heavy expenditures of public money, while it appears to have no interest in anything which tends to decrease taxation.
China: Travels and Investigations in the "Middle Kingdom," with a Glance at Japan, by General James H. Wilson (Appleton, $1.75), is an attractive book of travel, especially to the business man. It is the outcome of a trip to gather information as to the desirability of investing American capital in the building of railroads, and supplying other modern improvements in China. The natural features and resources of the country, the volume and methods of business, the bearing of government regulations and social customs on commercial affairs, and the attitude of the government toward alien enterprises, are all discussed. The book contains also sketches of Chinese and Japanese history, with entertaining descriptions of scenery, family life, amusements, and superstitions in both countries. A map of China accompanies the volume.
A great deal of information about a fascinating part of our own land is contained in California of the South, by Drs. Walter Lindley and J. P. Widney (Appleton, |2). The questions that would be asked by the tourist, invalid, settler, and investor here find full and definite answers. A description of the climatology of the Pacific coast comes first in the volume, and is accompanied by a colored climatic map of Southern California. In the second part of the book the overland trip to California, and the natural features, points of interest, hotels, trade, wine and fruit production, and mineral springs of the five southern counties are described, with statistics, maps, and illustrations. Short papers are added on "Comparative Valuation of Lands and Products," by General Nelson A. Miles; "Trees, Shrubs, and Wild Flowers," "Petroleum and Asphaltum," "Orange-Culture," "Public Schools," "Profits and Methods of Fruit-Raising," and "Ten Acres Enough," by other writers familiar with these special topics.
Under the Southern Cross, by M. M. Ballon (Ticknor, $1.50), is a gossipy account of the author's travels in Hawaii, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The purpose of the book is evidently to entertain rather than to instruct; not to furnish statistics for the merchant or student, but to contribute to the pastime of "fireside" traveling, which has so many devotees.
Section II of the special report on "The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States" is A Geographical Review of the Fisheries Industries and Fishing Communities for the Year 1880, and is prepared by George Brown Goode and a staff of associates (United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries). The contents comprise separate papers on the fisheries of each of the Atlantic States, with accounts of the fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast, and the Great Lakes, and an appendix of "Historical References to the Fisheries of New England." The methods and results of these industries are described by towns and counties, and numerous tables of statistics are inserted.
The Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission, Vol. VI, for 1886, contains a very large number of letters from American and foreign correspondents of the Fish Commission relating to special topics in its department.
Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colorado, with Atlas, by Samuel F. Emmons (United States Geological Survey, $8.40), forms Volume XII of the monographs of the Geological Survey. The investigation of this field was undertaken in 1879, and the report was practically completed in the fall of 1881, when an abstract of it was made, which has been published. The information is less timely now than it would have been immediately after it was gathered; for the thousands of persons who, a few years ago, were eager to know about the mines of Leadville, have either got the knowledge by experience—in many cases dearly bought—or have turned their attention in other directions. The development of the mines, too, has gone on rapidly, and the ores have begun to change from carbonates and chlorides to sulphides. Still, the thorough manner in which the work of the geologist in charge and his assistants has been done, and the liberal style in which it has been illustrated with lithographic and heliotype plates, make the mon-
