POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



285 



pations of the adult population ; thus, city 

 children may very often be seen playing at 

 being drunk, or at policemen and thieves, 

 and at fighting. Nothing can be more piti- 

 ful than this compulsory perversion of a 

 natural instinct into unwholesome ways. 

 Among the best methods of recruiting city 

 children, the author recommends the system 

 of holiday " colonies," which is in vogue in 

 several European countries. Selected, poor, 

 weakly children, between the ages of seven 

 and fourteen, are sent in colonies of from 

 ten to forty each, under teachers, and the 

 month constituting the school holiday is 

 spent at farm-houses or school-houses in the 

 open country. The improvement in health 

 from these outings has been proved not to 

 be temporary. Provisions for a similar pur- 

 pose in some of the cities of the United 

 States are commended. The laying out of 

 cities needs to be modified with reference 

 to the requirements of children. Wherever 

 the element of space is involved in any pro- 

 posed legislation, let the people support 

 that which will give them the most space 

 about their dwellings. Tbey would save in- 

 creased taxation in doctors' bills and burial 

 expenses. They should remember that the 

 most useful open spaces are those which 

 are close to their houses. Distant parks 

 are not substitutes for the occasional simple 

 play-ground in the heart of the city. Both 

 together form a provision for the young 

 children as well as for the adults. 



The Great Inland Depression of Brazil. 



It is interesting, says Mr. J. W. Wells, in 

 a paper on " The Physical Geography of 

 Brazil," to note the great depression that 

 extends through the center of the South 

 American Continent, practically similar to 

 what exists in the North American. A canoe 

 can be navigated from the Rio Orinoco to 

 the Rio Negro, thence to the Amazons, then 

 up the Rios Madeira, Mamore, GuaporS, and 

 Alegr, where it will not be more than five 

 or six hundred feet above the sea. It can 

 then be hauled across a low, grassy flat, 

 as is often done, to the Rio Agoapehy, and 

 then descend by the Rio Jauru and Rio 

 Paraguay to Buenos Ayres. The distance 

 from the Amazons to the Plate by this route 

 is about twenty-five hundred miles, of which 

 sixteen hundred and fifty miles have already 



been traversed by steamers, leaving eight 

 hundred and fifty miles to be navigated. 

 But it must not be inferred that the whole 

 of this route offers an almost uninterrupted 

 course of navigable rivers ; on the contrary, 

 the remaining eight hundred and fifty miles 

 that have not been explored by steamers, 

 not only contain insurmountable obstacles 

 to the passage of even the lightest-draught 

 steamer, but in many places to even the 

 ascent of a canoe. Yet this route will most 

 probably be, in the more or less remote 

 future, the main line of internal commu- 

 nication. By far the greater part of the 

 lands of this natural way are as undevel- 

 oped as the Congo of Africa. A connection 

 also exists between the Rio San Francisco 

 and the Rio Tocantins. A canoe can leave 

 the former river and go up the Rios Grande, 

 Preto, and Sapao. The source of the last 

 river is in a beautiful lake in a valley sur- 

 rounded by fortress - looking table -topped 

 hills ; the margins of the lake are bordered 

 by groves of grand Burity palms ; on the 

 west the lake drains out into a quick-flow- 

 ing, considerable stream, the Rio Diego, 

 joins a Rio Preto, and thence onward by 

 the Rio do Sonno to the Tocantins. This 

 journey could be made without once taking 

 the canoe out of the water, except to de- 

 scend with safety a few rough stretches on 

 the western outlet of the lake. 



The Gapes in Chickens. Dr. II. D. Walk- 

 er has contributed to the " Bulletin " of the 

 Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences the re- 

 sult of the special investigations which he 

 has made to determine the origin of the 

 gape-worm (Syngamus trachealis) of fowls, 

 lie believes it to be a parasite of the earth- 

 worm (Lumbricus terrestris). Taking the 

 opportunity of a prevalence of the gapes 

 among the chickens, in 1883, and acting un- 

 der the advice of Dr. Leidy, he sought for 

 the Syngamus in the embryonic or larval 

 condition, in some intermediate part. This 

 might, he thought, be the earth-worm, the 

 sow- bug ( Oniscus asellus), or the garden-slug, 

 all of which were found around the infected 

 coops ; while the coops that suffered most 

 were near a bare spot of ground which was 

 full of earth-worms. Parasites were found 

 in the earth-worms and in the slugs. The 

 three animals were fed separately to differ- 



