286 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



With this train and its eighteen passengers 

 an effective force was gained equivalent to 

 that of two horses. In the interior of the 

 exposition building a force equivalent to 

 that of three horses and a half was gained, 

 and a speed of 7 '8 miles an hour. Mr. Sie- 

 mens, in giving an account of his invention 

 to one of the societies a few months ago, 

 did not seem to have much faith in its 

 practicability, for he said he was afraid 

 that " a great deal of water would run into 

 the Spree before his dream would be real- 

 ized," but his firm has since submitted to 

 the city of Berlin a proposal for the con- 

 struction of an elevated railway across a 

 part X>i that capital, to be operated by his 

 machines. A track is contemplated sim- 

 ilar, in its elevation and relations to the 

 street, to the tracks of the elevated rail- 

 roads in this city. The carriages will be 

 narrow and short, to contain ten sitting- 

 places and four standing-places. The ma- 

 chine to propel them will be placed under 

 the floor of the carriage between the wheels, 

 and a steam-engine with sixty-horse power, 

 which will be employed in the production of 

 the electricity, will be placed at the termi- 

 nus. A speed of about twenty miles an 

 hour is anticipated. The magistrates of 

 Berlin have appointed a special commission 

 of engineers and architects to examine into 

 and report upon the proposal. 



Insects in Libraries. Dr. H. A. Ilagen, 

 of Harvard University, has given in the 

 " Library Journal " some observations on 

 "Insect Pests in Libraries." The principal 

 insects which our libraries have to dread 

 are the larvae of a beetle (Anobium), the 

 same which is obnoxious to old furniture 

 and picture-frames, which has been known 

 for more than one hundred and fifty years, 

 and the white ant. The beetle will eat 

 through the thickest books, making a net- 

 work of small passages, and, in some places, 

 larger holes for its transformation. The 

 white ants have been known for a long 

 time in southern and western France, but 

 did not appear especially injurious to books 

 till about 1825, when they became very de- 

 structive. Some years later they did less 

 damage, and at last disappeared without 

 any apparent reason. These white ants ex- 

 ist in the United States, where instances of 



their destructiveness to books have been 

 brought to notice in Springfield, Illinois, 

 and in South Carolina. They are present 

 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in near neigh- 

 borhood to buildings containing libraries. 

 Mr. J. A. Lintner, of Albany, has noticed 

 cases of cockroaches eating through the 

 coating of the cloth binding of books 

 stored in a basement ; and the writer of 

 this note has observed new books similarly 

 injured by the common Croton-bug while 

 they lay in a dry desk-drawer. The best 

 remedy for insect depredations is constant 

 use of the books. There are and must be 

 in all complete libraries books which are 

 used infrequently, and some which are very 

 rarely used ; and these afford good hiding- 

 places for the larva? of the beetle. They 

 may be killed without hurting the books, by 

 putting the books under the glass bell of 

 an air-pump and drawing out the air. Af- 

 ter an hour the larva? will be found to be 

 dead. Constant attention is the only rem- 

 edy against the white ants. 



Relics of an Ancient Race in Eastern 

 New York. Mr. S. L. Frey describes, in the 

 "American Naturalist," some relics of an 

 ancient race which he has found at a place 

 he does not name in eastern New York. A 

 number of arrow-heads, and a small copper 

 awl, square and of regular shape, which 

 may have been used for a drill, had been 

 found before at the same place. He dis- 

 covered two tubes bored in cases of stea- 

 tite, a sea-shell adapted to use as a drinking- 

 vessel, several bone awls, fragments of deer- 

 horn implements, a gouge made of bone, 

 implements of hornstone, beautifully chipped 

 and of perfect proportion, and other articles 

 usual in such places. In another grave, 

 what had apparently been a necklace or 

 head-dress, composed of copper and shell 

 beads, was found. The copper beads had 

 been made of thin sheets of copper rolled 

 into tubes ; the shell beads, which were from 

 half an inch to one inch and three quarters 

 in length, and of an average diameter of 

 about half an inch, were made from the 

 columella; of large sea-shells rubbed and 

 ground smooth, and drilled through their 

 largest diameter. A similar necklace, but 

 partly composed of small sea-shells, was 

 found in another grave. The deepest grave 



