204 



HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1866. 



Africa, in his little work entitled " Trade and Travels 

 on the Gulf of Guinea." 



It is singular that the earliest inhabitants of 

 both Europe and Africa were thus, in all probability, 

 diminutive races. The Andaman Islanders, accord- 

 ing to the old Mussulman travellers, once terrified 

 the coasts of Malacca and Sumatra with then- 

 piracies, and seem related to the Oceanic negroes 

 inhabiting the interior of the larger East-Indian 

 islands. The dwarfish Mlechas of the Indian con- 

 tinent and the wild Veddahs of the forests of Ceylon 

 may be also of the same race ; and thus we should 

 go far, embracing the dwarfish Samoyedes in the 

 North and the once highly civilized Ainos of Yesso, 

 towards constructing an originally diminutive abo- 

 riginal population for the continent of Asia also. 

 The wild legends of wars with monkeys waged by 

 the early Hindoo monarchs, related in the sacred 

 books of the Brahmins, are, I imagine, in reality the 

 details of the struggles of the wild inhabitants of 

 the peninsula of Hindustan against their civilized 

 Circassian invaders. 



There is an interesting historical fact with regard 

 to the presence of the Esquimaux in Greenland, 

 which, so far as I know, has never received the 

 attention which its importance demands. There 

 seems good reason to believe that the aboriginal 

 race in America, as well as in Europe, was of 

 Finnish origin. It might reasonably be supposed 

 that the American Esquimaux, closely connected as 

 they are with the Asiatic Samoyedes, came over 

 Bhcring Straits from Asia; but, singular to say, all 

 history represents them as migrating from the south 

 towards the north. "When the Norsemen colonized 

 Greenland, they found it totally uninhabited ; when 

 they visited Vinland (Massachusetts ?), they found 

 no natives there either; but after a lapse of some 

 years the Skreelings or dwarfs, as they called them, 

 suddenly appeared, and after a longer interval, 

 arrived in Greenland, where they finally over- 

 whelmed the Norse colonies, whose disappearance 

 is one of the most mysterious occurrences in history. 

 How the extirpation of the hardy Norwegians was 

 achieved is minutely related in one of the "Legends 

 of the Greenland Esquimaux," which appeared some 

 years ago in " Chambers's Journal." 



I have observed a striking likeness between por- 

 traits of Esquimaux and the faces sculptured on the 

 walls of the ruined cities in Central America, as 

 given by Stephens in his celebrated work. Is this 

 merely accidental? The cause of the northerly 

 movement of the Esquimaux may possibly have 

 been the advent of tribes from Asia by way of the 

 innumerable archipelagoes of the Pacific. 



E. A. Allen. 



Be not too hasty to erect general theories from a 

 few peculiar observations, appearances, or experi- 

 ments.— Bit. Watts. 



BOX FOB CATCHING INSECTS. 

 TT AVING often felt the want, in catching 

 -*— *- insects, more especially for the microscope, 

 of a means for readily securing the insect upon the 

 spot, by chloroforming it whilst quite fresh and un- 

 injured, I have been led to devise, with a friend, a 

 little box for this purpose, which has been found so 

 convenient and efficient that a description will pro- 

 bably interest your readers. 



A shallow transparent glass jar is fitted with a 

 wood cover lined round the edge with cork to fit 

 air-tight, similar to the ordinary glass pomatum- 

 jars. In the centre of the cover a hole about | 

 inch diameter is made (a), and a small piece of fine- 

 grained sponge about f inch diameter is fixed over 

 this hole inside the cover, by gluing it into a conical 

 recess cut round the hole {b) ; the sponge being 

 trimmed with scissors to a thin edge all round, and 

 pressed down flat whilst the glue is drying, finishes 

 with a close-fitting and neat edge all round : the 

 natural surface of the sponge is left for the face. 

 Birectly an insect is caught in the box, a few drops 

 of chloroform are put on the sponge through the 

 hole in the cover, and a finger placed over to close 

 the hole. The smaller insects are killed in two or 

 three seconds in this way by three or four drops of 

 chloroform, and the larger ones are so far stupefied 

 that the box may be safely opened, and the insect 

 killed by some chloroform dropped upon it, the 

 state of the insect being readily observed through 

 the transparent glass. 



Fig. 201. Section of Collecting-Box. 



The most convenient way of carrying the chloro- 

 form for the purpose is in one of the small bottles 

 made with a pouring-lip at the edge of the neck, 

 and fitted with a sound cork ; this is carried con- 

 veniently ready for use in the waistcoat pocket, 

 and lasts for a day's use. In catching insects, the 

 transparent glass box gives the means of seeing at 

 once whether the desired insect has been secured or 

 missed ; and, in the case of a winged insect settled 

 upon a plant, the whole leaf or small shoot is 

 enclosed at once in the box on catching the insect, 

 and then by watching the movements of the insect 

 the leaf or shoot can be readily and safely with- 

 drawn by slackening the opposite side of the cover, 

 when the insect is immediately chloroformed and 

 removed to the store-box. By this means a suc- 

 cession of insects can be rapidly secured by the 



