work in question is merely a collection of dry facts and data. On the contrary, written by one evidently thoroughly familiar with the ground covered, the book presents in a most interesting manner a vast amount of information of the greatest practical value. The style is clear and concise, and the book will form most pleasant reading, even for one not directly interested in applied geology.
Fifth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior. 1883-'84. By J. W. Powell, Director. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 469, with Plates and Pocket Map.
The topographic work of the survey has been prosecuted in New England, of which the preparation of a map has been begun, and where the State of Massachusetts is cooperating with the survey; in an area of 19,750 square miles in Western Maryland, West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee; and in various parts of the districts of the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, and the Pacific. The geologic work embraces the survey of the Yellowstone National Park, by Mr. Arnold Hague; studies in Dakota and Montana, by Dr. Hayden; of glacial phenomena, by Professor T. C. Chamberlain; of the archæan rocks of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Dakota, by Professor Roland T. Irving; of the Quaternary lakes of the Great Basin, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert; of the Cascade Range, by Captain C. E. Dutton; a survey of the District of Columbia and adjacent territory by Mr. W. J. McGee; economic studies in Colorado, by Mr. S. F. Emmons; and surveys of the Sulphur Bank, Knoxville, and New Idria quicksilver-mining districts, by Mr. G. F. Becker and Dr. W. H. Melville; and of the Eureka District, by Mr. J. S. Curtis. The paleontologic work includes Professor Marsh's labors on vertebrate fossils and those of Dr. C. A. White, Charles C. Walcott, and others, on invertebrates, and the investigations of Mr. Lester F. Ward and Professor Fontaine in fossil plants. Chemical analyses have been carried on by Professor Clarke and Dr. T. M. Chatard, and physical investigations by Carl Barus. Special papers representing a considerable number of these investigations are incorporated in the volume containing the report.
Gyrating Bodies. An Empirical Study. Illustrated by upward of Fifty Figures "from Life." By C. B. Warring, Ph. D. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Pp. 106. With Three Plates.
A gyrating body is defined as "a body revolving on an axis passing through its center of gravity, and acted upon by a continuous force tending to make it revolve on another axis at right angles to the first." The term includes the top, the gyroscope, several toys to the principle of which these furnish the key, and, according to the author, the earth. Such bodies have some curious and paradoxical properties, which, though they may have been carelessly observed without being remarked upon, will be looked upon as strange when attention is called to them; for they seem to contradict our ideas of the operation of the laws of motion. Mr. Warring's studies cover several instruments of the class, and were prosecuted for the purpose of investigating these properties and explaining them. Having reached an explanation, he finds that similar properties reside in the complicated movements of the earth, and that by them such phenomena as nutation and precession may be accounted for.
American Diplomacy and the Furtherance of Commerce. By Eugene Schuyler. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 469. Price, $2.50.
The author of this work is able to present, in evidence of his understanding of the subject, a record of seventeen years of continuous service in diplomatic positions under our Government, in Russia, Constantinople, England, Rome, Roumania, Greece, and Servia, in all of which stations he has proved himself a useful and efficient agent, and has reflected credit on the American name. The substance of the book is derived from courses of lectures which he delivered last year at Johns Hopkins and Cornell Universities, the purpose of which, in the first series, on our consular and diplomatic service, was to explain the actual workings of the State Department, and to set forth the usefulness and needs of those services to young men who are shortly to be called upon to
