The elevation of the Zuñi Plateau was attended by the marked bulging or protrusion of limited portions of the Archæan mass carrying up with them the overlying sediments, and forming Mount Sedgwick and other elevations borne upon the plateau. The forms of these granite bosses, as well as the remarkable metamorphism of the immediately overlying carboniferous sandstone, would seem to suggest very strongly that they may be true laccolites. And this view relieves us of the necessity of accounting for the softening in situ of the Archæan so near the surface, since these, bosses can never have been covered by more than ten thousand feet of strata. There is evidence that the basic eruptions which built up Mount Taylor and the volcanic caps of the mesas were subsequent to some part of the principal erosion of the country, though contemporaneous with a large part of it.

None of Captain Dutton's conclusions will interest the general student more than those relating to the formation of mountains. He traces a series of mountain forms from the extreme simplicity of structure disclosed in the Zuñi Plateau to the comparatively complex structure of the Wasatch and Basin ranges, and finds a generic idea running through them all. It is the idea that was taught us when we were school-boys, that mountains consist of granitic or metamorphic cores, with sedimentary strata upturned upon their flanks.

'Within the past twelve or fifteen years it has become a widely accepted view among the geologists of Europe and America that the forces which have elevated mountains are derived from the strains set up in the outer envelopes of the earth by the secula cooling and shrinkage of its interior; but it should be borne in mind that geological science has flourished most in those countries where the best known and most thoroughly studied mountains and ridges are greatly plicated. To the European geologist the Alps and the Jura have always been the most commanding and interesting of orographic structures. To the Briton the highlands of Scotland and Wales have been equally absorbing fields of research, in which the solution of the problem of mountain-building has been attempted. In America geology had its first and most rapid growth in the Appalachian region, and, when it sought fresh fields in the Pacific slope, it first found them in the Coast Ranges and in the Sierra Nevada. All of these regions are more or less plicated; and it is not to be wondered at that a universal conviction should have grown up that plication and mountain-building are only different names for one and the same thing, or that the process which built the mountains folded the strata at the same time. But as soon as the geologists penetrated the vast mountain-belt which lies east of the Sierra and west of the Great Plains, and proceeded to a careful study of the forms there presented, a wholly different state of affairs was revealed. Not a trace of a systematic plication has yet been found there. The terms anticlinal' and 'synclinal' have almost dropped out of the vocabulary of the Western geologist. The strata are often flexed, but the type of the flexure is the monocline."

"The Rocky Mountain region discloses whatever it has to tell us about physical geology with marvellous clearness and emphasis, but there is no teaching more clear or more emphatic than the absence of plicating forces from among the agencies which have built its magnificent ranges and hoisted its great plateaus. They have been lifted by vertical forces acting beneath them. The country at large shows no traces of a widespread, universal, horizontal compression; on the contrary, it discloses the absence of such stress." These statements are undoubtedly correct, so far as the paleozoic and later formations, and the existing reliefs of the West, are concerned; and Captain Dutton probably did not intend that they should be applied to the Archæan strata of that region, since these are everywhere as strongly plicated as the rocks of any district on the globe. When these ancient crystalline schists of the Rocky Mountain region were folded up, mountains of the Appalachian type must have been formed. But these were largely swept away by erosion before the beginning of the grand cycle of events which Captain Dutton has outlined.

NOTES AND NEWS.

AT a meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, Dec. 17, an interesting paper was read by Mr. C. L. Hopkins on the sense of

smell in buzzards. This much-debated point was strongly set forth by Mr. Hopkins relating his experience in Florida. It was the uniform testimony of the Florida crackers' that buzzards obtained food by smell. He observed that buzzards never left their roosts on damp, foggy mornings until the ground and shrubbery were dry. They would then move slowly across the wind until a scent was struck, when they would work up the wind until the carrion was found. Sometimes they would drift down the wind, past their prey, until they struck the scent, which would be followed up, finding the object of their search sometimes in the densest scrub. He had on several occasions killed wild hogs in the scrub, and after dressing them, and taking what meat he wished, would see twenty or more buzzards coming down with the wind. On several occasions, covered offal had been detected by them. They had also discovered a buried snake. Several other instances were related, which, in Mr. Hopkins's opinion, conclusively proved that buzzards find some of their food by scent, though that did not preclude the possibility or probability that they obtain other food by sight.

- An interesting event took place at the Perkins Institute for the Blind at South Boston on Dec. 21. It was the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the entrance into that institution of Laura Bridgeman, the famous blind deaf-mute. Her first instructor, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, is long since dead; but his wife, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, presided at the reception. The phenomenal education of Miss Bridgeman will always remain a monument of pedagogic skill. She lost her sight and hearing when two years old, and her taste and smell are both very defective. She speaks by making the manual signs of the deaf-and-dumb, and reads the similar motions of the speaker' by feeling the letters as they are formed. She does this with marvellous rapidity, and all the addresses were interpreted to her as they were delivered at the reception. Among the speakers were Dr. Edward Everett Hale and Dr. Phillips Brooks.

The only railway extending into the Arctic zone runs north from the port of Lulea, in Sweden, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, toward the iron-mines of the Gellivara Mountains. The first train to cross the Arctic circle passed over this road a few weeks ago.

Mr. J. A. Brashear gave an exhibition at his works, Allegheny, Penn., on Dec. 8, 9, and 10, of the large star spectroscope designed and constructed for the Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California.

The secretary of the committee for the organization of the American Folk-Lore Society, W. W. Newell, Cambridge, Mass., announces that the society will organize in a meeting to be held on Jan. 4 in Cambridge, Mass. The number of members amounts at the present time to two hundred, and, as the society has thus obtained an income sufficient to support a journal, it will begin work. The plan of organizing a society of this kind must recommend itself to all interested in the science of man. The scope of the society's work will be the study of the relics of Old English folk-lore, the lore of negroes in the Southern States of the Union, lore of the Indian tribes of North America, and that of French Canada, Mexico, etc. Furthermore, the study of the general problems of folk-lore, and publication of the results of special students in this department, will form one of the objects of the society. Our country is particularly adapted to the study of certain problems connected with folk-lore, such as the development of European and African lore in a new environment, and the origin of a new lore in mixed races. The material furnished by such researches is of prime importance for a study of the psychology of nations. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the fact that the collection of the rapidly vanishing remains of Indian folk-lore must be carried on vigorously, and on an intelligent plan, else it will be too late. The publications of the society will undoubtedly contain a vast amount of interesting material, and will amply repay the annual fee of three dollars. Our knowledge of the subject of American lore is still so slight, that almost any one who comes into contact with Indians, negroes, or the less educated white men, can make valuable contributions to this science; and therefore we would wish that the membership of the new society were thousands instead of hundreds.

-An interesting geographic sketch lies before us, which refers to a country but seldom described. It is Charles Bell's The Selkirk Settlement and the Settlers' (Winnipeg, 1887, 44 pp.), its contents being a concise history of the Red River Country of Canada from its discovery. It is also made to include local information from original documents lately discovered, and many biographical notes from old Selkirk colonists. A considerable portion of the pamphlet is taken up by the narration of the Selkirk colony's foundation under the leadership of Miles MacDonell, born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1769, and selected by Lord Selkirk in 1810 for the purpose above mentioned. The colonists started from Stornoway to the number of one hundred and twenty-five, and consisted of Londoners, Scotchmen, Irishmen, and inhabitants of the Orkney Islands. The party did not arrive at Red River, Manitoba, before August, 1812, and then set themselves to erect buildings on the west bank of Assiniboine River. The colony already exceeded the number of two hundred colonists, when in 1814 trouble arose with the employees of the North-west Company. Several bloody conflicts took place before tranquillity was restored, four years after. Numerous woodcuts contribute largely in enlivening our interest in the narrative presented by Mr. Bell.

- The explosion of a water-reservoir or boiler in the kitchen of the Kirby House, Milwaukee, recently was perfectly recorded in the vibrations given by the shock to a ruling-machine in the bindery of The Sentinel. The machine is directly opposite one of the windows of the bindery, and was in full motion when the explosion took place, drawing straight lines. The first impulse of the shock carried the pen nearly half an inch from the true line; then for some distance it approached the true line again without wavering, when it suddenly drew waving lines for the final reactionary vibrations. The lines are just such as are made by the seismometer in an earthquake shock.

-Recent soundings in Lake Leman and the Lake of Constance have shown that the beds of the Rhone and of the Rhine may be traced for a considerable distance on the bottom of the lakes. It is well known that the deposits of these rivers form a flat cone extending far into the lakes. On these cones embankments are found which enclose the bed of the river. That of the Rhine is cut into the deposits, while that of the Rhone is not deeper than the surface of the cone. F. A. Forel has studied these phenomena thoroughly. He determined the density of the water of the Rhone and of Lake Leman, and found that the former is almost throughout the year denser than the latter. A series of experiments on the influence of suspended matter upon the density of water shows, that, if the matter is moving vertically downward, the density of the mixture may be found by adding the weight of the suspended matter to that of the liquid, and dividing the total by the volume of the mixture. As the Rhone carries a great amount of suspended matter, the latter must be taken into consideration; and Forel's researches show that the density of the water of the Rhone, as dependent on its temperature and the amount of dissolved and suspended matter, is greater than that of the lake except during a brief period in spring. On the sides of the current, where it adjoins the stagnant water of the lake, the suspended matter is precipitated, and thus the dikes are formed. It is possible, that, in addition to this, the water, of the rivers has a slight eroding action.

----

- On Dec. 1, Sir John Lubbock, we learn from Nature, read a paper before the Linnean Society, in continuation of his previous memoirs, on the habits of ants, bees, and wasps. He said it was generally stated that the English slave-making ant (Formica sanguinea), far from being entirely dependent on slaves, as was the case with Polyergus rufescens, the slave-making ant par excellence, was really able to live alone, and that the slaves were only, so to say, a luxury. Some of his observations appeared to throw doubt on this. In one of his nests the ants were prevented from making any fresh capture of slaves. Under these circumstances, the number of slaves gradually diminished, and at length the last died. At that time there were some fifty of the mistresses still remaining. These, however, rapidly died off, until at the end of June, 1886, there were only six remaining. He then placed near the door of the nest some pupæ of Formica fusca, the slave ant. These were at once carried in, and soon came to maturity. The mortality

among the mistresses at once ceased, and from that day to this only two more have died. This seems to show that the slaves perform some indispensable function in the nest, though what that is still remains to be discovered. As regards the longevity of ants, he said that the old queen ant, which had more than once been mentioned to the society, was still alive. She must now be fourteen years old, and still laid fertile eggs, to the important physiological bearing of which fact he called special attention. He discussed the observations and remarks of Graber as regards the senses of ants, with special reference to their sensibility towards the ultraviolet rays, and referred to the observations of Forel, which confirmed those he had previously laid before the society. Professor Graber had also questioned some experiments with reference to smell. He, however, maintained the accuracy of his observations, and pointed out that Graber had overlooked some of the precautions which he had taken his experiments seemed to leave no doubt as to the existence of a delicate sense of smell among ants. As regards the recognition of friends, he repeated some previous experiments, with the same results. He took some pupæ from one of his nests (A), and placed these under charge of some ants from another nest (B) of the same species. After they had come to maturity, he placed some in nest A, and some in nest B. Those placed in their own nest were received amicably; those in the nests of their nurses were attacked and driven out. This showed that the recognition is not by the means of a sign or password, for in that case they would have been recognized in nest B, and not in nest A. Dr. Warsmann had confirmed his observations in opposition to the statement of Lespis, that white ants are enemies to those of another nest, even belonging to the same species: the domestic animals, on the other hand, can be transferred from one nest to another, and will be amicably received. In conclusion, he discussed the respective functions of the eyes and ocelli, and referred to several other observations on various interesting points in the economy of the social Hymenoptera.

- The reports of the German factory inspectors for 1886 contain some interesting statistics respecting the hours of labor, accidents, etc., in various districts and in different employments. On the whole, the number of work-people increased, in the fifteen districts for which reports are published, from 596,561 in 1884, to 642,386, being an increase of 33.496, or 7.7 per cent, of males, and 12,329, or 7.6 per cent, of females. The industries in which the chief increase took place were textiles, food, wood, and carving. There was a great decrease in the number employed in mining. In some districts there was a great lack of employment, while farmers were complaining that they could not find laborers to do their work. In Bavaria, in 29.4 per cent of all industries the hours of labor were from 11 to 16 hours daily; in 59.6 per cent from 10 to 11 hours; and in the remainder from 11 down to 5 hours. The last-named time applied only to the work of putting the quicksilver on the backs of looking-glasses. Excessively long hours prevail in breweries, where they are never less than 16 hours a day. In the Düsseldorf district nearly 40 manufacturers of textiles have entered into a convention not to make the working-day longer than 12 hours. According to a regulation made in 1885, all accidents in factories must be brought to the knowledge of the inspectors. This accounts for the apparently enormous increase in the number of accidents: 2,394 were brought to the inspectors' notice during the year. These are arranged under two heads: (1) The causes; (2) The consequences to the victim. More than one-half are put down to inevitable accident, and more than one-third to carelessness and want of skill. More than four-fifths were attended only with temporary incapacity for work. The work-people appear to understand and enter into the spirit of the recent insurance laws; but it seems from the reports that the increase of children's labor, the night-work of women, and the prolonged hours of labor of women and children in certain places, are the next subjects connected with German labor that call for legislative regulation and interference.

-The attempt is being made to organize a debating club in the American Geographical Society for the purpose of discussing geographical questions and results of new investigations. It is hoped that all cultivators of geophysics, geography, commercial geography, and allied sciences, as well as teachers of geography and those interested in its study, will join the club. All intending to become

members of the club will please send their names and addresses to Dr. F. Boas, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.

- Mr. Montagu Kerr has left for Zanzibar to undertake a journey of some venture across Africa. Mr. Kerr has already done good work in Africa, in the journey which he made, almost singlehanded, from the Cape to the Zambesi and Lake Nyassa, partly through new country and among some very troublesome tribes, whom he managed with great tact. In his present expedition, which he undertakes entirely at his own charge, Mr. Kerr means to proceed through Massai-land to the north end of Victoria Nyanza, and thence to Emin Pacha's station at Wadelai. His further course will be to some extent guided by Emin Pacha's advice; but his present intention is to proceed westwards to the Lake Chad region, where he hopes to do some good exploring work, and then, if possible, go on to the Niger and descend that river. Mr. Kerr has a strong letter of recommendation from the Marquis of Salisbury to the British consul at Zanzibar. It is possible that when he reaches Zanzibar Mr. Kerr may meet Mr. Stanley, or at least hear of the results of his mission, and may thus be led somewhat to modify his plans. But whatever course he may take, if he keeps his health, he is pretty sure to do some good work. He has, since his return from his last expedition, done every thing possible to qualify himself for scientific observation, and is quite prepared to pass muster as a Mohammedan in the most fanatical Moslem districts. Mr. Kerr is furnished with a set of instruments by the Royal Geographical Society. All who know him have confidence in his pluck and discretion.

In the October Monthly Weather Review, the long drought of 1887 is discussed. During the six months from May to October inclusive, the rainfall has been largely deficient over the district between Dakota, Michigan, Kentucky, and Kansas. Less than one-half the usual amount of rainfall during these months has fallen in central Ohio. Less than three-fourths of the average amount of rain has fallen during these few months from Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky westward, to include Missouri and Iowa. Of special interest is a compilation of excessive rainfalls in the month of October for a series of from ten to sixteen years. In a letter to the Engineering News, General Greely says, "It is the intention of this office to continue this discussion by months. A systematic effort has been made to make the data for succeeding months more complete and full than for October. In addition, the chief signal-officer has issued instructions to the observers, calling their especial attention to heavy rainfalls." The Engineering News, in an editorial, had emphasized the importance of measurements of heavy rainfalls; and in reply to this the chief signal-officer writes, that if the engineers of the country are in earnest about this matter, and will persuade Congress to appropriate twenty-five hundred or three thousand dollars for the purpose of buying self-registering raingauges, efforts will be made to spend the money economically, and to distribute the gauges so as to completely cover the country. It is very desirable that the plan should be carried out, as these observations, in connection with the gauge measurements published in the reports of the chief of engineers, would be highly valuable from a scientific as well as from a practical point of view, as the interval between excessive rainfalls and floods and the influence of the character of the rainfall upon that of the flood is of eminent importance for the low parts of the country and for the construction of roads, canals, and other works.

The first number of The American Geologist has just been issued. It is stated in the prospectus that the journal will be devoted to geology in its widest sense, and to allied sciences in all those directions where their special investigations bear directly upon the constitution and history of the globe. A journal of this character will be highly welcomed by all interested in the subject; and, as the amount of geological work done in North America is very great, it will undoubtedly flourish, and become indispensable to students of American geology. The continuous increase in the number of journals devoted to special sciences is highly gratifying, as it is proof of a rapid progress of science, and as it prevents the scattering of investigations in one branch of science through numerous journals. The editors are Prof. S. Calvin, T. W. Claypole, Dr. Persifor Frazer, Dr. L. E. Hicks, E. O. Ulrich, Dr. A. Winchell, and

Prof. N. H. Winchell. It is published in Minneapolis. The first number contains interesting communications on the International Congress of Geologists, on geological problems and observations in Minnesota and Iowa, editorial comments, and a review of recent literature.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith.

Twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnisheď free to any correspondent on request. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. The Mechanism of the Flight of Birds.

THE subject of the interesting letter by my friend Prof. J. S. Newberry in a late number of Science is an extremely important one, which has lately been discussed before the National Academy of Sciences and the Linnæan Society of New York, by Professor Newberry, Professor Trowbridge, and others. Much as I regret my absence on those occasions, I am still more sorry to be obliged to dissent without qualification from the position taken by these gentlemen, which is, to my knowledge, quite untenable. Since the matter has been published, I crave permission to state the facts in the case, and incidentally to present the very curious history of the discovery of the remarkable mechanism of flexion and extension in birds' wings, involving what I would call the 'precession and recession of the radius along the ulna.'

First, With regard to the alleged locking of the primaries : 1. It does not take place; 2. Did it take place, flight would be impossible. Second, Extension of the carpo-metacarpus upon the antebrachium is automatically effected whenever the antebrachium is extended upon the brachium; and, conversely, flexion of the carpometacarpus upon the antebrachium is automatically effected whenever the antebrachium is flexed upon the brachium. In other words, the elbow and wrist of a bird work together, and neither can be bent or straightened to any considerable extent without the other being also bent or straightened. This motion, be it observed, in the cubito-carpal joint, is not flexion and extension in the usual technical sense of those terms, but is the movement commonly called, as in human anatomy, adduction and abduction. Moreover, the peculiar movement of the cubital bones (radius and ulna) which produces pronation and supination (as in man and many other mammals which use their fore-paws as hands) is reduced to a minimum, if not absolutely nil, in a bird's wing. It is just these points: (a) substitution of adduction and abduction for flexion and extension; (b) substitution of the lengthwise sliding back and forth of the radius along the ulna, or recession and procession, for that rolling sidewise of the radius upon the ulna which is pronation and supination; and (c) the reciprocal interaction of the elbow and wristjoint, it is just these points, I aver, which are the gist of the peculiar mechanism of birds' wings, so far as the bones themselves are concerned.

All these points are fully described, and illustrated by figures, in two of my works; namely, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for 1871' (vol. xx., pub. 1872, pp. 278-284); and Key to North American Birds' (2d edition, 1884, pp. 106 seq.).

Third, The history of the case is curious, showing the quadrupled discovery of the precession and recession of the radius by fou: independent observers: (a) Bergmann (1839), (b) Wyman (1855), (c) Coues (1871), (d) Garrod (1875). To take these up in reverse order:

(d) GARROD (A.H.), 'On a Point in the Mechanism of the Bird's Wing,' Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Feb. 16, 1875, pp. 82-84. [The gist of the paper is the peculiar sliding motion of the radius along the ulna. Garrod writes as an independent discoverer, as no doubt he was, or he would of course have referred to the previous writers.]

(c) COUES (E), On the Mechanism of Flexion and Extension in Birds' Wings,' Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, xx. for 1871, pub. 1872, pp. 278–284; abstract in American Naturalist, v. 1871, pp. 513, 514; reproduced in substance, Key to North American Birds, 1884, pp. 106 seq. [See text above. The writer, like Garrod, was ignorant when he made the discovery that any one had preceded him.]

(b) WYMAN (J.) [Remarks on a duck's wing, etc.] Proceedings Boston Society of Natural History, v. 1855, p. 169. [As I say in my Bibliography,' Bull. U.S. Geogr. Surv. Terr., v. 1880, p. 952, this is a paper "showing mechanism of flexion and extension, contributing to fixity of the limb, independently of muscular action." Wyman evidently discovered it himself, and was ignorant of Bergmann's discovery.]

(a) BERGMANN (Dr. C.), Ueber die Bewegungen von Radius und Ulna am Vogelflügel,' Müller's Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys., vi. 1839. pp. 296–300. [This is an important, interesting, and so far as I know a novel paper on the peculiar mechanism of the fore-arm of birds, before mentioned in none of the works of Meckel, Cuvier, Tudemann, Wagner, etc. The sum of his paper is, that sliding motion lengthwise of the bones, whereby extension of the fore-arm upon the arm, and flexion of the same, respectively reproduce the same movements at the wrist.]

The last four paragraphs are extracted from my 'Bibliography of Ornithology,' most of which is still unpublished.

It is fortunate that the mechanism of the wing does not permit the primaries to lock in the manner that has been supposed, for, if it did so, birds could not fly.

One point more, and I hasten to conclude remarks that I wish were not necessarily so ungracious. The fixing of the wing' of a mortally wounded bird, in the manner described by Professor Newberry, does not bear on the case. It is simply a muscular rigidity, due to nervous shock, and of a part with the convulsive muscular action which, under similar circumstances, results in the wellknown towering' of hard-hit birds. ELLIOTT COUES.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, Dec. 21.

THE recent discovery of the power possessed by soaring birds to set their wings when fully expanded, and to remain locked independent of muscular action, explains to my mind a phenomenon that has puzzled me for many years. It has been my custom for many seasons to spend a few days each fall duck-shooting at the lakes bordering the Illinois River in central Illinois. The birds were almost invariably shot in mid-air, while flying rapidly by, and often, when not killed at once, they would set their wings and sail gradually down to the water or ground, which they would reach dead, the distance being from one hundred yards to a quarter of a mile, apparently corresponding to the height of the bird when shot. And it was a maxim with duck-shooters on these lakes, "That bird is killed, for he has set his wings."

Besides the ducks, I have seen this phenomenon illustrated in the wild turkey and prairie-hen. In wing-shooting the wild turkey, if it set its wings, and gradually came to the earth a quarter of a mile or more away, we always marked the spot, well expecting to find the dead body when we reached it. With Mr. J. S. Newberry,

I trust that some student of anatomy will take up this subject, and demonstrate it to a certainty. W. S. STRODE, M.D.

Bernadotte, Ill., Dec. 22.

Eskimo and Indian.

CONSIDERING the intimate knowledge of the Eskimo language possessed by the two gentlemen who have passed their criticisms upon my remarks on the subject of the past relations of the Eskimo and the Indian, it would be of little avail for me to enter into any lengthy argument upon the matter, although I still consider that there is room for difference on many of the points raised. On a later occasion, I intend elsewhere to treat the subject, both in its ethnographic and philological aspects, on somewhat broader lines than in the article referred to. The evidence in favor of some relation in the past between the Eskimo and the Iroquois seems to me to be convincing, aside altogether from philological data. Kohlmeister and Kmoch (p. 37) state that there is a legend among the Eskimo that the "Greenlanders originally came from Canada, and settled on the outermost islands of the coast, but never penetrated into the country before they were driven eastward to Greenland." Dr. Brinton (in his Myths of the New World, p. 24, note) says, "It is curious that the traditions of the Tuscaroras, who placed their arrival on the Virginian coast at about 1300, spoke of the race they found there (called Tacci or Dogi) as eaters of raw flesh, and ignorant of maize." Dr. Rink (Tales and Traditions of the

Eskimo, p. 11) has the following interesting passage in rem: "In the most remote ages the Eskimo, on their trading expeditions, appear to have overpassed their present southern limits. This may be gathered partly from pure Eskimo words being found in the language of more southern tribes, partly from the sagas of the old Scandinavians, who seem to have met travelling Eskimo, even to the south of Newfoundland." With regard to the general subject, M. Petitot (De la prétendue origine orientale des Algonkins,' Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop. de Paris, vii. p. 248) expresses himself thus: "Ce qui est bien certain c'est que les Inini ne sont pas sans posséder de nombreux rapports de moeurs, de coutoumes, de physionomie, de traditions, et même de langue avec leurs voisins les Pieds-Noirs les Tetes-Plates, et même avec les Esquimaux." Elsewhere the same writer observes, "Il n'ai pu trouver dans l'esquimau du Mackenzie un seul mot qui provînt de l'idiome dènè-dindjié. Il aura plus de corrélation grammaticale avec le cris, dialecte algonquin . . . si dans cette langue les pronoms ne précédaient aussi la racine verbal comme en déné, au lieu de la suivre. La consonnance des mots y est à peu près la même. Dans les deux langues on remarque quantité de mots commençant par une voyelle et terminés en ak, ik, ok, in, it" (Vocab. Français-Esquimau, Introd. p. v.). This, to be sure, may not be strong evidence, but it points in a certain direction. From a comparative study of the Eskimo and Iroquois-Algonquin languages, it is certain there is much to be learned. If I have not succeeded in proving, from philological evidence, relations in the past between these people, I can only wait until others shall have done so. Mr. Murdoch has referred to the lack of phonetic vocabularies, and the errors consequent upon the use of such as are at present available. Surely, all the blame cannot be laid upon investigators, who endeavor to do good work with poor material. A glance at the Eskimo Bibliography,' lately compiled by Mr. Pilling, is sufficient to convince one that a very great portion of Eskimo linguistic material (and presumably the most valuable, because the most recent and scientific) is still in manuscript in the Library of the Bureau of Ethnology and other great institutions. When this shall have been published, and so distributed throughout the continent, so as to insure facility of access to students, then, I trust, the evidence of past relations between the Eskimo and Indian will be forthcoming, and the fact of their occurrence be capable of proof on scientific grounds. Elsewhere I have discussed the broad question of the pre-history of the Eskimo race, judging them to have been the dolichocephalic people who formerly extended over a great portion of the North American and perhaps of the South American continent. They have been intruded upon and pushed back by more warlike and aggressive races. Not a little interesting is the remarkable correspondence of the Botocudos and other South American tribes in many respects to the Eskimo; and the same remarks apply to some of the so-called 'fossil-men' of Brazil. A. F. CHAMBERLAIN. Toronto, Dec. 17.

Weather-Predictions.

PERHAPS it can hardly be said that there is a science of weatherprediction at the present time; yet interest in the subject is increasing, and there are several persons in this country who are issuing daily scientific forecasts. While the basis upon which forecasts shall be issued admits of little discussion, yet it is far otherwise with their verification, and it would seem that much confusion has arisen on this account. The following comparison of weather-forecasts is given with the hope that others will enter the field outlined, and that a general discussion may clear up some of the misty points. The forecasts were made during October for Boston, Mass., by Mr. Clayton at Blue Hill, and by the writer at Washington, D.C. The predictions were for 'fair,' 'rain,' and halfway between, or 'threatening.'

The verifications were to be by the observations at Boston, made at 7 A.M., 3 and 10 P.M., each day. As there was no specific record of 'threatening,' the amount of clouds was to determine this condition. The prediction was made at Blue Hill at 2 P.M. each day from an examination of the Signal Service observations made over the country at 7 A.M., together with a study of the local conditions at 2 P.M. The Washington prediction was necessarily made from the 7 A.M. observation alone. The interval predicted for was from

It will be seen that the prediction was the same in fifteen cases, and eleven of these were fully verified. In order to obtain a fair comparative estimate for the remaining ten days, the predictions and the succeeding weather were referred to Prof. I. Russell, who decided that No. (1) agreed better with the weather twice, and No. (2) eight times. If these ten be regarded half verified, we shall obtain for No. (1) 48 per cent and No. (2) 60 per cent.

The predictions were also referred to Professor Upton, who suggested two schemes for verification, by one of which he computed No. (1) 67.2 per cent, and No. (2) 69.6 per cent; and by the other, No. (1) had 61.0 per cent, and No. (2) 65.0 per cent. As Professor Upton preferred the second scheme, I give it in detail. His plan was as follows:

Arrange all possible weather-combinations in a table, and give to each prediction a certain weight according to its position in the table, as follows:

In this scheme it is possible that too much weight has been given 'fair,' and too little threat.' However, as the prediction threat.' seems of doubtful utility, it should have less weight.

This discussion has brought out one fact of great interest regarding methods of verification. Mr. Clayton verified the same predictions by the observations at Blue Hill, a station very near Boston. He makes the percentage 85. This great difference of 24 per cent seems very surprising, and can hardly be due to the difference in weather at the two places. It seems probable that this difference is due to the method of verification, and that a mere percentage obtained from an arbitrary verification cannot be relied on for com

paring the relative merits of two predictions. It is to be hoped that a further discussion of this question may lead to clearer light and understanding of the methods of prediction and verification best suited to the needs of the public. H. A. HAZEN. Washington, D.C., Dec. 14.

The Chinese Wall.

THE note on the Chinese wall in a late issue of Science (x. No. 253), calling attention to Abbé Larrieu's assertion that the wall does not exist, recalled to mind Abbé Huc's account. Turning to it, I find that he was a believer in it, and with good reason. In Vol. II. of his Journey through Tartary, Thibet, and China,' p. 31, he gives the following account, which may interest some of your readers, and serve to correct an erroneous impression :

"The part of the wall immediately to the north of Pekin . . . is really fine and imposing; but it must not be supposed that this We barrier is equally large and solid throughout its whole extent. have had occasion to cross it at more than fifteen different points, and have often travelled for days together without ever losing sight of it; and instead of the double battlemented stone wall which is seen at Pekin, it is sometimes a very humble-looking wall of clay; and we have even seen it reduced to its simplest expression, and composed only of stones piled up together."

Thus, though the wall may not and does not have the magnitude. and solidity often attributed to it, yet in one form or another it certainly seems to exist, and is not, as we are told Abbé Larrieu says, 'a huge Chinese lie.' JOSEPH F. JAMES.

Miami Univ., Oxford, O., Dec. 20.

Tornado Force.

I SEND you some facts in relation to tornado force and its peculiarities of action, which may not be uninteresting to your readers, on either side of the question, involving the nature of the force or forces.

The tracks examined by me did not present continuous lines of destruction, but areas of destruction separated by intervals entirely or almost entirely exempt from destructive forces, from which it is inferred, that while the storm, in its common and ordinary features, pursued its way steadily onward by bodily transferrence, the tornadic action was developed interruptedly, and progressed by successive transplantings.

The first area examined, tornado of April 23, 1883, was composed of two distinct parts. The first was a long rectangular space of about half a mile in length, from west-south-west to east-north-east, and a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards in width. Within this space the trees were prostrated from south-east, south, southwest, and west, and intermediate points; and, wherever two or more were found lying across each other, the one thrown from the direction nearest to east, or farthest round from west, was always at the bottom. Thus, those thrown from south always lay on top of those from south-west, those from south-west on top of those from south and south-east, and those from west were always on top of all other directions. This order was without an exception. The rectangular area terminated at the east end in an irregularly circular area of about eight hundred yards diameter, either east and west or north and south. Bisecting this area both ways, and dividing it into four quadrants, the south-west and south-east were found to correspond in all respects with the rectangular area, except that in the southeast there was a greater proportion of trees thrown down from east-south-east and south-east than in the other sections; and in the south-west quadrant, near the centre, a tree thrown from southwest was overlain by one from south, the single exception to the order noted above. In the north-east quadrant the destruction was less than in either of the others, and trees were thrown down from east, north-east, north, north-west, and west. In the north-west quadrant the trees were thrown from north, north-west, and west, chiefly from north-west, west-north-west, and west; and in the instances where they crossed each other, the order in relation to the west was similar precisely to that of the other parts, progressing from east round by north to west, as, on the other side, the progression was from east round by south to west; so that in these, the north-east and north-west quadrants, trees thrown from northeast lay under those from north, those from north under those from