138 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and are reported upon. The collection of 

 reptiles and batrachians made by Mr. Leon- 

 hard Stejneger is particularly noteworthy as 

 being the first attempt in this country on a 

 similar scale to gather the material of this 

 class according to a national plan and with 

 a definite purpose in view. The result is a 

 fine series of nine hundred specimens, unique 

 in its completeness with respect to geograph- 

 ic localities within the area explored by the 

 expedition, a tract of almo.'st a hundred thou- 

 sand square miles, comprising a number of 

 nearly parallel desert valleys separated by 

 intervening narrow mountain ranges. The 

 effort to collect every species in all the char- 

 acteristic localities has resulted in the ac- 

 cumulation of a material by which it has 

 been possible in many instances to follow 

 the geographic variation in its several direc- 

 tions. Thereby the author has been enabled 

 to settle many vexed questions, and to point 

 out various nice distinctions where some of 

 his colleagues had failed, chiefly from lack of 

 suitable material. According to Prof. Mer- 

 riam's own observations, most of the desert 

 shrubs are social plants and are distributed 

 in well-marked belts or zones, the vertical 

 limits of which are fixed by the temperature 

 during the period of gro vth and reproduc- 

 tion. The boundaries of the several belts 

 conform largely to the contours of altitude, 

 with such flexures as variations in base level 

 and slope exposure impose. 



Conventionalism and Originality. Hav- 

 ing discussed the tendency of conventional 

 and original minds to come into collision on 

 social matters, the London Spectator finds 

 the occasions for collision less in the case of 

 purely intellectual questions, for the conven- 

 tionals would take so little interest in mat- 

 ters requiring real thought that they would 

 dismiss them unconsidered. But to those 

 capable of appreciating such subjects, how 

 refreshing in their distinctiveness of charac- 

 ter are the workings of the original mind, 

 both in ideas and in expression ! For there 

 is a touch of genius, or what the French call 

 feu sacre, kindling its thoughts. " Life can 

 never be an altogether dull thing in the com- 

 pany of the original man, for his inventive 

 mind will so combine its various elements as 

 to produce a new and unexpected result. He 

 will see things from some point of view dis- 



regarded before; like what we have seen, 

 yet somehow quite different fresh and un- 

 expected as the thoughts of a child. For, in 

 truth, we shall find there is a close kinship 

 between his mind and that of a thoughtful 

 child. Both continually sui prise and de- 

 light us, because, through ignorance in the 

 one case and disregard in the other, of the 

 ordinary points of view, they simply and nat- 

 urally take their own. And in both cases 

 there is the probability that they will strike 

 the truth, because, unblinded by convention 

 or prejudice, they aim straight at the heart of 

 a question. We see, both with children and 

 with poor people, that education, however 

 useful as a refiner of the raw material of 

 originality, is no necessity of its existence. 

 For what rare and racy originality do we 

 often find in the sayings of the poor and un- 

 educated ! Their conversation may be often 

 richer in this golden ore than that of those 

 who are called their betters ; for having 

 heard less of other men's views, their 

 shrewd, observant minds are driven to take 

 their own. . . . Yet, on the other hand, who 

 that delights in certain gifted authors would 

 deny that mental cultivation gives an added 

 grace to originality ? " 



The Alaskan Climate. The climate of 

 southeastern Alaska, says Prof. J. J. Steven- 

 son, in the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 is a source of constant surprise to visitors 

 from the Atlantic slope. On the same par- 

 allels with bleak and dismal Labrador and 

 Cape York on Hudson Bay, where the sum- 

 mer heat penetrates only a few feet below 

 the surface, trees grow three thousand feet 

 above the sea at Wrangel, and up to the 

 mountain tops at Juneau. The rainfall is 

 great, and the variation in temperature is 

 not ; the mercury rarely falls below ten de- 

 grees above zero at Sitka, and as seldom 

 rises above seventy-five degrees. Of course, 

 the extremes are much greater on the main- 

 land beyond the mountains, where the sum- 

 mer heat and winter cold are much more in- 

 tense than immediately on the coast. Alas- 

 ka has not been an unprofitable investment 

 for the United States. The purchase money 

 has been repaid, or nearly so, by royalties on 

 seal-fishing. But the agi-icultural capabili- 

 ties are limited indeed. There is little land 

 fitted for tillage ; and the moist summer 



