THE Atlantic for March is a good number, containing more descriptive and less purely literary articles than usual. We notice a very plausible hypothesis in regard to the original extraction of the Californian Indians, by Stephen Powers. If the theory is not fully established, the importance of philological inquiry in researches of this nature is beautifully shown.

COLLEGE exchanges indescribably dull. Western papers exploding over last year's jokes; Eastern agitated about the intellectual tournament, which (judging from the action of the Hartford convention) has dwindled down into something rather superior to an old-time spelling-match, but inferior to a good peppery debate in some Philopolysyllabic fraternity of Western fame. Apropos of the above, we are grieved to learn that black corruption has been at work in the proceedings of the convention. Vide the following extract from the Daily Saratogian:-

"The decision of the colleges, assembled in convention at Hartford, to hold their first annual literary contest in the city of New York will strike the moral sentiment of the country with surprise. Good men everywhere will view the decision with sorrow and mortification. There is but one conclusion possible in the case. The college convention was captured by the vile emissaries of Tammany. We need not name the methods that were probably employed to procure the bringing of innocent college boys within reach of those unmentionable influences in the great metropolis. The ways of Tammany are dark, and its appliances to warp the judgment of men are subtle and powerful. John Morrissey may not have been present at the convention in person, but does any one doubt that his influence silently swayed those delegates? It will no doubt be worth millions of dollars to John Morrissey to have that literary contest held in New York City, where he can lure the unsuspecting lads to his gilded halls."

If anything more was needed to make us satisfied with the position we have taken in regard to the contest, this would be enough. Deliver us from the snares of the fowler!

THE internal evidence afforded by the Bowdoin Orient goes to show that the interest in college journalism at Bowdoin must be at a very low ebb. We are sorry it is so, but candor compels us to say that the number for February II is shockingly flimsy.

WE have received the ghost of what we suppose to be the Index Niagarensis. It has "faded like a flower" to that point that we at first mistook it for a sample of rather dirty paper.

THE Magenta comes to us this week under the auspices of the new board. Numerous compliments on the poetry of both the Magenta and Advocate have been bestowed by the college press of the country. To these we would add ours, trusting that all college publications will bring up their poetry to the standard found in the Harvard papers. - Yale Courant.

The Magenta comes to us with its usual characteristics, and we can say without flattery that it is printed on very good paper. - Yale Record.

What more could we desire! The literary merit and exterior appearance of our humble publication both appreciated! And what is still more gratifying, the comments elicited are both peculiarly characteristic of the paper from which they emanate. Each journal praises that of which it is most appreciative. The Courant, the man full grown, with his reasoning and aesthetic faculties fully developed, commends, with dignified discrimination, the beauties of thought and diction; while the little Record, with all the freshness and simplicity of a child conning its first picture-book, regards not the matter, but admires, with enthusiastic delight, the beautiful form and appearance of our paper.

AND now the Cornell Times has been breaking another lance with its usual Quixotic valor. This time the victim is the Syracuse College, which "Methodist `University'" the Times kindly hopes will outlive the winter, and ends in a climax by declaring, with evident pride, that the standard of admission at Cornell is as high as at Vale or Harvard. The Syracuse University Herald suggests, in reply, that the Times is suffering from the jaundice and blighted hopes, and earnestly advises a protracted visit at Dryden Springs Place (which is equal to Yale or Harvard). So far the Herald has the best of it, but a broadside may be expected from the next issue of the Times.

A PROFESSOR once stated to a class that a fool could put as many questions in an hour as would puzzle a wise man for a day. "By Jove!" exclaimed one of the students; "now I understand how I was plucked last time in constitutional history." - Ex.

WE tremble before the scientific knowledge of the Berkleyan. One of its poets comes out this month with a poem on the Mauvaises Terres, and freely slings in flowing rhythm such terms as "Cenozoic twilight," "sutured skull," and "circumambient walls . . . . with alkaloid surcharged." Now, we can understand such an expression as "sepulchral tomb," - indeed, the meaning is only too plain, - but when it comes to "Oreodon" and "Titanotherium," - if this goes on, new metres will have to be devised with special reference to the scientific dictionary. We recommend this poem as a syllabus to all who elect Natural History.

A SENIOR last Friday afternoon inquired in the Library for "Gertie's Conception of Hamlet." He was unable to find it. In our opinion, the ghost of Hamlet's father knows more about that little matter than any one else. - Yale Record.

Class in Metaphysics. Prof. - Mr. A -, what is a co-ordinate conception of nature? Student (in undertone). - Twins. - Ex.