1875, $17,000 in gold was paid for duties, and $328,364 in gold certificates. On October 22d, $18,000 in gold, and $275,000 in gold certificates; and on January 6th, 1876, $20,000 in gold to $416,174 in gold certificates.'

The average of receipts, in actual gold, for duties at New York, for the last ten days of December, were but a fraction more than ten thousand dollars daily.

It is also well known that at the periodical sales of gold from the Treasury, certificates are delivered almost exclusively. In very few instances is anything other than certificates desired by bidders, and it is understood that the sales are to be so adjusted. Payments of interest on the public debt are, by law, provided to be made through these certificates, and though gold may be drawn for them, if needed for remittance, it is usually done by others than those to whom the interest is paid. It is, of course, to be expected that every advantage accruing to individuals or to the Treasury, from the law authorizing the use of these gold notes as currency, will be made available. They form, as we have shown, much more than nine-tenths of the money used in paying duties at the Custom House, and at least an equal proportion of payments out of the Treasury-since the Treasury gets its gold only from customs and from special depositors desiring certificates.

A careful search for gold, outside the Treasury vaults, fails to disclose any large amount. The banks hold but a few millions, and in New York the sums reported as specie are undoubtedly chiefly "gold certificates"-issued originally, perhaps, on deposited silver bullion. On October 1, 1875, the National Banks of the city of New York held but $4,956,624 in specie; and the State Banks of the same city, on September 18, held $788,100 only. The total, reported by all the banks in other cities, about that time, was less

For the week ending Sept. 11, 1875, the total of payments for duties at New York was $2,650,032, of which $130,000 was gold, and $2,519,032 certifiOther weeks of 1875 were as follows:

cates.

In former years the proportion was almost equally large; showing the very

large constant use of this form of currency since its first authorization.

than a million of dollars, exclusive of California. Of the twentyseven banks of Philadelphia, nine reported no specie at all on October 1, 1875, or January 1, 1876; and the average of specie held by them at the first named date, was but $4,500 for each bank, and for the last named an average of $15,000 each. The average held at the same dates, in the city of New York, was $105,000 each, for sixty banks, on October 1, and nearly $350,000 each on January 1, 1876. A sudden increase at the close of the year, in both cases, represents interest paid out, by the Treasury, on United States securities held by the banks, which will be exported, if coin, and if in gold certificates, will go into circulation immediately."

It is not easy to trace the so-called "gold certificates" from their issue to their cancellation, but it appears that all the silver deposited at the several treasury offices, is immediately duplicated in this form. During December, 1875, it was reported that a large quantity of silver bullion-several tons weight—was deposited at the New York sub-treasury office, and during that month, also, the reported aggregate of certificates, held by the Treasury, rose from $12,000,000 to $31,198,300; the reported "coin balance," exclusive of these, remaining almost unchanged at about $48,000,000. If the Treasury itself, on January 1, held $31,200,000 of these, and the banks had ten or twelve millions of them, with considerable amounts in daily use, in payment of duties, what is the probable amount of the whole issue in use, and uncancelled?

We might and perhaps should next take up the supposed stocks of gold and silver held in California, to see what addition should be made from that source; but the statistics are not at hand, nor are they altogether trustworthy, as usually quoted. It has been the habit for some years past to promptly export, either to New York or to England, every dollar of coin or bullion produced in California in excess of the most urgent wants. The producers of both gold and silver cannot afford to hold it unused, and they send it by express at once for deposit at New York, and representation by certificates that can be used. When the late panic came at San Fran

2The Philadelphia banks, 27 in number, reported, on October 11, 1875, an aggregate of $119 011, in specie; and the New York banks, 60 in number, reported, on October 16, $6.389,200, in specie. These were the lowest aggre gates in each case, and a slow increase then set in, attaining twice as large sums before the close of December.

cisco as the result of the failure of the Bank of California, all the banks and bankers were bare of gold. Twice they were compelled to beg special returns of gold from the East, through the assent of the Treasury, to keep themselves from breaking under very moderate calls for deposits. It is safe to assume that both the bullion and the coined product of the mining States does not remain unused any longer than is necessary to transport it by express to the monetary centre at New York.3

The reserved stock of gold or silver in California and Nevada is at least not large. In fact, it is less than the business exigencies of that part of the country constantly require, as a protection against panics. Adhering to the gold basis, as they do, their reserve must be large, much larger than banks in the eastern cities require, or they are at the mercy of any temporary disturbance of credit, and consequent demand for deposits.

In reviewing the current belief as to the stocks of gold and bullion held in the country, the conclusion is irresistible that there is at the utmost not more than half the coin and bullion that the gold statements, as they are called, represent. If the gold certificates held by the United States Treasury to the amount of $34,000,000 during the first ten days of the current month, January, represent coin in the Treasury, what is the actual stock of gold, and what

3 The promptness with which the silver product is now forwarded to New York is shown by the following citation of receipts of silver on certain days of December last, at the U. S. Assay office:

December 13. Received one third of a ton of silver on deposit.

The whole amount of silver so reported as received from December 13 to January 6, is therefore eight and one-third tons; the value of which, at the ruling price per ounce, is nearly $350,000.

the stock of silver? How much actual gold do the banks hold, and how much of gold certificates counted as gold? In fact, the evidence is strong, that less than twenty millions of gold exists in the country in any form, and of silver coin and bullion, about twenty millions in value.

NEW BOOKS.

NORSE MYTHOLOGY; OR THE Religion of our FOREFATHERS. Containing all the Myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted. With an introduction, vocabulary and index. By R. B. Anderson, A. M., Professor of the Scandinavian languages in the University of Wisconsin. Author of "America not Discovered by Columbus," "Den Norske Maalsag," etc. 8vo. Pp. 473. Price $2.50. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1876.

Accord

Professor Anderson is, to borrow his own phrase, a "true son of Thor," impatient of the long domination of southern thought in art and literature, and anxious for a revolution which shall establish a school of true northern art. Too long, he thinks, we have worked after classic models, and have chosen subjects for pen or pencil from the mythologies of the south of Europe, to the almost entire neglect of the myths and sagas of our own Gothic race. This is certainly not because the northern mythology is lacking in subjects worthy of the best efforts of poets, painters or sculptors, but is due to a system of education which shapes our tastes in a foreign mould, and allows us to grow up in lamentable ignorance of the really noble and beautiful productions of the genius of our own forefathers. inly, Professor Anderson treats his subject in the main from the stand-point of art. His introduction, which fills about one third of the whole book, is devoted to a general discussion of the beauties of the mythology of the Eddas-which contain the largest fragment preserved to us from the mythology once existing throughout the entire north of Europe-and of the influence which this mythology has really, although silently, exercised over the spirit of modern Anglo-Germanic literature; and lastly to a comparison between it and that of the Greeks and Romans, to which he unhesitatingly gives it the preference. The writer does not attempt to conceal that his high admiration of the Norse myths has its source in the fact that they embody the father-faith; and although, without doubt, his leading propositions will meet with general assent, a perceptible effort to make the most of his subject will, we think, dampen the interest of most of his readers in this part of his work.

The remaining two-thirds of the book is an admirably digested account of the Norse myths, accompanied by an exposition of their

origin and meaning according to the latest results of comparative mythology. Professor Anderson claims for this part of his work, and we think rightly, that it is "the first complete and systematic presentation of the Norse mythology in the English language." Besides giving his own rendering of the myths, he has made frequent extracts, some of them quite long, from the Elder or Poetic Edda; so that his readers are not only able to check his own version by a reference to the original source of information, but can form some idea of the character of this quaint and interesting work. His exposition of the myths, when we make allowance for the difference of opinion which still exists among the best mythologists respecting minor points, is all that could be wished. The old historical interpretation, which was formerly in especial favor among writers on the northern mythology, has been set aside, and in its place is presented the now almost universally accepted tenet that all mythology has its base in physical nature. Thus Odin, formerly held to be an old king of the Goths, is the god of the firmament, corresponding to the Zeus of the Greeks and the Dyaus of the Hindoos; Odin's one eye is the sun, his broad hat the expanse of the heavens, and his eight-footed horse, Sleipnir, the winds, which blow from eight quarters of the heavens. Thor is the thunder, and his hammer Miolnir the thunderbolt. Loki is fire, Balder the summer sun; and the Giants, with whom Thor is eternally at strife, are personifications of frost, ice, snow, storms and other like agents who seem bent on the overthrow of nature and the gods. Out of the contemplation of these objects arose mythology; yet, a point quite too often overlooked, they are only the crude material of which myths are made. "The physical interpretation alone," says Professor Anderson, “is the shell without the kernel. Nature gives us only the source of the myth; but we want its value in the minds and hearts of a people in their childhood. The touching gracefulness of Nanna, and of Idun reclining on Brage's breast, was not suggested by nature alone, but the pictures of these reflect corresponding natures in our ancestors. To explain a myth simply by the phenomenon in external nature (be it remembered, however, that man also constitutes a part of nature) that suggested it to the ancients, would be reducing mythology to a natural science." It is, indeed, because the history of a system of mythology from its origin, now that its mode of development is beginning to be understood, is in a great measure the history of the intellectual growth of a people, that mythology has become, next to language, the most valuable monument of a prehistoric age. Of all the Aryan systems, none has so deep an interest for us as that of our own branch of the Aryan family. We trust, therefore, that this work both will be instrumental in turning attention in this country to the hitherto neglected field of northern antiquities, and will meet with a reception which will encourage its writer to add to the list of his already published works on Scandinavian history and literature.