POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



7*3 



greater than that of the Mississippi, and 

 double that of any river in Europe. The 

 magnitude of the Irrawaddy in its mid-portion 

 causes astonishment to every visitor whose 

 ideas are formed from "Western maps. Cap- 

 tain Hanney says, on this subject : " To this 

 point no diminution in the volume of the 

 Irrawaddy was perceptible, from which we 

 may infer that all the principal feeder af- 

 fluents which pour tributary streams into 

 the Irrawaddy were still farther north, and 

 had not yet been reached." Dr. Griffiths was 

 astonished at the size of the river above 

 Mandalay, and expressed the belief that it 

 is probably " an outlet from some great riv- 

 er which drains an extensive tract of coun- 

 try." 



Incidents of Travel in Somanli-Land. 

 Mr. F. L. James, while traveling in the 

 Somauli country, East Africa, had a serious 

 tax imposed upon him, from a custom of 

 the natives to come to the camp every night 

 to be fed. " They would sit silent on the 

 ground near the camp-fires where our men 

 would be eating, and, though they never 

 asked for food, they always succeeded in 

 getting it given to them." Living among 

 all the Somauli tribes are low- caste tribes : 

 the Midgans, who carry bows and poisoned 

 arrows ; the Tomals, workers in iron ; and the 

 Ebir, workers in leather charms. An inter- 

 esting illustration of the faculty of adapta- 

 tion to the environment is given in the abil- 

 ity of the animals of the country to go 

 without water. The camels on one stretch 

 passed fifteen days without drinking. Sheep 

 are able to go from six to eight days, and 

 the horses of the party several times went 

 three days without water, and without ap- 

 parent suffering. The arrival of the com- 

 pany at Gesloguby, one of the principal 

 watering-places of the country, created much 

 excitement among the people who were wa- 

 tering their stock. They crowded around 

 the zariba in hundreds, " and expressed the 

 greatest amazement at us and our doings. 

 Smoking particularly astonished them, as 

 they thought a pipe was part of our per- 

 sons, and that the white man kept a fire 

 somewhere inside; and, when one of our 

 party shot a bird, many fell down, while 

 others invoked the protection of Allah." 

 There appears to be a vein of considerable 



shrewdness among these people. A faction 

 who were opposed to Mr. James's journey 

 found that the British consul-general had 

 received an order from his government after 

 the expedition had started, to stop its de- 

 parture from the coast ; and they made use 

 of their knowledge with an ingenuity which 

 was admirable and gave our travelers much 

 annoyance. A chief of a neighboring na- 

 tion, the Adone, having received Mr. James, 

 used diplomatic arts which might have be- 

 come a Gortchakoff to make of him an in- 

 strument with which to chastise one of his 

 rivals ; and it required all our author's skill 

 to avoid a fight with one or both of the 

 rivals, who, however much they might hate 

 one another, would probably have come to- 

 gether to attack him. Among these Adone, 

 who detest the Somauli, but sell them grain, 

 a man is not looked upon with favor by the 

 women of his tribe till he has killed an- 

 other, either in a fair fight or by assassina- 

 tion and assassination is the more com- 

 mon way. This entitles him to paint the 

 boss of his shield red, or to wear a feather 

 in his hair. 



The Coming Metal. It is predicted that 

 aluminum is the coming metal, which is des- 

 tined to supersede iron. It is the most 

 abundant metal in the earth's crust, and is 

 not exceeded in usefulness. It is the me- 

 tallic base of mica, feldspar, slate, and clay. 

 It is present in gems, colored blue in the 

 sapphire, green in the emerald, yellow in 

 the topaz, red in the ruby, brown in the 

 emery, and so on to the white, gray, blue, 

 and black of the slates and clays. It has 

 never been found in a pure state, but is 

 known to exist in combination in nearly two 

 hundred different minerals. Corundum and 

 pure emery are very rich in aluminum, which 

 constitutes about fifty-four per cent of their 

 substance. The metal is white, and next to 

 silver in luster ; it is as light as chalk, or 

 only one third the weight of iron, or one 

 fourth that of silver ; is as malleable as 

 gold, as tenacious as iron, and harder than 

 steel. It is soft when ductility, fibrous 

 when tenacity, and crystalline when hard- 

 ness is required. It melts at 1,300 Fahr. 

 or at least 600 below the melting-point of 

 iron, and it neither oxidizes in the air nor 

 tarnishes in contact with gases. 



