G. NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 299 



of gigantic trees, in the brandies of which are houses of the 

 people. The stems of these trees run up perfectly straight, 

 growing without a branch to the height of from fifty to one 

 hundred and fifty feet. One ascended by Captain Stimpson, 

 of the Blanche, had a house built in it at a height of eighty 

 feet from the ground; one close to it, at one hundred and 

 twenty feet. The only means of approach to the houses is 

 by a ladder made of a creeper, suspended from a post within 

 the house, and which can be hauled up at will. Each house 

 contains from ten to twelve natives, and an ample store of 

 stone.s is kept for defense. These houses are, in fact, used as 

 fortresses and for sleeping-places, while those for ordinary 

 use are at the foot of the trees. The object of this curious 

 mode of building is to secure protection against their fellow- 

 natives, as they wage a constant mutual warfare, often for the 

 purpose of getting each others heads as trophies. 12 A, 

 November 20, 1 873, 54. 



WOLF-CHILDREN IX INDIA. 



From the days of Romulus and Remus to the present, 

 stories are continually rife of children having taken up their 

 abode with wolves, and assuming more or less of their charac- 

 ter. A recent contribution to the literature of this subject 

 is found in the June number, for 1873, of the Proceedings of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal, where Mr. V. Ball, of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India, presents a note of children found liv- 

 ing with wolves in the northwestern province of Oude. This 

 gentleman gives an extract from a letter from the superin- 

 tendent of the Orphanage at Secundra, in relation to a boy 

 who was found, as it states, in a wolf den where some Hin- 

 doos were hunting wolves. He had been burned out of the 

 den with the wolves, and brought to the Orphanage with the 

 scars and wounds still on him. In his habits he was a per- 

 fectly wild animal in every respect, drinking like a dog, and 

 liking a bone and raw meat better than any thing else. He 

 would never remain with the other boys, hiding away in any 

 dark corner, and never wearing clothes, but tearing them into 

 fine shreds. He died a few months after being taken, 



Another boy, also found among wolves, and likewise 

 brought to the Orphanage, is now about thirteen or fourteen 

 years of age, and has been at the Orphanage more than six 



