the great Semitic family; and the evidence shews that originally they crossed over from Asia at Behring’s Strait, a voyage still performed in canoes to the present day.  One of the titles of Montezuma was Lord of the Seven Caves; and the caves in which tradition says the traverse took place, are taken to be the caves or subterranean abodes still used by the Aleutian islanders.  This was current among the Aztecs in 1519, and the voyage of the United States’ Exploring Expedition has furnished a philological proof of connection, in the peculiar termination of nouns in tl, which is common to the inhabitants of Nootka Sound, as it was to the Aztecs.  The more the Indians are studied, the more does everything about them appear to be Eastern—­their language, religion, calendar, architecture, &c.  Their worship of fire in the open air, avoiding the use of temples, is precisely that of Zoroaster, as is also their leading doctrine of two spirits—­good and evil—­ruling the world; and the allegory of the egg of Ormuzd has been found in an earthwork on the top of a hill in Adams’s County, Ohio.  ’It represents the coil of a serpent, 700 feet long, but it is thought would reach, if deprived of its curves, 1000 feet.  The jaws of the serpent are represented as widely distended, as if in the act of swallowing.  In the interstice is an oval or egg-shaped mound.’  This repetition of a symbol is considered as further proof of Eastern derivation.

Do not suppose, however, that this is a sample of the whole volume, for ample details and information are given on all matters connected with the Indians—­their arts, habits, pursuits, pictorial literature (so to speak), sports, and agriculture.  Some idea of their capabilities in husbandry may be gathered from the fact, that in Michigan, ancient ‘garden-beds’ have been discovered, extending for 150 miles along the banks of rivers.  Students will find a mine of information in this book, which, though but the first of a series, contains nearly 600 pages—­a rare feast for ethnologists.

The Royal Irish Academy in Dublin have published a report of their proceedings, which comprise reports on rain-falls, meteors, ancient urns, and other Irish antiquities, besides Roman and Carthaginian; on hygrometry, chiefly with regard to the pressure of the dew-point; and on artificial islands.  Of the latter, it appears that several exist in different parts of Ireland; but the one to which attention is particularly directed is near Strokestown, Roscommon.  The lake Clonfinlough having been drained by the Board of Works, the structure of the islet, which had long occupied its centre, was laid bare.  It proved to be about 130 feet in diameter, constructed on oak piles, forming a sort of ‘triple stockade,’ with stems laid flat towards the centre for a floor, over which earth, clay, and marl were heaped, with two flat irregular stone-floors covering the whole at different depths below the surface.  Two canoes were also found,