been prosecuted, and which is calculated, when completed, to produce an accurate and connected system of measurements over every part of the State. The survey of the Tonawanda and Oak-Orchard Swamps has formed a prominent part of it. We learn from the report that the rainfall in Western New York steadily increased from 1830 to 1880, and that the greatest average rainfall known for a similar period—88·73 inches—was reached during the years from 1868 to 1881, inclusive. The summer flow of the streams has, however, greatly diminished during the last fifty years.
The Teaching of Drawing in Grammar-Schools. A Paper on the Educational Features of the Subject. By Walter S. Perry. Boston: The Prang Educational Company. Pp. 26.
This essay was read as a paper before the department of Industrial Education at the last meeting of the American Educational Association. It considers the applications of drawing under three heads: as in industrial construction; in representing the appearance of objects and of nature; and in ornamentation. Of these, in the public schools, the first, the application in construction, is the most important. "It forms preeminently the educational and the practical side, and yet it is the one which has usually been ignored, while the picturesque and decorative sides have been given undue importance." It is dwelt upon at length, while the application to representation is treated as complementary to it, and that to decoration as essential to the completeness of the course of instruction.
The American University. When shall it be? Where shall it be? What shall it be? By John W. Burgess, Ph. D., of Columbia College. Boston: Ginn, Heath, & Co. Pp. 22. Price, 15 cents.
In the author's view, the reply to the first question should consist of three conditions. The university shall be when there exists in the nation the surplus of wealth to support it, the body of scholars to form its faculties, and the body of students qualified by previous training and acquirements to profit by university work. These conditions are believed to exist now in the United States. The place for the university should be at or near a center of wealth, education, and refinement, and that exists. The university should not be an institution of the State, but must be a private institution, supported by private donations, and directed by an association of private persons.
Administrative Organization. A Consideration of the Principal Executive Departments of the United States Government, in Relation to Administration. By LL. B. Washington: William II. Morrison. Pp. 108.
Imperfections in the workings of the administrative departments of our Government being recognized, the author of this essay seeks a permanent remedy for them by going to the principles on which departmental organization should rest. He finds that administration of the laws applied to the conduct of public affairs may be evil, by defect of the laws: first, where the administrative organization is in false relation with the administrative object; second, when, though the legal relation be perfect, the processes of administration are faulty; third, when both defects exist. The subject is considered prominently in the former aspect. The first-named defect is declared to exist seriously in the Treasury and Interior Departments, and a plan for reorganizing them is sketched.
Ancient Egypt in the Light of Modern Discoveries. By Professor H. S. Osborn, LL. D. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. Pp. 232, with Map.
Most good works on ancient Egypt are costly, and the knowledge of the subject is growing so fast that even a very recent book is likely to require to be added to or modified within a short time after it is published. Professor Osborn has endeavored to put what is really known of the history in such a brief form as to embody it in a really accessible book; to sift out what is conjectural and obsolete; and to include the results of the latest researches up to the time of his writing. He has been a diligent student of the monuments and inscriptions in the European museums and in their native land, has kept himself abreast of the literature of the subject, and has endeavored to present the results of matured studies. The work of later years is mentioned, in-
