fact, can be brought into harmony with the existing environment, and embraces, in a wider synthesis, all that is good in other philosophies and religions."
Mr. Laing does not deny the excellent moral elements to be found in Christianity; but he thinks that there are also serious moral deficiencies in it, and that Zoroastrianism has "the most complete and comprehensive code of morals to be found in any system of religion." Moreover, he thinks that Christians at the present day are really worshipers of the good principle as personified in Christ; or, in other words, that "modern Christians are, to a great extent, without knowing it, worshipers of Ormuzd, with Christ for their Ormuzd"; and this he regards as an excellent thing, and perfectly in harmony with his own principles. Of course, Mr. Laing recognizes the fact that the Zoroastrian religion can not be adapted to modern needs without some changes; but he thinks it requires fewer changes than any other ancient religion, while it can at the same time absorb into itself all that is good in the others. We should add that the author's views are well expressed; the printer's part of the work has been well done; and readers having a taste for this class of subjects will find the book an interesting one.
The Story of Metlakahtla. By Henry S. Wellcome. New York: Saxon & Co. Pp. 483. Price, $1.50.
This story is intended to excite sympathy. A tribe of savage Indians living in British Columbia, near the Alaska line, has been Christianized and civilized under the missionary efforts of the Rev. William Duncan, several thousand souls being comprehended under the influence of the work. An Anglican bishop has attempted to impose upon them a ritual and discipline which they reject, and the Colonial Government has taken land which they claim and given it to the Church Missionary Society. Their appeals for recompense having been refused, they are now seeking to remove in a body to Alaska, within the territory of the United States. The story of their claims and alleged wrongs is told in detail, with numerous references to official documents and public correspondence.
A History of the Doctrine of Comets. By Andrew D. White. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 43. Price, 25 cents.
This is a fuller version of the author's essay, which was published, as the first of "New Chapters in the Warfare of Science," in the "Monthly" for October, 1885, and was read at the meeting of the American Historical Association in September of the same year. It is published in substantial form, on thick paper, and with clear, open type, as No. II, Vol. II, of the "Papers of the American Historical Association." With its copious citations from authors and notables of every age, and of the most curious theories and opinions on the subject, it is a paper of rare interest.
Dinocerata: a Monograph of an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammalia. By Othniel Charles Marsh. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 243, with Fifty-six Plates.
This memoir is the second in the author's series of monographs on the extinct vertebrate life of North America. The first volume described the Odontornithes, or birds with teeth, of the cretaceous deposits on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. The present volume contains the record of a peculiar order of mammals, which Professor Marsh has brought to light in the early Tertiary strata of the great central plateau of the continent. Their remains have hitherto been found in a single Eocene lake-basin in Wyoming, and none are known from any other part of this country, or from the Old World. This lake-basin, now drained by the Green River, slowly filled up with sediment coming from the Wahsatch, Uintah, and Wind River Mountains, but remained a lake so long that the deposits formed in it, during Eocene time, reached a vertical thickness of more than a mile. It has since been subjected to a vast erosion, by which it has been carved into the picturesque Bad Lands; and this erosion has brought to light the remains of many extinct animals, among which the bones of the Dinocerata, from their great size, attracted particular attention. Among the other animals represented were ancestral forms of the modern horse and tapir, and of the pig. Many others were found related to the recent lemurs; also various
