Assyrian Eelics. 



21 



total contraction of the earth's radius at 30 miles since 



the formation of a cooled exterior. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE CONTRACTIONAL HYPOTHESIS. 



By tar the greater portion of this cooling muse have 

 taken place before the palaeozoic age. By tar the 

 greater portion of the residue must have occurred bo- 

 fore the begiun'ng of the tertiary period, aud yet the 

 whole of this contraction would not account for the dis- 

 turbances which have occurred since the close of the 

 cretaceous period. To account for the tangantial com- 

 pression in mountainous regionswo shonhi bo compelled 

 to assume contraction since the Permian period. But 

 wo find the L uirentian rocks excessively disturbed, and 

 cannot attribute this to secular contraction of the inte- 

 rior. Shrinkage of one-fifth in linear density implies an 

 increase of 95 feet in tneau density; aud this is incom- 

 patible with any reasonable supposition as to the con- 

 dition of the earth's mass while the Laureutian sedi- 

 ments were accumulating, if wo consider their distor- 

 tion as due to contraction. 



Again, a vertical section through the Appalachian 

 chain, aud thence westward to the liwth meridian, shows 

 a highly disturbed surface for 250 miles. If the contrac- 

 tion was general, there must have been a vast slip over 

 The nucleus. But the friction and aduesiou between the 

 crust and the nucleus seem to have beeu overlooked. 

 Tue analytical method applied to this would demonstrate 

 its impossibility. Again, the ten iency to corrugation 

 along certain belts with series of parallel folds is 

 assumed on a doubtful basis. The shrinkage of the 

 nucleus would institute a strain in all directions within 

 its own tangent plane. Relief by horizontal yielding in 

 one direction would give no general relief ; the intensity 

 of the strain in all other directions would still re- 

 main. The case is not that of a collapsing cylinder, 

 but of a dome, and great deformations of the earth's 

 surface must ensue. The plications of tlie palaeozoic rocks 

 are not of this general character. They an- localized in 

 long and rather narrow belts. Still more discordant is 

 tlie evulence of the tertiary plications; the disturbance 

 from Cape Horn to Behring's S3a is a continuous, nar- 

 row belt. If we admit contraction along tue belt alone, 

 we cannot explain the regular figure of the earth as au 

 ellipsoid of revolution with an eccentricity proportioned 

 to its mean density and angular velocity. Here tb.6 

 analogy of the withered apple fails; if corrugated by 

 shrinkage it fails to preserve its figure, or if preserving 

 it, must corrugite uniformly. TJ avoid prolixity this 

 argument is not carried into the discussion of details of 

 surface. t 



Prof. Guyot road a memoir of Prof. James H. 

 Coffin. The following papers were read by title 

 only : A Memoir on the Zodiacal Lurlit. by Prof. S. 

 Alexander; On Some Points in Mallet's Theory of 

 Vulcaiiicity, by Prof. E. W. Hilffard; The Polariza- 

 tion of the Zodiacal Light, by Prof. A. W. Wright. 



Mr. James D. Warner of Brooklyn read a purely 

 technical paper on a New Set of Bernoulli's Numbers, 

 which arc a mathematical invention for shortening 

 certain algebraic processes by their application tc 

 the* coefficients of development of expanding series. 



At the conclusion of this paper, without another 

 word vro or con, without stilted resolutions, or any 

 other of the numerous devices for closing an ex- 

 tended meeting, Prof. Henry simply rose from his 

 chair and said : 



" The Academy is now adjourned." 



And it was adjourned. 



ASSYRIAN RELICS. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC COPIES AT WASHINGTON 

 FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



COPIES OF GEORGE SMITH'S RESTORED CHALDEAN 

 TABLETS IN THE SMITHSONIAN I.N^IIll TION 

 HOW THE CUNEIFORM CHARACTERS *WERE DE- 

 CIPHERED AND THE STORY THEY TELL THE 

 RECORD OK THE EXPLOITS AND DECREES OP 



ANCIENT KINGS. 



| FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TIUHUNK. | 

 WASHINGTON, U. C., April 24. I make it a 



point to stroll over the Smith'sonLiu Institution ;it least 

 twice a month to see the additions to the curiosities 

 whicli are there on exhibi ion. Last week my visit was 

 rewarded by a view of the famous tablets which pre- 

 sent the Chaldean account of the Deluge. These tablets 

 are copies of those restored by George Smitli, eura- 

 tor of the Assyrian aud Oriental Departments of tho 

 British Museum, aud were procured by Professor 

 Henry, at the request of Professor Mason, of Columbia 

 College, Washington. Professor Mason lias for several 

 years made a specialty of Oriental languages and 

 history, and is said lobe the only man in this country 

 who can decipher the character of the cuneiform in- 

 scriptions, lie was in the building at tha time I visited 

 it, and I found him in the great upper hall busily en- 

 gaged in hanging the uiaguifiuent series of phototype 

 published by the British Museum, of whic'a mention will 

 be made further on. These copies will be placed in tho 

 large upper hall, which is to be devoted to ethnological 

 subjects. All the natural history specimens which have 

 hitherto been kept in that hall will be taken down stairs. 

 New cases have been made for the proper exhibition of 

 ethnological curiosities, and the vast collections of tho 

 Smithsonian illustrating the habits and life of iiorth 

 American Indian tribes, as well as of many other unciv- 

 ilized peoples, including some that are prehistoric in 

 their antiquity, will thus be brought together and ar- 

 ranged with accurate classification for the use of the 

 professional student. The systematic method of arrange- 

 ment of the collections of the Smithsonian Institute, 

 under the care of Prof. Baird, adds materially to their 

 usefulness and value. 



Professor Mason soon became enthusiastically inter- 

 ested in the subject of the tablets, and gave the follow- 

 ing history of their discovery aud restoration: 



Some twenty-five years since, Mr. George Smith, a 

 young eusraver in London, sho ,ved considerable interest 

 in matters of Oriental art and curiosity deposited In tho 

 British Museum, and, finally, upon the return to En- 

 gland of Sir Hoiu-y Rawliuson. the distinguished Oriental 

 scholar, astonished the latter one day by easily decipher- 

 ing: the inscription upon one of the Assyrian re.ics 

 brought by L iyard from Nineveh. Mr. Smith became 

 an employ6 of the Museum, and ultimately curator of 

 the department of Oriental antiquities. In 1816 Mr. 

 Layard, while making his excavations on the supposed 

 site cf Nineveh, broke through into a largo room, whicli 

 proved subsequently to be the library of Aasurbanipal, 

 who was King of Assyria B.C. 663-040, and who estab- 

 lished this library B.C. 667. Toe writings of the ancients 

 were engraved upon tablets, which, in mo-t instances, 

 were made of stone; bur. at the Eunhrates's mouth, the 

 area covered by the Chaldean Kingdom is entirely allu- 

 vial, ami stone is altogether wanting; therefore, tho 

 CiiMklean tablets are mane of terra cotta, or else of un- 

 burutclay. LnyarJ found large numbers of these tablets, 



