POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



561 



three of his so-called half-prisms, of such 

 size as to take a beam two and one quarter 

 inches in diameter, and is nearly six feet 

 long. The whole cost of the telescope and 

 spectroscope was $26,000, which was pro- 

 vided by the generosity of Robert Bonner, 

 R. L. Stuart, and other friends of science 

 and the college. The observatory itself, of 

 which the corner-stone was laid sixteen 

 years ago, has been newly fitted up for its 

 occupant. A gas-engine furnishes the power 

 for moving the dome and working the shut- 

 ters, and it also drives an Edison dynamo 

 electric machine which provides a powerful 

 current to be used for lighting purposes, or 

 to supply the spectra of gases and metals to 

 be compared with the spectra of the stars. 



American Archaeological Researches. 



The third annual report of the Archaeological 

 Institute of America reviews the work that 

 has been pursued by the agents of the in- 

 stitute in archaeological explorations in New 

 Mexico and Mexico, and in the excavations 

 at the ancient Greek city of Assos, and in- 

 cludes the first report of the committee on 

 the American school of classical studies at 

 Athens. Mr. Bandelier, who' had been ex- 

 ploring in New Mexico in the service of the 

 institute, spent some time in Mexico, first 

 at Cholula, where he studied the history of 

 the city and the manners and customs, the 

 habits and superstitions, and the domestic 

 architecture of the present native Indian 

 inhabitants. He inquired into the origin 

 and character of the ancient Mexican deity 

 Quetzal-Chohuatl, and the significance of 

 the myth attached to his name, and made a 

 study of the great pyramid of Cholula. The 

 latter, he declares, is not entitled to be called 

 a pyramid, but is only a huge mound, some 

 two hundred feet high, which originally 

 covered an area of about sixty acres, and 

 now presents' the appearance of three dis- 

 tinct terraces, surrounding and supporting 

 a conical hill, very wide, and much over- 

 grown with shrubbery. It is constructed 

 of materials precisely similar to those which 

 make up the plain on which it stands, and 

 appears not to have been all erected at one 

 time, but to be the accumulation of suc- 

 cessive periods of labor. Mr. Bandelier 

 believes that the structure was designed 

 to hold immense communal buildings, like 



those at Pecos, in New Mexico, but in size 

 approaching the great edifices at Palenque 

 and Uxmal, and all built around a vast 

 court, in the center of which stood an enor- 

 mous " worship-mound," and that it was 

 built by the Toltecs, or Mayas. Mr. Bande- 

 lier also visited Mitla, where he secured ac- 

 curate plans and measurements of the most 

 important buildings, thirty-nine in number. 

 The so-called palaces are not greatly differ- 

 ent from the pueblos of New Mexico, and 

 are described as built and ornamented with- 

 out any knowledge of mechanical contriv- 

 ances, dark and imperfectly ventilated, and 

 only a " barbaric effort of a barbarous peo- 

 ple." His conclusion, drawn from the shape 

 and size of the single apartments, is that 

 they were not intended for every-day abodes, 

 but only as shelters at night and in bad 

 weather, and retreats for the women and 

 1 children during a hostile attack communal 

 1 structures, differing from the similar con- 

 | structions of other Indian tribes " only in 

 i so far as the exigencies of a different cli- 

 mate or of varying resources demanded." M. 

 Louis H. Ayme, United States consul at 

 Merida, has entered into a contract to ex- 

 j plore, as agent of the institute, such places 

 i in Yucatan as have not recently been ex- 

 j amined by Dr. Le Plongeon or M. Charnay. 

 i The ruins of Yucatan have suffered great 

 destruction during the forty years since 

 they were visited by Stephens. 



The American Association. The thirty- 

 first annual meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science will 

 be held at Montreal, beginning August 23d, 

 under the presidency of Principal J. W. 

 Dawson, LL. D., F. R, S., of McGill Univer- 

 sity. The headquarters of the association 

 will be at McGill University, where mem- 

 bers will register as soon as possible after 

 their arrival. The hotel headquarters will 

 be at the Windsor Hotel. The offices of the 

 local committee and of the permanent sec- 

 retary will be at the university. The gen- 

 eral sessions and the meetings of the sec- 

 tions and committees will all be held in the 

 university buildings. The permanent sec- 

 retary, Professor F. W. Putnam, may be 

 addressed at Salem, Massachusetts, till Au- 

 gust 17th, after which his address will be at 

 the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, Canada. 



