POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



and prove to be identical with the pebbles 

 with which the earth is interspersed. The 

 pebbles, then, originate from the veins, 

 which have been broken up by the same 

 agency that has caused the decomposition 

 of the stratified rock. This agency Pro- 

 fessor Kerr believes to have been the action 

 of the frost of the glacial period, which, as 

 we infer from observations made in north- 

 ern latitudes, may readily have penetrated 

 the rocks to the depth indicated by the char- 

 acter of the beds, and, constituting what 

 might be called an earth - glacier, would 

 have produced the same movements of the 

 mass and of the particles among themselves 

 as are seen to occur in the true glacier, dif- 

 fering only in amount. The deposits might 

 then be called frost - drift, as distinguished 

 from proper glacial drift. Instances of 

 veins in course of actual disintegration are 

 mentioned in the paper. In cutting a hill 

 for the extension of Market Street in Phila- 

 delphia, in 18*76, bands of hornblende and 

 chlorite were found decomposed, drawn out, 

 and bent over, as if in course of being car- 

 ried down the slope, and a similar appear- 

 ance is observable in a mica-mine in Yancey 

 County, North Carolina. The gold-bearing 

 gravels or placers of North Carolina belong 

 to this class of frost-drifts, the gold and 

 quartz pebbles being derived from the veins 

 which have been broken down in the course 

 of their formation. 



Burying the Sonls of the Drowned, 



Whenever an Abchasian is drowned, his 

 friends search carefully for the body ; but, 

 if this is not found, they proceed to capture 

 the soul of the deceased, a measure which 

 has then become a matter of importance. 

 A goat-skin bag is sprinkled with water and 

 placed with its mouth, which is stretched 

 open over a hoop, looking toward the river, 

 near to the place where the man is supposed 

 to have been drowned. Two cords are 

 stretched from the spot across the river, as 

 a bridge on which the soul can come over. 

 Vessels containing food and drink are set 

 around the skin, and the friends of the de- 

 ceased come and eat quietly, while a song 

 is sung with instrumental accompaniments. 

 The soul, it is believed, is attracted by the 

 ceremonies, comes over on the bridge that is 

 laid for it, and goes into the trap. As soon 



as it has entered that is, when the bag 

 is inflated by the breeze the opening is 

 quickly closed, and the bag is taken to the 

 burial-place, where a grave has already been 

 prepared. The bag is held with the open- 

 ing to the grave, the strings are untied, and 

 the soul that is, the wind in the bag is 

 squeezed into the grave, and the burial is 

 afterward completed. This rite is consid- 

 ered of equivalent value with the burial of 

 the body, and the grave is treated with the 

 same honor as if the body were really with- 

 in it. 



Alkaline Deposits from Waters of Irri- 

 gation. Professor E. W. Hilgard, in his re- 

 port as Professor of Agriculture in the Uni- 

 versity of California, observing that ordinary 

 surface irrigation on alkaline lands tends to 

 concentrate the alkali at the surface, pro- 

 poses as a remedy underdraining, " which 

 may so far lower the water-table from which 

 the saline matters are derived, and may so 

 far favor the washing out of the salts during 

 the rainy season, that the latter will there- 

 after fail to reach the surface so as to ac- 

 cumulate to an injurious extent with rea- 

 sonable tillage." The waters of Kern and 

 Tulare Lakes contain an excess of solid 

 matter, the quantity in the former lake be- 

 ing twenty-six times as much as in average 

 river-water, and consisting mostly of car- 

 bonate of soda, common and Glauber's salts. 

 The evaporation from such water when it 

 is used in irrigation adds annually to the 

 deposit of alkali in the soil, the effect of 

 which must be counteracted by the cultiva- 

 vation of deep-rooted crops, the use of gyp- 

 sum, sub-irrigation, and the leaching out of 

 the alkali from time to time by long-con- 

 tinued flooding and underdrainage. Pro- 

 fessor Hilgard concludes, after an examina- 

 tion of the facts, that " there are, probably, 

 few river-waters in the world of such com- 

 position or natural purity that continued 

 irrigation without correlative underdrainage 

 can be practiced without in the end causing 

 an injurious accumulation of soluble salts 

 in the soil." The Indian Government, after 

 having spent enormous sums to bring water 

 upon the fields, now has to face the problem 

 of its economical removal by drainage, so as 

 to relieve the soil of the accumulated alkali 

 which has rendered it unfit for cultivation. 



