5 74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the ground by the roots of the tree, and a 

 mound on the side of the pit toward which 

 the tree fell, formed of the earth which was 

 thus pulled up. They are commonly called 

 " Indian graves " by the people, and are 

 supposed to be spots where Indian burials 

 have taken place. Where they are numer- 

 ous, as in the path of Mr. Campbell's cy- 

 clone, they are supposed to mark the place 

 where a fierce battle has occurred. In the 

 wild forest these marks are, though more 

 than three hundred years old, as well pre- 

 served and as distinct in outline as many 

 made by trees that have fallen recently. 

 But if the land is cleared and cultivated 

 they disappear in a very few years under 

 the action of the plow and of exposure to 

 frost and rains. The preservation of the 

 little mounds in the woods, which under 

 the continuance of the conditions might last 

 for five thousand or even ten thousand 

 years, is due to the thin coating of forest 

 leaves that lies upon them. " The leaves 

 act as shingles in shedding the rains, so 

 that they are not washed or worn down by 

 the falling rain or melting snow. The frost 

 does not penetrate through a good coating 

 of leaves, and therefore they are not ex- 

 panded and spread out by freezing and 

 thawing. I can see a great difference be- 

 tween the mounds in the wild forest and 

 those on land that has been set to grass and 

 pastured a few years. The tramping of 

 stock, and the frequent expansions from 

 freezing, which the grass does not prevent, 

 flatten them perceptibly. The grass, how- 

 ever, does preserve them against rain-wash- 



ing?." 



Fossil Fish in Xew Jersey Trias. The 



triassic shales beneath the overflow of the 

 trap-rocks of the Palisades of the west shore 

 of the Hudson River have frequently been 

 searched for fossils, but little besides dim 

 tracings has yet been found in them. Mr. 

 L. P. Gratacap says, however, in a commu- 

 nication to the " American Naturalist," that 

 Mr. F. Braun, of Weehawken, New Jersev 

 has lately found a number of fish remains in 

 these slates, of which he has extracted speci- 

 mens of considerable beauty, together with 

 vegetable fossils. Among the remains are 

 casts and impressions of plant-roots or root- 

 like fragments, the lobate divisions of an 

 aquatic plant, an enigmatical nut display- 



ing its coaly and black nucleus, and nu- 

 merous fishes in various stages of preserva- 

 tion, and in positions that seem to throw a 

 light upon the local circumstances of their 

 entombment. The fishes are apparently 

 identical with Palwoniscus lotus. In the 

 sandstones below these shales, Mr. Braun 

 has found tracks, ripple-marks, and rain- 

 fossae. 



NOTES. 



Emma H. Adams, in an account of " Salm- 

 on-Canning in Oregon " which is published 

 in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, says : " In the four large houses I 

 visited, Chinamen were doing all the work 

 of canning, under an American superintend- 

 ent ; and I believe every firm employs them. 

 The process, consisting of not less than a 

 dozen or fifteen different steps, requires at 

 some stages great skill and celerity. For 

 such work the lithe Celestial is well adapt- 

 ed. He is attentive, exact, prompt, faith- 

 ful, and silent. Garrulous as a parrot with 

 his countrymen usually, he is speechless if 

 set to precise tasks, especially where his 

 wages are to be proportioned to the amount 

 of labor he performs." 



The war against the phylloxera in France 

 has been waged with wonderful vigor, and 

 has resulted so far in redeeming more than 

 half of the infected country from the at- 

 tacks of the pest. The methods of fighting 

 employed are first, submersion of the whole 

 land until the invaders are drowned the 

 most effective method, but applicable only 

 to low lands ; second, carbon bisulphide, 

 which kills by direct contact and by its va- 

 por ; and third, potassium sulpho-carbonate. 

 In 1885 submersion was applied to 24,839 

 hectares ; carbon bisulphide to 40,585 hec- 

 tares; and the sulpho-carbonate to 5,227 

 hectares. Professor W. Mattieu Williams 

 remarks on the way the French farmers 

 have barred this visitation and succeeded in 

 staying it, that it affords a clinching proof 

 of the success of the system of peasant pro- 

 prietorship, which has converted every rus- 

 tic, even the very pooi'est, into a capitalist 

 with a sufficient reserve to battle against 

 such a calamity. 



Fixed color-standards are in demand for 

 anthropological purposes. Those which 

 were issued by Broca several years ago 

 show a tendency to fade. Mr. Galton, look- 

 ing about him for something more durable, 

 has decided upon the imperishable enamel 

 which is employed for Roman mosaic-work, 

 and has recently visited the Vatican manu- 

 factory for the purpose of obtaining typical 

 colors among its products. 



