizona. Third Annual Register. 1893-'94. Tucson. Pp. 92.

Wall Street Man, A. The Man from the West; or, from the Chaparral to Wall Street. New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company. Pp. 246. 50 cents.

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Unexplored Geographical Fields.—As among the more important fields where special geographical research may still be profitably carried on, Mr. Clements R. Markham mentions the north polar area, a vast extent of which is unknown; the south polar area, of which this is still more the case; and plenty of interesting work still in our own quarters of the globe. Even in the British islands some of the lakes were unsurveyed, and were not systematically sounded until the work was begun in Cumberland in 1893. The topography of the Alps might be considered fairly complete, but there are still physical inquiries of great interest that commend themselves to scientific Alpine travelers; such as the extent and action of ice, the oscillations of glaciers, the origin of the Föhn wind, and the effects of the destruction of forests. The historical geography of the Alps is also in process of elucidation. At present there are only three regions—in Africa—of considerable area, which offer opportunities for discovery on a large scale; namely, the Sahara, the region adjoining it to the south and extending across Wadai to the watersheds of the Congo and Nile, and the region to the east of the upper Nile, stretching south of Abyssinia, through the lands of the Gallas and Somalis, to the eastern seaboard of the continent. Outside the regions referred to we might be said to have obtained a fair knowledge of the general geographical features of the African continent. Much detail remains to be filled in, and much of the work executed in a hasty and superficial manner requires to be done over again. There are also regions of great interest that have been visited, but which would well repay detailed examination. In the continent of Asia British geographers have been very active during the present century. Perhaps the most interesting and important unknown Asiatic region is the southern part of Arabia, from Yemen on the west to Oman on the east, and between the seacoast and the states of Nejd in the interior. Hadramaut, with its lofty mountains and cultivated ravines, its settled population and historic past, is almost a sealed book to us. The exploration of this district is about to be undertaken. Much work is yet to be done in Asia Minor. The most important unexplored field includes the upper valley of the Euphrates and eastern Cappadocia.

Selection in Seed-growing.—To the seedsman, says Mr. C. L. Allen, in an address before the Horticultural Congress, published by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, selection is not a cause but an effect. In the development of a type, selection is the principal agent employed, but doubly important is its office in preserving a type after it is secured. There are two separate and distinct principles in selection, and the two are antagonistic; they are both methodical, but for entirely different purposes. In the one instance we select with 