and formed more numerous convolutions and fissures in consequence, but the pharynx may not be changed from the original inclination.

5. The softer brain is likely to undergo more rapid changes than the harder skull, either in the evolution of species or the individual, and the mere cranial conformation may or may not, therefore, be an index to brain area and intelligence, and whatever changes may occur in the skull due to brain increase have reference more to enabling the brain to find room in the cranium, so that a higher forehead may render the more erect basi-occipital unnecessary, or vice versa, and normal or abnormal growth of brain may raise both osseous portions.

Some mongrel dogs may inherit a larger brain from one parent and smaller brain-case from another, which would account for the deep indentations in their skulls, the pressure causing them sometimes to suffer from epilepsy and other brain derangements; this disparity is not likely to be so great in the offspring of bettermated species.

6. Many other matters could be considered, such as centres of ossification and cartilaginous persistence between such parts as the basilar process and sphenoid, enabling adjustment of the pharynx to the changed medulla angle.

70 State Street, Chicago.

INDICATIONS OF A RAINY PERIOD IN SOUTHERN PERU. BY A. E. DOUGLASS.1

IT is sufficiently easy to assert that at some remote period this country had abundance of water; but very few writers have taken the trouble to point out the actual indications to that effect.

There are two causes which operate to make this climate dry. The first is found in the south-east trade-winds being stopped by the high mountain ranges in the interior to the east of us. The second consists in the fact that the winds which do reach our sea-coast come from the colder regions to the south, and consequently will take up moisture and not deposit it. Therefore, a change from a wet to a dry climate was probably caused by a considerable increase in the average elevation of the Andes. If such was the case it must have occurred at some very remote period.

Before entering fully upon the subject, it is safe to remind one's self that a small amount of water acting through a great length of time can accomplish almost as much wearing as a great amount in a short time. Therefore, the numerous large and deep ravines in this region do not necessarily indicate a great quantity of water at some past epoch.

The purpose of this paper, then, is to point out some particulars which indicate that at some geological epoch there was abundance of water in this region. Unmistakable evidence has been found in two places: on Charchani and on the Pampa of La Joya.

A trip to the observatory meteorological station on Charchani, at an altitude of 16,650 feet, reveals many interesting facts. The green valley of Arequipa seems to be alluvial flats of river and perhaps lake deposits; the pink-colored pampa of Uchumayo is evidently the original volcanic tufa; while the dark-brown pampa, stretching out some ten miles from the mountain and containing a very thin vegetation, is an enormous “wash from the mountain itself. In this is shown a water action on a scale surpassing anything that can be found about the city itself. If Charchani is a remnant of an ancient crater-ring, as seems not improbable, then a portion half as large as the present mountain has been washed down into the valley.

But there is a still more noticeable feature on the mountain itself. At an altitude of about 14,500 feet, on the ridge west of the great central ravine, the road passes for perhaps half a mile through an area of bowlders worn by water action into all sorts of curious and fantastic shapes. The rest of the ridge to its top is a regular glacial moraine of gravel and bowlders. On leaving this 1 First assistant at the Boydun station of the Harvard College Observatory, Arequipa, Peru.

ridge and reaching the final slope to the summit, a little below snow-line, one finds every ledge of rock smoothed and polished on the surface, with long shallow scratches pointing down the mountain proofs of glacial action. These striated ledges are especially noticeable at and just below the meteorological station. Therefore, at some period this pocket where our station is, between the main summit and the broken ridges to the east, was filled with ice to a depth of a thousand feet or more. This glacier slowly moved downward, completely filling the valley and at some point separating into two streams, one of which filled the great central ravine down to the spring, Canchero, and the other turned more to the west, going down probably to the same altitude of 13,200 feet.

Now the significance of an enormous glacier on Charchani is this: ravines and river valleys can be made by a small amount of water acting through a long period, but glaciers cannot; the water, or snow, must be all there at once. Moreover, the greater the supply of snow for a glacier the farther down the mountain it will come. Now, the temperature of this spring at noon of April 12, this year, was 45.5° F., and it will be shown later that the land had a less elevation in the rainy period than at present. The climate could not, therefore, have been colder. As this glacier came down to an altitude where the mean annual temperature was considerably above freezing, as shown by the present temperature of the spring, the snow supply must have been not merely moderate but quite abundant.

If we had rain enough at the present day to make these dry pampas the gardens they might be, this glacier would be seen on Charchani.

The evidence to be found on the Pampa of La Joya is equally conclusive but not equally striking. Not far below Vitor is a large ridge of volcanic mud to the west of the track. This ridge runs about north-east and south-west, and is bounded along its south east side by an open cliff where the bank has been caved away by a river flowing against it. Stretching away from this bank is the old river-bed, very broad and shallow. At a higher level, to the east of the track, the river-bed contracts into a narrow and deep channel. A surface river on the Pampa of La Joya would necessitate vastly more abundant rains than at the present day. There must have been a supply greatly in excess of the loss by evaporation or sinkage into the earth.

There are other facts also which bear on this question. Lake Titicaca once covered many times its present area. Innumerable shell-fish lived in its waters, whose remains are now found as fossils at Chililaya, Huancané, and other places, many feet above the present lake-level. The signs of this increased size are still so evident and the fossils are so much like the living species of shell-fish, that, geologically speaking, the rainy period which caused this increase and at a lower altitude supported a tropical vegetation was recent; historically, of course, its antiquity was immense. The palaces and houses on the island of Titicaca were built with the lake at practically its present level, and Tiahuanaco is not more than 150 feet above it. Coal deposits are found on the island of Titicaca and at Sumbay, but the tropical vegetation which formed them must be placed in a past so remote that the enlargement of Lake Titicaca and the glaciers on Charchani are but as yesterday.

In the beginning of this article I referred to the fact that an increase in the elevation of the mountains to the east of us may have caused the climate to become dry. That such an increase has occurred in recent geological times can scarcely be doubted. From above Tambo station down to the present sea-level traces of surf-action may be found. That means that the coast has been gradually rising out of the sea to the extent of 1,100 feet in recent geologic times. Whether it did it with perfect regularity, by occasional periods of rapid rising, or by sudden elevations, a thorough examination of the region would show. At Mollendo it is evident that the coast has not risen more than two or three feet in the last hundred years, if it has risen at all, and the fact that guano has been accumulating on the islands along the coast for many thousand years indicates that for a long period the coast has been practically stationary. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the last change in the coast-level was a rise of 1,100

feet. That, to be sure, was not very much, but it must have materially altered the relative lengths of the wet and dry seasons. Thus we have direct evidence to the following effect: For many thousand years, going back far beyond the recognized period of human habitation, the climate has been very much as it is at present. That was preceded by a slow rise of the land out of the sea, which caused the climate to change from wet to dry. But under the wet climate the elevation of the land was still too great, and perhaps the duration of the epoch was too short, to produce a luxuriant tropical vegetation; otherwise there would be to-day extensive coal-fields. However, the wet climate was sufficient to greatly alter the face of the country. Lake Titicaca was of enormous area, fed perhaps by the melting glaciers. In the almost continuous rainy season, huge turbid rivers roared and tumbled down these western slopes of the Cordillera, while on each mountain summit vast quantities of snow fell, only to pursue its way down the steep slopes, carving out valleys, building up ridges, and by its melting wearing out deep ravines, which grow smaller as they become lost in the broad level plain below. Under such luxuriance of moisture the valley of Arequipa must have teemed with animal and vegetable life, the barren hills to the south were clothed in green, and the desert of La Joya blossomed like a garden.

CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.—XVII.

[Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.]

The Ancient Vans.

THE people who in proto-historic time lived at the foot of Mount Ararat, on the plains around Lake Van, and about the head-waters of the Araxes, were known to Herodotus as the Alarodi, which is a Greek form of the Assyrian Urartu, of which Ararat is the Hebrew form. They seem to have called themselves Chaldeans, Chaldi, but their language was neither Semitic nor Aryan. They learned to write it in cuneiform characters, and a considerable number of their inscriptions have been recovered, dating 750-850 B. C., about.

In a late number of the Zeitschrift für Ethnologic is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of these inscriptions by Messrs. Belck and Lehmann. The former traversed some five thousand kilometers of Russian and Turkish Armenia last year, and carefully copied quite a number of hitherto unknown Vannic inscriptions; to the decipherment of which Dr. Lehmann devoted himself with much success. They date from half a dozen different reigns previous to the destruction of the Vannic kingdom by Tiglathpileser in 742 B.C.

The most interesting, the longest, and the most difficult to decipher, on account of the new words and ideograms it contains, is one from the stele of Rusas. It apparently was set up to celebrate the completion of some important works in irrigation and laying-out of gardens and orchards.

The inscriptions are carefully reproduced in autotype, and offer new and valuable materials for students of this little-known tongue.

Laws of Human Evolution.

The most valuable summary of the facts and laws of human evolution that I have seen for a long time is contained in the Cartwright Lectures for 1892, delivered by Professor Henry F. Osborn of Columbia College, New York. These admirably clear and able addresses, three in number, discuss the many knotty questions involved in this topic with temperate judgment and a complete mastership of the facts.

Many of his conclusions are of the utmost importance to the practical anthropologist, and to the majority will have a novel force; for instance, that man is anatomically quite degenerate, only his hand and his brain comparing favorably with mammalian anatomy generally. He is now in a state of very rapid evolution, or rather transformation, for, according to our author's figures, more than thirty of his organs are degenerating to twenty which

are developing. This action is especially active in certain centres, of which eight are mentioned; but in them the rate of change is by no means uniform. The most conspicuous variations are reversions, and in the matter of advance, the evidence is abundant that structure lags far behind function.

In the muscular system the evolution of a new type consists in the accumulation of anomalies in a certain direction by heredity. There are on the average nine anomalies of the muscles in each individual. How these come about is variously explained. The French theory that all anomalies reproduce earlier normal structures, seems too absolute. Here comes in the puzzling question as to what is the active force in producing variations, and preserving those which are valuable to the species. After a careful review of the evidence, the lecturer reaches the conclusion that the theory of use and disuse, along with the hereditary transmission of acquired variations, encounters less difficulties than that of the accumulation of fortuitous favorable variations by natural selection.

Of course, the theories of Weissmann, that acquired traits do not become hereditary, have to be considered, and are not found to be sufficiently established.

Suggestions for a Universal Language.

The evolution of linguistics is in two opposed directions; on the one hand, there are societies and patriotic guilds constantly cultivating and preserving dialects and isolated languages, printing papers in them, and trying to make the rest of the world learn them; and, on the other, there is a growing party demanding that some one or a very few tongues be adopted for the general commercial, social, and scientific business of the world. The latter class is again divided into those who would select one or two of the already existing languages, and their opponents, who think a new and simple tongue had better be manufactured for the purpose. Of the latter the Internationale Weltsprache Gesellschaft of Vienna is among the most active. It has just issued a "Grammatik der Weltsprache" (Mondolingue), which is but one of its many publications in favor of the tongue devised by Dr. Julius Lott, from whom (Wien, II. 2. Schüttelstrasse 3) these publications may be had.

Professor A. MacFarlane of Austin, Texas, has also a valuable paper in the Texas Academy of Science Transactions, on “Exact Analysis as the Basis of Language." He reaches the conclusion that a natural language is better suited to scientific development than one which is artificial. Another recent writer on the same subject is M. Raoul de la Grasserie of Rennes, France.

Languages of the Gran Chaco.

The extensive district in northern Buenos Ayres called El Gran Chaco, "The Great Hunting-Ground," has been linguistically almost a terra incognita. Inhabited by numerous roving tribes of uncertain affinities, up to the present time we have had of its numerous dialects only one published grammar, and for it no corresponding people could be found, none who speak the tongue which it sets forth!

This want has now been happily filled by two publications which have been issued by the Museo de la Plata; the one, a work composed in 1856 by the Rev. Francisco Tavolini, entitled "Reglas para aprender à hablar la Lengua Moscovita;" the other, by Samuel A. Lafone Quevedo, "Principios de Gramatica Mocovi.” Both refer to the same dialect, better known as the Mbocobi. It is closely allied to the Abipone and Toba, and is a member of the stock which, in my "American Race," I have designated by the Tupi term, "Guaycuru."

The two works are in a measure supplementary, Mr. Lafone Quevedo having made use of previous writers, principally Barcena, Dobrizhoffer, and Tavolini, to form his analysis of the tongue. He is also the editor of Tavolini, and holds out the promise of other grammars of the Argentine languages, from unpublished sources. We who interest ourselves in such studies, shall look forward with interest to this series, and hope that the financial storms of the Argentine Republic will not delay its appear

ance.

The Origin of Punishment.

The young science of ethnologic jurisprudence is one of the branches of anthropology destined to throw unexpected light on the origin and significance of many of our daily customs and beliefs. A most important contribution to it has recently appeared from the pen of Dr. S. R. Steinmetz, on the early development of punishment ("Ethnologische Studien zur ersten Entwickelung der Strafe." Leiden, 1892). It is the second volume of the work, which, for various reasons, has been published first. His aim has been, first, to offer to students an extensive collection of facts drawn from the customs of primitive peoples regarding the question of punishments; and, second, to analyze their sociologic and psychologic significance.

The present volume begins with a chapter on blood revenge, tracing its development into the ordeal and the trial by battle up to the modern duel. The effects of blood revenge on social condition are pointed out, some being highly advantageous, others evidently injurious. The administration of punishment by the state is treated with much clearness and from a wide range of reading. It is shown to have developed from the systems of correction adopted in the primitive family, and was often in the nature of a compromise or blood money. Several chapters of special interest relate to the position of woman with reference to family feuds and revenge, and the authority over the males which she exerted in various communities, some of matriarchal, others of patriarchal constitutions. The intense bitterness of her feelings, and her ferocity, far ahead of that of men, are referred to and illustrated. The punishment of slaves and that of military discipline are also discussed. A curious closing chapter is added on the punishment by the gods, in this world and the next, and its influence on human punishments. It will be seen from this brief reference how extremely interesting the book is.

SCENTS AND THEIR RECOGNITION.

BY J. W. SLATER, LONDON.

THERE are some points connected with both the production and the recognition of odors by animals which seem to need further study. It is agreed that all species possessing the sense of smell at all, like and are attracted by the scent of their usual food, or of substances of a similar character. We have also evidence that animals are agreeably impressed with the specific odor of their own species, or of their own race or strain. On the other hand, they are disgusted and repelled by the emanations of hostile species.

These are results which we might expect on evolutionist principles, and which we actually detect whether we ascribe them to Professor Jäger's "soul-particles" or not. It is sometimes forgotten that peculiar odors not merely aid in the diagnosis of different human races but contribute no little to keep such races asunder. That the odor of the Negro or of the Australian “black-fellow " is repulsive to the white man is a familiar fact. But the aborigines of South America distinguish in the dark the smell both of the Negro and of the white man from that of their own race, and dislike the two former about equally. Even the two great branches of the white race, the Aryan and the Semitic, have a different and in many cases a mutually repulsive odor. During the recent anti-Semitic agitation in Germany and Austria the Fœtor judaicus did not escape comment.

At the same time we observe a few cases which we cannot well account for on the principles above laid down. Instance the feline group; the natural food of all such beasts is the flesh and blood of animals recently killed, and even in case of need, carrion. We might expect that beings habituated to such a diet would prefer odors not merely unlike but opposite to those which mankind select. Yet the fact remains that not merely the domestic cat but the leopard is passionately fond of the very same perfumes which we enjoy. Lavender, thyme,- in short, most plants rich in essential oils have a well-known fascination for the cat. Leopards have been charmed into docility and submission by means of lavender water. The difficulty becomes the

greater if we reflect that nothing similar has been observed among the canidæ which have a much more acute sense of smell than the cats. I suspect, though I cannot furnish distinct proof, that the plants in question act upon the felidæ as aphrodisiacs. What may be the reason why cats so persistently browse away Nemohila pulchella? Its cultivation in London suburban gardens may be pronounced impracticable except under the protection of wire-screens.

THE PERCOPSIDE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE.

BY CARL H. EIGENMANN, INDIANA UNIVERSITY. THE Percopsidæ have hitherto been known from a single species having a very wide distribution. This species was discovered by Agassiz and described in his "Lake Superior." He considered it a generalized type and relic of an older fauna. Professor Agassiz says (285): "Now the genus Percopsis is as important to the understanding of modern types as Lepidosteus and Cestracion are to the understanding of the ancient ones, as it combines characters which in our day are never found together in the same family of fishes, but which in more recent geological ages constitute a striking peculiarity of the whole class. My Percopsis is really such an old-fashioned fish, as it shows peculiarities which occur simultaneously in the fossil fishes of the chalk epoch, which, however, soon diverge into distinct families in the tertiary period, never to be combined again. . . . Now my new genus, Percopsis, is just intermediate between Ctenoids and Cycloids; it is, what an ichthyologist at present would scarcely think possible, a true intermediate type between Percoids and Salmonidæ."

During the past summer I made a series of collections of fishes through south-western Canada and the north-western United States. I collected in the streams emptying into Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic side, and into Puget Sound and the Columbia River on the Pacific side of the continent. Percopsis guttatus Agassiz was found to be abundant in almost all the streams tributary to Hudson's Bay, from the Red River of the north to the Saskatchewan at Medicine Hat. In the Bow at Banff, at an elevation of 4,500 feet, it was no longer seen. The species seems to belong to the plains. It extends south to the Delaware River and Kansas, but is only rare south of the Great Lakes. It was not found in the Columbia at Revelstoke or at Golden, where collections were made, and which are nearly directly west of the localities where it was found to be so abundant, nor was it expected in these localities. When on my return trip I came to Umatilla, where the Union Pacific leaves the Columbia, and I noticed the favorable conditions for collecting, I concluded to stop, although the place was not on my itinerary and I would have but a short time for collecting. The Umatilla is a small stream which expands over a sand strip to form a shallow lagoon before emptying into the Columbia. I reached the station Sept. 6, at 5.20 P.M., and began work at once, as it was necessary to leave again at 4 the next morning. I was more than surprised to find that one of the most abundant fishes was a species of Percopsida, and that by this find the known habitat of this family was extended to the Pacific slope. Fishing was confined to the lagoon at the mouth of the Umatilla and to the Columbia immediately above this place. During the short time at my disposal over one hundred specimens of this family were obtained. No specimens were found in the Snake and its tributaries. It is really surprising that a species so abundant should have escaped detection till now unless its distribution is quite limited, as its absence at Golden and Revelstoke seems to indicate.2

The specimens prove to belong to an undescribed genus. The genus is more specialized than Percopsis, but still bears out Agassiz's idea of the family. It approaches much nearer the Percida than Percopsis, in that its dorsal and its anal fins are armed with strong spines, and its scales are much more ctenoid. In other words, its percoid affinities are much more pronounced than are

1 Lake Superior: Its Physical Character, Vegetation, and Animals, Compared with Those of Other Regions. Boston, 1850.

2 The elevation of Umatilla is given to be 300 feet by the Union Pacific Railway estimates.

A. Dorsal with two feeble, slender, unbranched rays; anal with a single similar ray; scales most strongly ctenoid on caudal peduncle; posterior margin of preopercle entire or with feeble crenulations; form slender. Percopsis. AA. Dorsal and anal each with two very strong spines; scales most strongly ctenoid on anterior part of body; posterior margin of preopercle with a few short but strong spines; form heavy, deep. Columbia. Diagnosis of Columbia transmontana E. and E., sp., nov.: Head, 31-3 (3 in the young); depth, 31–33 (4 in the young); dorsal, II., 9; anal, II., 64; scales, 769-44 to 46–7.

Body comparatively deep, the dorsal profile more arched than the ventral, making an angle at the origin of the dorsal fin; sides compressed, caudal peduncle most so. Head short and chubby; eye equal to snout, about 3 in the head. First dorsal spine about equal to the pupil, second spine one-half length of head, recurved and very deeply grooved behind. Anal spines somewhat lower than the dorsal spines; ventrals reaching past vent. Nape, with the exception of occipital spine, scaled. Translucent in life. Color generally smutty. Side with three rows of more or less oblong blackish spots, the middle and superior rows most noticeable. Back with a series of similar spots, one being conspicuous at beginning and end of first dorsal. Dorsal mottled, caudal barred. Head smutty, a blue-black spot on middle of opercle, a narrow, silvery, lateral band. Young translucent, with well-defined dark spots.

The greater part of the specimens belong to the British Museum.

MICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL.1

THE Committee appointed by you to act as a Board of Visitors to the Michigan Mining School respectfully report as follows: Finding it impossible to arrange a date which would enable the entire committee to make the inspection at the same time, two of us visited the institution on Wednesday and Thursday, March 30 and 31, and the third on April 8 and 9. We were cordially received, and every effort was made to place us in possession of the items asked for and appertaining to the duties assigned us. The examination was as careful and searching as time would permit. The first visit was made during the progress of the regular work, aud the second during examination week at the close of the term. Thus the opportunity was afforded the committee of witnessing the work of students in the class-room and laboratories, as well as the results of that work as exhibited by the examinations. So far as we are able to judge, the work of the institution is being pushed along its legitimate lines and solidly and conscientiously performed both by students and instructors. The lectures indicated carefulness of preparation and thorough understanding of the subjects taught on the part of the instructors, and the character of the examinations showed that there was no disposition to accept less from the students. We were favorably impressed with the earnestness of purpose which seemed to pervade the students as a body, and with the manifest fitness of the members of the faculty for their special lines of work. Some of these men, we understand, left much more lucrative positions on account of their love for their specialty, and their desire to devote themselves exclusively to it. Such men cannot fail to do strong work. It was with regret that we learned, soon after our visit, of the resignation of Dr. Keller. He is unquestionably one of the ablest men in the institution. The building, rooms, laboratories, apparatus, and machinery all indicate efficiency on the part of those having them in charge. The Mining School is purely and distinctly a professional school, having for its object the practical training of its students in mining engineering, and we believe it is carrying out the purpose for which it was established. Of course, much of the theoretical is taught, but so far as your committee could learn, it is with sole reference to its practical bearing upon what is to follow.

1 Report to Hon. Ferris S. Fitch, Superintendent Public Instruction, Michigan, by a committee consisting of D. A. Hammond, Perry F. Powers, and S. E. Whitney.

Although much time is spent upon theoretical mathematics, the object is to give the student a mastery of those principles which will be necessary in his after work of surveying and engineering. The students are then taken to the field and into the mines, and, under the guidance and direction of an expert (Professor Denton), are taught the practical applications of the principles learned, and other necessary operations of mining. The same methods prevail in the other departments of the school. It is this element of practicability in all the work of the school, in our opinion, which has brought to the school the very general support of the people of the Upper Peninsula and of mining men in particular. The consensus of opinion among all classes is that the school has a direct and financial value to the State. It promotes intelligence in methods of mining, develops inventiveness in the line of mining machinery, and directs thought to measures for securing greater safety to miners.

Your committee, or at least one member of it, before visiting the school had always regarded it as an expensive one considering the number of students enrolled. But after careful investigation at the school and an examination into the methods pursued by the Board of Control, there can be do doubt but that all means appropriated have been economically and intelligently expended. Of course it is well understood by all that technical education is necessarily much more expensive than general education, on account of the peculiar character of the work. The equipment, including buildings, laboratories, apparatus, machinery, and collections in geology, is very costly. A comparison of the per capita cost at the Michigan Mining School, however, with the cost at other similar institutions shows that the Michigan school is among the cheapest. This cost will decrease as the number of students increases. The faculty as at present constituted could undoubtedly handle a larger number of students than are now enrolled in the school (76), and yet the work of the various departments could not be satisfactorily performed with a less number of instructors. In fact, were it not for the union of the school and the geological survey, the faculty would have to be increased; but this arrangement adds to the teaching force for a large part of the year three skilled assistants, Drs. Lane and Patton and Professor Seaman.

This brings us to the consideration of the question of the union of the mining school and geological survey. We believe this arrangement to be mutually advantageous and a direct saving to the State. It places at the head of the Survey, as State Geologist, the Director of the school, Dr. Wadsworth, who is eminently qualified both as to scholarship and executive ability for the positions he holds, and strengthens the faculty of the school by adding to the teaching force the three capable members of the survey. With the means at the command of the Geological Board it would be impossible to retain the services of these men; but by dividing their time between the survey and the school, and receiving a part of their salary from the survey and part from the school the State is enabled to retain them in its employ. It also furnishes convenient headquarters for the survey and places at the service of the school its valuable geological collections. At no other place in the State could this collection be so well preserved and made of such practical value. The wisdom of locating the school where it is, is apparent to all who have ever visited this region. It is surrounded by some of the richest copper and iron mines in the world, and the student has the opportunity of making constant practical application of his studies. Some means, however, should be adopted at once to reduce the expense of living to the students. We understand that it is very difficult før the students to find rooms and board without paying exorbitant prices therefor. If means could be devised for relieving this con dition of things it would be well, in fact, it is almost imperative that something be done in this direction. There ought to be a room at the building, also, large enough for an assembly-room. There are many occasions when it is quite important to bring the students together in a body. We believe, also, that the heating apparatus should be removed from the main building and placed in a building by itself.

The Michigan Mining School, we may say in closing, has come to stay; because it has demonstrated its fitness to live. Whatever

may have been its weakness in the past it is now doing valuable work. It is well equipped, has an able Faculty, and a demand upon it greater than it can now supply. We see no reason why it should not be a very valuable auxiliary in the future development of the mining resources of the State.

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.

On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished free to any correspondent.

The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal.

On the Interpretation of the Markings on Mars.

In view of the large mass of conflicting observations of Mars now being reported, it occurs to me to mention one principle of interpretation which has not to my knowledge been suggested. On Mars, as on the moon, may it not be true that the most conspicuous permanent markings are due, not to land and water surfaces, but to contrast of mountain and plain? Mars through even a large telescope is brought scarcely closer than the moon appears to the naked eye, and it presents a general marking analogous to the "man in the moon," which we know to be but a shadow feature. (See, for example, Plate xxxiii. in Astronomy and Astro-Physics, October, 1892). If the permanent water surface of Mars is only one-half the area of the Mediterranean Sea, as lately estimated by Professor Pickering, it is, of course, impossible that the light and dark patches represent land and water; but the supposition that they represent, in general, open plain and rugged hill-country throws light on certain perplexing phenomena. The so-called canals are then prcbably mountain ranges separated by plateaus, and the so-called duplication is a bringing out by higher powers of outlying spurs and ranges, which with lower powers are either indistinguishable or mingled with the general mass. our seeing improves, we may expect triplication, quadruplication, etc. An observer on Mars looking through a telescope at the Rocky Mountains from a distance of 100,000 miles would discern merely a long dark blur, while upon closer scrutiny he might distinguish parallel and off-shoot ranges with their foot-bills as separate dark lines, which might be termed "canals." The apparent straightness and regularity of the "canals" is doubtless the effect of distance.

As

By this interpretation we solve the difficulty suggested by Professor Pickering in Astronomy and Astro-Physics, October, 1892, p. 669, that some "very well developed canals cross the oceans. These "canals," then, are hilly peninsular extensions or ranges of mountainous islands. From Mars, Italy or Java would appear but as dark streaks in a greenish or bluish medium. Mr. Barnard mentions in the same number (page 683) that "long luminous streaks" seem to be a definite feature of the planet's surface. These are probably lines of snow-capped peaks. We must, on the whole, believe that the seas, lakes, and canals of Schiaparelli's map are as mythical as the seas of the moon.

When one compares the extremely diverse drawings of Mars given in the October Astronomy and Astro-Physics, one cannot but suspect that clouds have a large part in producing this diversity. The general appearance of the earth from Mars would certainly change from hour to hour from this cause alone. Predominant and cloud fog probably caused the "absolutely colorless, dark-gray" appearance of the Martian oceans, noted by Professor Pickering for a considerable time (Astronomy and Astro-Physics, p. 546 cf., p. 669). Similarly the North Atlantic, which might often appear from Mars as a blue or green spot, might for some cime, in the spring of the year especially, be a dark-gray patch.

We must consider it likely that some of the rapidly darkening spots which Mr. Pickering observed were due rather to springing vegetation caused by showers on barren tracts than to inundation, particularly the case he mentions where a dark area suddenly appeared to the "south east of the northern sea and of fully double its rea." It seems hardly possible, if the snows on Mars are as light as Professor Pickering represents, that such extensive inundations ould occur; and it is simpler and more in accord with general

analogy that many such temporary dark or gray-green spots should be due to vegetation rather than to water.

Professor Pickering did so admirably with his 13-inch instrument, that we may well believe that, if he had had a 30 or 40-inch telescope, he would now be able to give us a tolerably accurate account of the general physiography of Mars. We hope his appeal for a thorough equipment will meet a ready response. HIRAM M. STANLEY.

Lake Forest University, Oct. 11.

The Lines on Mars.

IN Science, Sept. 23, Mr. C. B. Warring communicates a theory to account for the gemination of the so-called canals of Mars. He suggests that the phenomenon may be due to a defect in the eye of the observer by reason of its possessing the power of double refraction in some or in all directions. That some eyes do possess the power of double refraction is a well-known fact. It is a defect which, I imagine, is much more common than is generally supposed. It may be suggested that data representing a large number of cases might show astigmatic eyes to possess the power of double refraction more frequently than others. I do not know that any data have been collected upon this point.

Concerning the existence of the canals of Mars and that they are sometimes really double, I have no doubt. My own recent work at the Lick Observatory has convinced me that they are not illusions due to imperfect eyesight. During the present opposition, I spent about thirty nights in the work on Mars, working with Professors Schaeberle and Campbell. On about half the nights I saw the so-called canals with more or less distinctness, but on only one occasion did I clearly see a canal double. This was August 17, when the canal called Ganges on Schiaparelli's map was clearly seen to be double, and was so drawn in my note-book. That the doubling was real and not apparent is evident from the fact that Professors Schaeberle and Campbell both saw the same canal double on the same night, and drew it so. Other canals, some of them nearly parallel to Ganges, were seen that night, but none of them appeared double.

Our work was done independently. In turn each went to the telescope, and made a drawing of what he saw. We did not see each others' drawings, nor did we talk of what we had seen. It was not until the next morning that we learned that each had seen Ganges double. WILLIAM J. HUSSEY.

Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal.

A New Habitat of the Black-Throated Rock Swift, Micropus Melanoleucus.

As curator of the museum, I have just procured for the State University of Nebraska a set of bird-skins prepared during the past summer, among which are five skins that must be of interest to ornithologists. They verify the discovery made by Professor Lawrence Bruner of the University of Nebraska, that the Whitethroated Rock Swift builds and breeds in the precipitous bluffs around Squaw Canon, Sioux Co., Nebraska, and, what is more likely, throughout the Pine Ridge regions, as Professor Bruner has observed them also at Crow Butte, near Crawford, Nebraska. This isolated habitat of the White-throated Rock Swift, Micropus Melanoleucus (Pany ptila Saxatilis), is several hundred miles east of its most eastern limits as known hitherto. Perhaps the Pine Ridge Buttes and bluffs, particularly those about Squaw Canon, are so admirably adapted to their nesting and high-flying habits as to be the attractive forces.

Although five specimens were secured, no eggs were found. It should be mentioned, perhaps, that the egg of this swift is unknown. However, it is the expectation of the author that they will be found on some of his own, or some of the other numerous excursions sent annually to this excellent field by the university.

The nests are built high up in the cliffs, in the most inaccessible places. The semi-lithified sandstone of these buttes is easily excavated; and, as nearly as could be learned, the swifts dig back about eighteen inches, the opening barely admitting the hand but expanding somewhat at the nest. The nests are built of grass.