Young Fish by Unsuitable Fishing Implements," "The Winter Haddock-Fishery of New England," "The Influence on the Coast Fisheries of the Steamers used in the Menhaden Fishery," "Artificial Culture of Medicinal Leeches and of Species of Helix," and "Changes in the Fisheries of the Great Lakes during the Decade 1870-1880."
Electro-Magnets: The Determination of the Elements of their Construction. By Th. Du Moncel. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 122. Price, 50 cents.
The author's purpose is to give a plain, practical essay on the subject, adapted to the use of amateurs, experimenters, and working artisans, as well as of students. Though the laws on which the formulas are based have not been fully verified, yet results have been obtained so nearly approaching verification as to make it safe to admit them as guides in the construction of electro-magnets.
A Perpetual Calendar. By President F. A. P. Barnard. Price, 40 cents.
The calendar, though having a rather complicated appearance at first sight, becomes simple and easy of operation when its theory is once explained. It consists of a sheet of stiff pasteboard, to the top of which is attached a revolving disk bearing the names of the months and the numbers from 1 to 99, while the main sheet contains seven parallel columns of the days of the month. The disk should be properly set to the columns at the beginning of each year; then the day of the month can be found on looking for it.
Pocket Logarithms, to Four Places of Decimals. New York: D. Van Nostrand. Pp. 139. Price, 50 cents.
Surveyors and other persons engaged in field-work often find themselves in need of tables of logarithms in a form which they can conveniently carry with them. The present volume is for the use of such persons. Its four-place tables give as close an accuracy as is likely to be required in fieldwork. They include the logarithms of numbers, and logarithmic sines and tangents to single minutes, with a table of natural sines, tangents, and co-tangents.
First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-'80. By J. W. Powell, Director. Illustrated. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 603.
The act of Congress of March 3, 1879, which established the United States Geological Survey, made provision for continuing, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, the anthropologic work that had been carried on by the earlier surveys. The methods of the new bureau have been, "first, the prosecution of research by the direct employment of scholars and specialists; and, second, by inciting and guiding research immediately conducted by collaborators at work throughout the country." The latter division of the work has been furthered by distributing manuals upon various branches of the study, designed to make the investigations of independent workers systematic and thorough. Being convinced that the social institutions of the Indians can not be understood without a knowledge of the means adapted to express accurately the ideas embodied in those institutions, Major Powell has directed a large share of attention to language, and about two thirds of the present volume is occupied by papers on that subject. The longest of these is one by Lieutenant-Colonel Garrick Mallery on "Sign Language among North American Indians compared with that among other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes." This is drawn up merely as a report of progress, and consists of a part of the data on this subject that have been obtained by the bureau. A large number of Indian signs are herein graphically described and fully illustrated, though perhaps more space is given to describing the signs of other peoples than is absolutely necessary for purposes of comparison. A paper by the director describes quite a complete system of government that exists among the Wyandots; and another, also by Major Powell, is an interesting and thoughtful sketch of "Indian Mythology." The contribution of greatest popular interest is a second paper by Dr. n. C. Yarrow on mortuary customs, which embodies many communications from recent investigators, together with a large number of extracts from writers who have touched upon this subject within the last two hundred years.
