Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 35.djvu/295

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LITERARY NOTICES.
281

in belts which correspond closely with the outcrops of the various geological formations. Beginning at the northwest, we have the Kittatinny Mountain and Valley, occupying the western half of Sussex and Warren counties, and corresponding to the Palæozoic formation; next, the Archæan Highlands; then the rolling Triassic or red sandstone plain; then the furrowed and irregularly hilly cretaceous plain; and, lastly, the triangular, extremely level, sandy, and pine-clad plain of the Tertiary formation, fringed seaward by a belt of tide-marsh inclosed from the sea by sand beaches. These features are common to the Atlantic slope southwest." In the detailed review these belts divide themselves up into alternating streaks of mountain and valley, table and plain, of which twenty-four are described. These divisions present, considering the limitations of the area, much diversity of aspect, from the mountain lands of the northwest, studded with lakes, with the trap dikes of the "red sandstone plain" intervening, to the swamps and pine plains and tidal plain and beach sands as we approach or when we reach the sea-coast. The description is supplemented by a table giving the areas of the several water-sheds, with the percentage of forest upon them, and their population per square mile, a list of benchmarks at which the elevation above the sea is exactly recorded; and a much larger list of elevations, from the latest and best determinations of prominent points, referred to mean sea-level. The paper on the Magnetic Survey, recording observations at one hundred and fifty-eight stations, reveals some noteworthy irregularities in declination, particularly in regions of Archæan rock, and near the trap ridges, where a tendency of the needle toward a perpendicular to the crest line of the ridge is remarked upon. This paper is accompanied by a chart showing equal lines of declination for 1888. Prof. Smock describes four natural climatic provinces in the State, each of which has its peculiar features: the Highlands and Kittatinny Valley; the Red Sandstone Plain; the Southern Interior; and the Sea-shore, or Atlantic Coast Belt. The first is not generally marked by excessive extremes of temperature, but has rather a northern climate. The last, though having nowhere a truly mild winter climate—like that of southern Florida and California, etc.—affords pleasant winter resorts. In view of the small area of the State, the variety of conditions to be found in New Jersey appears a little remarkable. A fine topographic map, and an altitude map, in which nine grades of elevation are indicated by as many distinct shades of coloring, are furnished in pockets.

Activity is resumed by the Society for Political Education by the issue of a pamphlet, No. 25 in its series, on Electoral Reform." It sets forth the grave defects in the electoral systems of most of the States, and explains the remedies therefor in secrecy of ballot and other reforms. The "New York (Saxton) Bill" and the "Massachusetts Ballot Reform Act" are appended. The next forthcoming publication of the society will deal with the "Liquor Question in Politics," and as soon as possible it will revise and reissue its list of standard works on economics, political history and science, and economic reforms, for the direction and aid of students and the general reading public. The society aims at awakening an intelligent interest in governmental methods and purposes, and at diffusing information concerning the rights and duties of citizens. Mr. George lies, secretary, 330 Pearl Street, New York, invites the co-operation of all interested in the society's work.

The Self: What is it? is the problem which Mr. J. S. Malone attempts to answer (J. P. Morton & Co., Louisville, 75 cents). He divides the human mind into two parts—intellect and sensibility—and affirms that the faculty which causes all human activity is desire, a subdivision of sensibility, challenging any one to find one voluntary human action that can be traced back to intellect as its primal cause. He deems intellect only instrumental. He affirms that moral responsibility belongs also to sense, and that the end of existence concerns only this department of mind. In the second division of his book he maintains that intellect is an offshoot from sense, and examines some of Kant's doctrines.

Mr. Frederic E. Ives has privately printed in Philadelphia a brief account of his process of photographing in colors, under the title A New Principle in Heliochromy, He