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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cliffs of stone, which was also probably em- 

 ployed for biiiial purposes. The ladder was 

 a trunk of a cedar tree, having seven or eight 

 steps, eighteen or nineteen inches apart, 

 made by cutting a scarf into the tree. There 

 are many such houses, Mr. Burns says, in 

 the coal measures, and they were used by 

 the aborigines as dwelling or burial places. 



A BLUE mineral discovered near Silver 

 City, New Mexico, and supposed to be ultra- 

 marine, occurs in irregular veins and streaks 

 in the lime carrying the silver ore which is 

 mined at Chloride Flat. The specimens pro- 

 cured by Mr. G. P. Merrill for the United 

 States Museum exhibit the earthy blue sub- 

 stance which on casual inspection resembles 

 ultramarine, associated with calcite and other 

 substances ; the analyses show, according to 

 Mr. K. L. Packard, a chemical resemblance 

 to talc, although the physical properties of 

 the two minerals are different. 



A COMPANY engaged in the construction 

 of an electric railway on the Jungfrau pro- 

 poses to devote twenty thousand dollars to 

 the erection of a geophysical obsci-vatory at 

 an altitude of about fifteen thousand feet, 

 and to apply one thousand dollars a year for 

 its maintenance. 



The Jakuns, or aboriginals, of Johore 

 (Malacca) live in small communities on the 

 banks of jungle streams, subsisting miser- 

 ably on fruits, tapioca, roots, and small fish 

 and reptiles. They seldom remain long in the 

 same spot, but wander from place to place, 

 living under scanty leaf shelters built on 

 rickety poles at a considerable height from 

 the ground. It is not uncommon to find a 

 dozen men, women, and children, in company 

 with a tame monkey or two, a few dogs and 

 cats, innumerable fowls, and perhaps a tame 

 hornbill, living in perfect harmony under 

 the same miserable shelter. These aborigi- 

 nes are all very expert fishermen, using 

 chiefly the three-pronged spear. 



The National Home Reading Union of 

 England has for four years followed the 

 practice of taking its students every summer 

 into the fields, to the places which best illus- 

 trate the sultjects on which they are at work. 

 Thus, this year, while the general meetings 

 were held at Buxton, special meetings were 

 held at Salisbury, for the study of the monu- 

 ments, abundant in the district, illustrating 

 the arclucology, art, and history of early Eng- 

 land " from Stonehenge to Salisbury Cathe- 

 dral." Special excursions were given for 

 botany, geology, etc., and conferences on so- 

 cial and educational subjects. 



Dr. D. L. W. Robinson, President of the 

 South Dakota State Board of Health, is con- 

 vinced from experience in practice in that 

 region of great climatic variation and pres- 

 sure that a close relationship exists between 

 weather changes and health and disease. 

 Yet he fails to identify this relationship 



specifically with either barometric changes 

 or low temperature, and suggests that it may 

 be connected with electrical conditions as the 

 principal factor. 



According to the Bulletin of the Amer- 

 ican Geographical Society, the recent study 

 of the observations on mountain summits in 

 the neighborhood of Mount St. Elias shows 

 that Mount Logan is the loftiest peak in 

 North America, its height being 19,500 feet 

 1,200 feet greater than that of Orizaba, and 

 1,500 feet more than that of Mount St. Elias. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



The death is announced at Geneva, Switz- 

 erland, of the eminent chemist, J. C. de 

 Marignac, formerly professor in the Univer- 

 sity of Geneva. He retired from his profess- 

 orship in 1878, but continued his studies in 

 a laboi'atory, which he fitted up at home, till 

 the end of his life. He was well known for 

 his researches on ozone and on chlorine, sil- 

 ver, potassium, sulphuric acid, and other sub- 

 stances in the domain of mineral chemistry. 

 He was a correspondent of the Institute of 

 France, and received the gold medal of the 

 Royal Society in 1886. He was modest to 

 excess and led a retired life of labor, the 

 fruits of which made his name known through- 

 out the world. 



The death is announced of Prof. Adolph 

 Leipner, Professor of Botany in University 

 College, Bristol, England. He had been hon- 

 orary secretary from its beginning in 1862, 

 and was at the time of his death President 

 of the Bristol Naturalists' Society. 



Prof. August Kundt, the eminent physi- 

 cist, died May ilst at his country place near 

 Lubeck, fifty-four years of age. He was born 

 at Schwerin in 1839 and was graduated from 

 the University of Berlin in 1864, presenting 

 as his thesis an investigation on the depolari- 

 zation of light. He became a privatdocent 

 in the University of Berlin in 1867, and was 

 afterward a professor in the Polytechnic In- 

 stitution at Zurich, at Wiirzburg, in the Uni- 

 versity of Strasburg, in the organization of 

 which he had an important part, and in the 

 Berlin Physical Institute, where he was also 

 director. His first investigations were in 

 acoustics and were gradually extended to 

 embrace a large range of subjects. Perhaps 

 the most important of them were in optics 

 and magneto-optics. 



M. A. Derbes, one of the pioneers in the 

 study of the life history of the algse, has re- 

 cently died in Marseilles, France. In con- 

 junction with M. Solier he was the author of 

 a work on Zoospores of the Algse and the 

 Antharides of the Ci-yptogams, published in 

 1847, which was rich with new facts and 

 formed the basis of all later observations on 

 the same subject. 



