to them by their rarity; they are treasures not merely for the bibliomaniac, but for the scientific world, who have given them a high rank in the highest class to which such publications belong. And this is not the only instance of the illtimed economy of Congress in respect to the few scientific works of merit and interest, the publication of which has devolved upon the government. The invaluable reports of the explorations of Nicolet and Fremont, the geological surveys of Foster and Whitney, and the annual reports of the distinguished head of the Coast Survey, appear in dingy pamphlets the typography of which would be a disgrace to a penny newspaper. What lucky accident or skilful management has rescued Mr. Schoolcraft's Indian researches from a similar fate, we cannot tell. Those who are conversant with the manner in which the annual appropriation bills are framed, and with the influences under which they are passed by both Houses of Congress, might probably solve the mystery, if they saw fit. But we seek not to enter into their secret. These costly volumes, we repeat, have a national character. They are not merely published under government patronage; they form a government work, devoted to a great national object. Commenced at the instigation of the Department of Indian. Affairs, carried on under the direction of the Secretary of War, supported by frequent and large appropriations of the public money, and finally published in the most sumptuous style "by authority of Congress," the government is fairly held responsible for them. They will be examined both abroad and at home with interest and attention.

The first volume is devoted chiefly, but not exclusively, to Indian antiquities and the few traces which remain of the history of the aborigines before the whites landed upon this continent. It contains little or nothing that is new, as a collection even of materials previously well known it is very incomplete, and not even an attempt is made to systematize. the information, or to deduce from it any general conclusions or theories which may throw light upon the ancient history of the Indian race, or the revolutions which it may have undergone. The only object of the author or editor appears to have been, to bring together matter enough to fill a large vo

lume, no matter whether it bore an immediate or remote relation to the principal subject, or whether the parts bore any relation whatever to each other. Thus, the history of the exploration of the Mississippi River was sufficiently well known, and the exploration itself was long ago completed. The last step in it was taken by Mr. Schoolcraft himself, in 1832, when, in an expedition under government auspices, he traced the source of the river to Itasca lake, and published a detailed account of his journey in an illustrated volume, two years afterwards. We see no reason for treating the reader with the crambe decies repetita of this successful journey, which was neither a difficult nor eventful one, or for prefacing it with a long account of the other explorers of the same stream, from De Soto downwards, or, still less, for intruding the matter into the midst of a volume on Indian antiquities. Quite as little can be said for the intrusion of the meagre and valueless essay, which follows, on the Gold Deposits of California. It contains a very bald account of the discovery which has proved so fruitful and important, of the imperfect mineralogical examination of the specimens first sent to the War Office, of ancient gold mines and those found in South America, and a good deal of loose speculation about the extent and character of the deposits, and the probability of finding other veins of the metal in the more elevated rocks. Not a fact is given which had not been made known in the newspapers long before the publication of this first volume in 1851. Of the whole essay, chapter, or section - whichever the author may please to call it - we may well say,

"The thing itself is neither rich nor rare ;"

and when we find it interpolated into a huge volume about the native tribes of North America, we have no feeling

"But wonder how the devil it got there."

Next, in the order or disorder of Mr. Schoolcraft's first volume, is a section purporting to be "Mineralogical and Geographical Notices, denoting the value of aboriginal territory": -a magnificent title for a small collection of scraps, which appear to have been cut out of the newspapers, about tin on the Kansas river, lead ores in Wisconsin and Iowa, native

silver in Michigan, a recent unsuccessful attempt to obtain salt by deep boring in Onondaga county, and the geography of the Genesee country, in western New York. The astonished reader may well ask, What has all this to do with the North American Indians? And this inquiry seems still more pertinent, when, after skipping ten or a dozen pages, he finds the next chapter or section to relate to the "Existing Geological Action of the North American Lakes." If there were any novelty or value in the facts here communicated, we might pardon the intrusion of them into the discussion of a theme with which they have no conceivable relation or union. But the passage contains nothing which was not familiarly known to every careless voyager over our Great Lakes, who has had curiosity enough to observe the configuration of the shores along which he sailed. The oft repeated and still oftener described phenomena of ancient disruption and upheaval, of abrasion and drift, which the well-trained geologist now hardly stops to notice, are here enumerated as if the only object were to fill out a paragraph, and are sometimes described with wearisome minuteness. Of the value of the general remarks suggested by these desultory notices of very common geological phenomena, the following may serve as a specimen.

7. CONTINENTAL ABRASION. If we are to regard the Lakes as a grand geological triturating apparatus, converting its loose and shore rocks into a pulverulent state, it may be anticipated that their action on the configuration of the shores will be very considerable in the course of long periods. What is lost in this process in one place, from their rock area, is found to augment the quantity of alluvial soil in another; which, in time, renders the whole area suitable for agriculture. Thus the plough gradually, but surely, follows the tempest and the hurricane; while the absolute indestructibility of matter is man's guarantee under every change.

"8. INTEGRITY OF MATTER. The absolute quantity and cubical area of material matter (!) of these immense areas is still the same. The elements of which they are composed are seen to be indestructible. No change of combination or position is seen to take from, or add to, the material aggregate. If physical matter (!) under the force of tempests, could be destroyed, as well as change its forms, there would result an annihilation of a part or molecule of the original accretion of elements. Wild as their rage sometimes is, casting vessels

on high on these Lakes, the entire volume of them yet retains its integrity."

We shall not dispute either the geology or the philosophy of this passage. Of course, if "material matter" or "physical matter," to adopt our author's happy phrases, "could be destroyed," there can be no doubt that "an annihilation of a part or molecule would result." But what has all this to do with the "History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes"? The few feeble remnants of them that still linger about the shores of the Great Lakes will not probably continue long enough to witness the final conversion of the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior into smiling cornfields.

As Mr. Schoolcraft came down to our own day to speak of the present action of the waters of the Lakes, he makes amends in the next section, by taking a great leap backwards to what he calls "the antique osteology of the Monster Period." We know not which of the geological ages are here referred to, as they are all of "monster" length, and most of the animals which lived in them would appear monstrous if exhibited in a modern menagerie. But no matter; palæontology is an interesting study, and we were prepared to welcome any new contributions to it, even if foisted into a treatise where they do not belong. Whatever may have been thought of the promise of a chapter with such a title, however, it was barren of fulfilment; for it proved on examination to contain nothing but a letter from a correspondent, giving a meagre account of one of those curious "salt licks" in the western States, which seem in a former geological period to have operated as mastodon traps, these huge animals frequenting them in quest of salt, and venturing too far into the treacherous morass, becoming inextricably entangled, and perishing ignobly in the mire. Only one complete specimen appears to have been disinterred; and as our author speaks of visiting it after it was set up for exhibition in Piccadilly, London, we may presume that its history and character were pretty well known, before these big volumes, which look like mastodons among our books, were written. But again we ask, how does this concern the Indians?

Our readers must not imagine, however, that these volumes

are like a representation of Hamlet, with the part of the philosophic Prince of Denmark himself entirely left out. Unquestionably a good deal is said about the Indians in them, though very little is said to the purpose. The next section or chapter bears as its title "an Aboriginal Palladium, as exhibited in the Oneida Stone." The Oneida Indians, it seems, were wont to meet in council, on the top of a hill in their territory, around a huge boulder rock, "irregularly orbicular" in shape, which they naturally enough adopted as the symbol of their tribe, and from its name, Oneota, came their usual appellation. According to the confused account here given, this word signifies, in the Indian tongue, "the People of the Stone, or, by a metaphor, the People who sprang from the Stone;" though this etymology seems to conflict with the story that the word was originally the proper name of the stone itself, and not of the people who were named after it. Of course, we are treated to a full account and a fine colored engraving of this "aboriginal palladium," from neither of which can we discern that it differed much from other boulders, which are found in great abundance in the neighborhood. Our author made a journey in 1845, with Indian guides, expressly to examine it, and found that its surface was somewhat rougher than is common with boulders that have been drifted so far; and this "peculiarity," he sagaciously conjectures, "may perhaps be the result of ancient fires kindled against its sides." He also made the interesting discovery, "on closely inspecting this stone," that "minute species of mosses are found to occupy asperities in its surface." We are not told that other boulders on the neighboring hills present similar phenomena; but we may safely believe that they do. It is also said to be "one of the peculiar features of this hill of the Oneida or Oneota stone, that its apex shelters from the north-east winds the worst winds of our continenta fertile transverse valley." This is certainly rather extraordinary; for it can hardly be said to be "a peculiar feature" of any hill with which we happen to be acquainted, that its apex shelters from the north-east wind some lowland tract in its neighborhood.

An article on the new Territory of Minnesota contains