Animals was organized, which the secretary hopes will develop into a national zoölogical garden. Among these pamphlets is a paper by Walter Hough, on Fire-making Apparatus in the United States National Museum. It contains descriptions of a large number of ways of making fire, with sixty cuts of apparatus. The methods are classified and arranged in their presumed order of development as follows: Fire-making by twirling one stick on another, by sawing and by plowing one stick with another, by striking flint and pyrites together, and flint and steel. Most of these methods have been used by the Indians or Eskimos of America. A Study of Prehistoric Anthropology, designed as a hand-book for students beginning this science, has been prepared by Thomas Wilson, curator of this department in the National Museum. It is a general view of the subject, with a bibliography and many cuts representing implements of stone, bone, bronze, etc., dolmens, vessels, ornaments, and human representations. Frederic A. Lucas has prepared an account of The Expedition to the Funk Island, which he made in 1887, to procure bones of the great auk. The bones obtained equaled in number all other collections combined, and a thorough exploration was made of the island. The paper is illustrated with a picture of the bird and one of its egg, a sketch map of Funk Island, and diagrams. A popular account of this expedition was contributed by Mr. Lucas to the Monthly for August, 1888. A Catalogue of the Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelains, with a Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China, prepared by Alfred E. Hippisley, is now published. In 1887 this large collection was deposited in the National Museum, with the understanding that it should be allowed to remain on exhibition for at least two years, and that the museum should print a descriptive catalogue. The catalogue occupies some fifty pages, containing 438 numbers, and the history of ceramic art is quite extended.
Several Bulletins of the Geological Survey have reached us together. No. 58 contains a paper on The Glacial Boundary in the Central States, by Prof. G. F. Wright, with an introduction by T. C. Chamberlin. It is occupied mostly with observations on the distribution of the till, but contains also some facts in relation to striated surfaces of rocks in place. The paper contains also the evidence for and against the hypothesis of a glacial dam at Cincinnati. Recent finds of palæoliths pointing to the probable existence of interglacial man in Ohio are here reported; the relation of the loess to the glacial drift, and the finding of gold near the glacial margin, are also touched upon. Eight plates and ten figures illustrate this monograph. No. 59 is by Frederick D. Chester, on The Gabbros and Associated Rocks in Delaware, the massive gabbro being the most prominent formation in the northern part of that State. The paper is illustrated by a map and five figures. A Report of Work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics for the year 1887-'88, by F. W. Clarke, forms No. 60. It contains an extended account of the occurrence and utilization of natural soda, by Thomas M. Chatard, analyses of various rocks, ores, waters, and meteorites, and notes on a number of other subjects. No. 64 is a similar report for l888-'89, and is occupied largely with examinations of minerals. No. 61 is Contributions to the Mineralogy of the Pacific Coast, by William H. Melville and Waldemar Lindgren, the objects of study being cinnabar crystals and other specimens collected during a recent examination of the quicksilver deposits of California. A Bibliography of Palæozoic Crustacea, by Anthony W. Vogdes, forms No. 63. It comprises a list of authors, a catalogue of trilobites, and a catalogue of non-trilobites. No. 66 is On a Group of Volcanic Rocks from the Tewan Mountains, New Mexico, and on the Occurrence of Primary Quartz in Certain Basalts, by Joseph P. Iddings. We have also received a paper by Charles A. White, entitled On the Geology and Physiography of a Portion of Northwestern Colorado and Adjacent Parts of Utah and Wyoming, which is to form a part of the report of the Geological Survey for 1887-'88. The district here described lies round about the Uintah Mountains, and the phenomena specially considered relate to its geological structure and to surface drainage. A colored geological map of the region and a number of diagrams are given.
The object of the series of reports on the Mineral Resources of the United States,
