whole story. This girl, as she grows to womanhood, becomes violently in love with the prince's nephew. He again is in love with and secretly marries an illegitimate daughter of the prince, a foundling who had been kept in the palace-the fact of her relationship unknown to any but herself. By and by the nephew is seized for participation in a conspiracy, and, flying to the palace for refuge, shoots himself rather than allow himself to be taken. The foundling daughter claims her relationship to the prince, and confesses the secret marriage with his nephew. Poor Olga, the prince's daughter, is utterly crushed for a time, and is only restored when she finds again in a convent the mother whom all had believed to be dead.

All this to prove that men and women can not live together in treachery, falsehood, and adultery, and that every attempt to do so will be followed by hatred and misery, such as that with which the author has filled these pages. No doubt this book will find plenty of readers. In the judgment of the present writer it is a book which, written apparently with the object of exposing and correcting vice, fails even to state what are the real problems offered by the aspects of the social life with which it professes to deal; still less does it offer any solution of them, able to command the attention and respect of the reader. In all time and in every country people have tried to live after the fashion described in this novel, and have failed. It is possible to read about such doings when the writer, by commanding ability or by a deep insight into character, is able to throw light upon any of the riddles of human life. But the reader wearies of this sort of thing, so soon as it is made apparent that the beginning and end of the whole story is simply this, that tyranny, pride, arrogance, falsehood, and adultery make life very miserable for everybody concerned. Some glimmer of light appears at the close of the volume, when the prince reveals to his daughter that her mother is still living, and the mother returns the affection of her child. No doubt a return to the truth is the beginning of every real atonement possible to us in this life. But this solution is not brought out with enough of force and clearness to justify the title and pretensions of the book.

BURLESQUE. The Treasure - trove Series: Edited by R. H. Stoddard. Boston. Wm. F. Gill & Co.

The first volume of this series promises well. It is a pretty little book, containing a dozen pieces of burlesque, selected from various English and American authors of repu tation. The selections are all good, some of them the best that could be made. There are, among others equally well known, Charles Dickens' "Noble Savage," Thomas Hood's "Parish Revolution," Washington Irving's "Golden Age of New York," and the inimitable "Encounter with an Interviewer," by Mark Twain. Many will be glad to possess so choice a selection of hu morous pieces in a volume so convenient. The writings themselves are, for the most part, too well known to need any introduction or commendation from us. Every care has been taken to make the volume attractive.

MINES AND MINING IN THE STATES AND

TERRITORIES WEST OF THE ROCKY
MOUNTAINS. Sixth Annual Report by
Rossiter W. Raymond. Washington:
Government Printing - office.

The present elaborate report, comprising statistics for the year 1873, possesses one very great merit, and that is the systematic arrangement of its contents; and in fact this may be said of the previous yearly issues of this admirable work. It is divided into three parts; the first embracing the condition of mining industry in the ten States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains; the second covering the metallurgical processes; and the third is devoted to miscellaneous matters, such as sinking shafts with the diamond drill, the defects of the mining law, and a valuable aggregation of statistics.

It will be observed that this report covers the mining - field for the year 1873, and, although issued in somewhat better season than some of the previous reports, it is nevertheless so long-deferred that much of the information is rather aged, in the light of the developments made upon the Comstock Lode within the past two years, to which no allusion is made, and for the very simple reason that the manuscript was placed in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury on the 18th

of February, 1874. One would naturally suppose that a work of this character, which is placed before the public in September, 1875, would refer in some way to the great bonanza, which was so plainly foreshadowed by Doctor Henry Degroot in the mining review written for the Commercial Herald, of this city, early in 1874. Speaking with almost prophetic intuition, he made the following reference to what has since been demonstrated as the largest ore deposit the world has ever known: "Next in this category comes the Consolidated Virginia--simply another great mine-all the exploratory works below the 900-foot level being in bonanza, which shows a steady improvement 400 feet down, the lowest point to which this ground has yet been opened. Everything in this mine is shaping favorably, the ore increasing in both grade and bulk with descent; that now being raised, some 300 tons daily, giving an average assay value of more than $200 per ton."

This review was written to cover the year 1873, and the writer well remembers the Doctor's endeavors to persuade his friends to invest in such a promising mine. At that time-early in 1873-this stock was selling at $40 per share; in October of that year the capital stock was increased to five shares for one, which were then selling at $60 and up ward per share, bringing the original to about $250. This all occurred before the close of 1873, and now it is presumable we will have to await the publication of two more volumes in order to obtain a full account of the marvelous development of this "find" during the

current year. We must, however, accord proper praise to the compiler and his assistants, who have done their work so well. The record is a valuable one, and we only regret that Government can not see the importance of an earlier issue.

Improvements in mining appliances for the reduction of the precious metals are constantly being made, one of the most recent being the Fryer process. It is well known that the mineral regions of the Pacific Coast, as well as those of Mexico, abound in rebellious ores, which can not be successfully treated by the ordinary methods of working, and on this account many mines have been in a measure abandoned. This new process is confidently expected to solve this problem, and from every reliable source of information at our command we believe it will prove a success. In experimental tests it has demonstrated all the inventor expected, and he and those associated with him-Messrs. Hall, Wallace, and others are now erecting machinery at Grass Valley for reduction on a large scale. If successful, and we confidently hope it will be, this process will produce a revolution in gold-mining hitherto unheard of, and an excitement not equaled by the first discovery of gold on this coast; and, furthermore, the inventor's name will live in history with those of the world's greatest geniuses and benefactors.

In the compilation of the Mineral Resour ces due and deserved credit has been bestowed on W. A. Skidmore, who superintended the chapter on California, and which is undoubtedly the most valuable in the work.

A

MONG the gifts lavished by nature upon California, the harbor of San Francisco is perhaps the most wonderful and most valuable. Viewed in all its magnificent proportions, its geographical location, its accessibility from the sea, its ample and protected anchorage basins, its elements of permanency and stability, and its general adaptability to the wants of commerce, it is calculated to impress the thoughtful observer as a special creation designed to furnish a permanent outlet for the trade of an empire.

The Bay of San Francisco, exclusive of the adjacent sloughs, estuaries, and channel-ways, has a superficial area of 257 square miles, of which seventy-nine square miles are within the three-fathom contour line. New York Bay at high tide covers an area of twenty-two square miles, of which but nine and one-half square miles are within the three-fathom line. Add to this the deep water in the North and East rivers, and there is a total available area for the commerce

of America's great metropolis of 21% square miles. This harbor, insignificant in comparison with that of San Francisco, is of sufficient capacity to furnish anchorage-room for 3,730 firstclass merchant-ships, or 10,965 miscellaneous merchant-vessels. The entrance to the harbor, between Fort Point and Lime Point, is about one mile in width, and the depth on the bar is thirty-three feet at low tide, sufficient to admit the largest ships afloat.

The position of the harbor with reference to the great avenues of trade, its exemption from ice and the heavy gales which prevail in more northerly latitudes, the bold wharf frontage on the San Francisco side, and the slight variations in the tides (which enable cargoes to be loaded and discharged at the least possible expense, and render unnecessary the construction of inclosed docks and other costly appliances), all combine to give this harbor a pre-eminence enjoyed by no other on the continent of America.

VOL. 15.-26.

The commercial interests of the world depend to so great an extent upon the maintenance of good tidal harbors, that the various conditions upon which their permanency depends have received the consideration of the most able scientific minds in all ages, and it may be said that these conditions have been sharply and fully defined. The most essential are, that the fresh-water and silt-bearing streams should not discharge their burden of sand and sediment directly into the anchorage basin, and that there should be interior basins or reservoirs above the harbor to give order to the tidal epochs.

All streams that flow through alluvial districts carry more or less suspended matter. When their waters encounter the tides from the ocean, or reach a deep and broad basin, the current slackens and the suspended matter is deposited. The accumulation of sediment from this source, where streams flow directly into a harbor, is rapid and disastrous, and in artificial and often in natural harbors it is found necessary to exclude the streams and make new channels for them.

The principal avenues in all harbors are maintained by the scour of the tidal currents. The effective working power of the currents does not depend wholly upon their velocities; since, if they are precisely opposite and equal, the sedimentary matter will drift back and forth, and not be permanently removed. There should be an excess of the ebb over the flood current, or vice versa. It is now a well-established fact that the ebb-tide performs much more effective work in keeping a channel open than the flood. The former is concentrative, while the latter is dispersive; the ebb moves from the shore to the centre of the channel; the flood moves from the centre of the channel to the shore; the ebb confines its work to the deep-water avenues, its

velocity being constantly maintained by

the tardy drifts from the flats and distant estuaries.

Interior basins render effective service to the ebb by increasing the velocity of the current when its action is confined to the most valuable avenues. They are not emptied as rapidly as the upper reaches of the harbor, and their waters enter the main channels after the ebb has commenced its work in the principal avenues. In other words, a large interior reservoir, which is not too distant to be filled and emptied at each tide, performs the important office of reinforcing the ebb-current when its scouring power is most active. Where large fresh-water streams flow into the reservoir, it not only collects and retains the sediment, but it gives order to the velocities and epochs. "Rivers yield but little water in the dry season, but they may become torrents after long rains. ... A harbor which has extensive basins above it, into which the land waters flow, is furnished with a compensating or regulating arrangement by which the stream which passes through the anchorage below is maintained in some degree of uniformity and unity of flowage.... The flood-current in the avenue below is not so strong, of course, as it would be without the resistance of the accumulating back-water, but it is steady, slacking only on entering the basin. The basin becomes a balance-wheel to the physical forces of the harbor.” *

Reference to the maps will show that all the streams of any magnitude that flow into the harbor of San Francisco enter it through broad and deep basins. Near Ravenswood on the south the bay contracts to a width of about one mile, and then spreads out again, forming a basin, into which the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek empty. On the east are San Leandro Bay and Lake Merritt, which receive the drainage of a large

*Report of United States Commissioners on Boston Harbor.