or inductive, part of the book, in which the course is carried far enough to illustrate how to study fossils in a scientific way, "is a somewhat chaotic and undigested mass of facts and doctrines buried in a considerable volume of verbiage. It does not assuredly supply the means for a methodized apprehension of the elements of the subject, but it supplies many fundamental facts, many great principles, many impressions, many hints for personal observation, and many impulses to continue. Far better for the student to get so much than to leave school in total ignorance of a science which sustains so important relations to industries, to culture, and to civilization. Part II is the complement of this. Here the whole body of facts and principles is reduced to a methodical representation. . . . Here, too, the discussions of the several topics are completed, and the various portions are adjusted to a logical relation." The book treats principally of American geology, and in this all the recent additions, which have transformed the science so that "the subject has to be treated very much as if no elementary book had been written," have been made use of. The motto of the first part is, "How we may observe the facts, and learn their meaning." The successive chapters of the second part, which are divided into many special sections, treat of "lithological," "structural," and "dynamical" geology, the "progress of terrestrial life," and "formational" and "historical" geology.
Guide to the Recognition of the Principal Orders of Cryptogams, and the Commoner and more Easily Distinguished New England Genera. By Frederick Leroy Sargent. Cambridge (Mass.): Charles W. Sever. Pp. 78.
This book was prepared for the use of students in the summer course in botany at Harvard University, in which the author is a teacher. It is intended to present the distinctive characteristics of the genera of the family, which are not described in the usual text-books, with sufficient compactness for easy use in field-work. The attempt has, therefore, been made to bring together, in systematic form and a convenient shape, such information as would enable a student to learn to recognize a number of the more conspicuous genera. Half of the leaves are left blank for the convenience of students wishing to insert notes and sketches.
History of California. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. IV. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co. Pp. 186. Vol. V. San Francisco: The History Company. Pp. 184.
The fourth volume continues the history as to general affairs from 1836, and as to local affairs from 1840 to 1845. The story of the secularization of the missions is carried on. Among other topics of interest, the doings of foreigners, American occupation, the "Graham affair," the coming of Sutter, and the establishment of New Helvetia, are treated in a new light. The career and character of Sutter—whose story is closely connected with the awakening of the gold-fever and the occupation of the country by American miners—are reviewed in full. This man hardly appears here as the public-spirited citizen which many have been disposed to regard him, but as a reckless adventurer and speculator. The records of the several overland immigrant parties are given, beginning with the Batterson or Bidwell party, in 1841, and including the companies of Workman and Rowland in the same year; of Hastings, Chiles, and Walker, in 1843; of Fremont, Kelsey, and Stevens, or Murphy, in 1844; and of McMahon and Clyman, Swasey and Todd, Sublette, Grigsby, and Ide, Fremont and Walker, and Hastings and Semple, in 1845; also accounts of Commodore Jones's achievements in 1842, of the Russians who left California in 1841, the Hudson Bay Company's branch in San Francisco, the fur-hunters' operations in the interior, and the trading-caravans from New Mexico. Prominent among the topics of foreign relations are the schemes of France, England, and the United States, to gain possession of California; and particular attention is given to the plans and efforts of the United States and its agents, as shown in original corresp