P OP TJLAR MIS CELL ANY 



287 





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distance at which the signals are to be seen. 

 At present three sizes are used, correspond- 

 ing with distances of two and a half, eight, 

 and ten and a half miles. The medium size 

 measures about twenty by thirty inches, and 

 weighs, with the telescope, less than twenty 

 pounds. If the apparatus is to be used at 

 night, artificial illumination will be needed ; 

 a petroleum-lamp with a reflector, or, for 

 greater distances, two lamps, will be enough. 

 To use the apparatus, the album must be 

 fixed on its tripod at such an angle that the 

 reflection from the silver shall be brightest, 

 and shall reach the spot with which com- 

 munication is to be had. A plate which is 

 all silvered, and which appears in the dis- 

 tance as a bright point, is exposed as a 

 signal of warning : the operator at the other 

 post answers with an identical signal that 

 he is ready. The letters composing the 

 telegram are then exhibited one after the 

 other, and the words are separated by 

 showing the wholly silvered plate or plain 

 spot. If any signal is to be repeated, as in 

 the case of double letters or the repetition 

 of a figure, it is hid for a moment by a black 

 leaf and shown again. The operator at the 

 other station receives the dispatch with the 

 aid of his telescope, distinguishing the let- 



* tcrs and spelling the words as they come, 

 and writing them, or having them written, 

 down. The image produced by these huge 

 characters, seen at a distance through the 

 glass, corresponds witli sufficient exact- 

 ness with that produced by the same 

 characters when read in a book or a 

 newspaper. In the experiments that 

 have been made, dispatches of twenty 

 words have been transmitted in five min- 

 utes. Speed may be gained by using sin- 

 gle conventional characters for the more 

 common w r ords. Secrecy may be secured 

 by so fencing in the album as to prevent 

 the diffusion of its reflection, and limit 

 the field of its visibility to the other sta- 

 tion, or by employing a cipher. 



Ancient Aboriginal Ilonses. Judge 

 Henderson, of Illinois, discussing the char- 

 acter of the houses of the ancient inhab- 

 itants of the Mississippi Valley, said that 

 it was a mistake to regard the " cone-like 

 cabin " which is really only a temporary 

 hunting-hut or abode of a tribe in a no- 

 madic condition as the typical wigwams 

 of the aborigines at the beginning of the 

 historic period. Such houses were not 

 found in the villages of the sedentary tribes, 

 but these lived in large houses, each accom- 

 modating a number of families belonging 

 to the same ffois. These long houses were 

 made with framework, and covered with 

 such material as the country afforded bark 

 in the East, mats made from the leaves of 

 the cat-tail in the prairies of the West and 

 were divided into sections by skins, sheets 

 of bark, or mats hung up at intervals, and 

 had a hallway in the middle, extending the 

 full length of the house. One family occu- 

 pied each of these sections, and a fire built 

 in the doorway of every second partition 

 served for two families. In the South, the 

 houses were of sticks plastered with mud, 

 and sometimes covered with mats, while the 

 roof was covered with mats or thatched 

 with straw or canes. The absence of any 

 traces of ruins or of foundations shows that 

 the houses of the ancient inhabitants of the 

 land could not have been of stone, or mas- 

 sive structures of wood ; and they could not 

 have been of adobe, for that would not have 

 withstood our winters. Professor Morgan's 

 theory that the houses were pueblos, built 



