not, however, put so strong an infusion of science into the book as to make it distasteful to those who read chiefly for pleasure. The first part of the book is descriptive, dealing with "the mountains as they are," and in the latter part is told "how the mountains were made." Throughout the volume are scattered bits of picturesque description quoted from enthusiastic lovers of mountains, illustrative anecdotes, and fragments of verse. The style is every where clear, and the language is simple, few terms being employed that are not in the vocabulary of every cultivated person. The text is illustrated with sixteen full-page pictures from photographs by W. Donkin, J. Valentine, and others. The Story of the Hills will add much to the reputation which the author has gained through his Autobiography of the Earth.
Geological Sketches at Home and Abroad. By Archibald Geikie. New York: Macmillan & Co. Pp. 332. Price, $1.50.
These fourteen papers consist of popular accounts of geological explorations, with a few essays and addresses on geological subjects. Several of them have been thought of sufficient general interest for publication in the popular periodicals Good Words and Macmillan's Magazine. The first of these sketches describes the author's earliest geological excursion, and contains some striking testimony as to how science was taught when Prof. Geikie was a boy. Other papers deecribe excursions in Scotland, France, Norway, the Yellowstone Park, and Wyoming. The text is illustrated with views of many of the places visited, and with geological diagrams.
School and College. Edited by Ray Greene Huling. Monthly. Boston: Ginn & Co. Price, $1.50 a year.
The first number of an educational magazine with the above name appeared in January. It starts as a periodical of high grade, under the editorship of the principal of the high school at New Bedford, Ifass., who is well known as an educator and a writer on educational topics. The opening article of the January number is by E. Benjamin Andrews, President of Brown University, on Some of the Next Steps forward in Education, and is characterized by a fullness of progressive spirit. James H. Blodgett, of the Census Office, contributes a statistical paper on Secondary Education in Census Years. There is a descriptive article on The Greek Method of performing Arithmetical Operations, by John Tetlow, head master of the Girls' High and Latin Schools, of Boston, which is illustrated with diagrams. B. C. Burt, of Ann Arbor, discusses the question When should the Study of Philosophy begin? There is also an editorial department, in which Co-operation in Entrance Examinations and Compulsory Greek in England are discussed; departments of News from Abroad, and Home News, the latter containing statistics of college attendance in 1890'91; also departments for Letters and Reviews.
Star-land. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, F. R. S. New York: Cassell & Co. Pp. 388.
The Royal Institution of Great Britain provides at each Christmas season a course of juvenile lectures. In 1881, and again in 188T, the course was given by the Royal Astronomer of Ireland, who has embodied his lectures in the present volume. The several lectures deal with the sun, the moon, the inner planets, the giant planets, comets and shooting-stars, stars, and to these has been added a chapter, with the title How to name the Stars, telling how to recognize the constellations. Since the lectures were prepared for an audience of children, their style is simple, though not childish, and many adults could get a better understanding of the outlines of astronomy from this little book than from more dignified treatises. The text is illustrated with nearly a hundred pictures.
The Microscope and its Revelations. By the late William B. Carpenter, M. D., F. R. S. Seventh edition. Revised by W. H. Pallinger, F. R. S. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. Pp. 1117.
The great advances in the application of mathematical optics to the construction of microscopes since the appearance of the sixth edition of this cyclopedic work have made necessary a recasting of a large part of the treatise. The editor states in the preface, somewhat paradoxically, that the first five chapters of the last edition are rep-
