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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his reasons, derived from his later observa- 

 tions, for adhering to his former conclusion. 

 He assumes to determine the character of 

 the body of water which has occupied a 

 given spot, whether it was a stream or a 

 lake, from the nature of the terraces left 

 in the valley. Thus there are stream- 

 terraces, and wave-terraces, and delta-ter- 

 races, and others, all marked by distinct 

 features. A lake should leave wave-ter- 

 races or delta-terraces. In revisiting Marsh 

 Valley, he traversed it from end to end, 

 making a careful search for the ter- 

 races of the ancient shores, selecting the 

 most favorable stations and lights he could 

 get. He saw stream-terraces and displace- 

 ment-terraces of considerable magnitude, 

 and a few inconspicuous terraces due to un- 

 equal erosion, but no wave-terrace and no 

 delta-terrace. He made a special exami- 

 nation of two terraces referred to by Dr. 

 Peale in support of his views, but did not 

 recognize in them any features inconsistent 

 with the opinion that they are stream-ter- 

 races. He consents to reconsider his origi- 

 nal location of the outlet of the lake at the 

 time of the beginning of the overflow, and 

 assigns it to a position two miles north of 

 Red Rock, instead of at that point, and the 

 distance nearer to the place fixed by Dr. 

 Peale than the place where he first fixed it. 

 Mr. Gilbert Thompson, an expert topogra- 

 pher, visited the northern limits of the lake 

 in 1877, while ignorant of the results of Mr. 

 Gilbert's examination, and came to the same 

 conclusion that he had reached. In a letter 

 to Mr. Gilbert, dated April 10, 1878, he 

 says : " I was delighted, at Red Rock, to see 

 unmistakable evidences of the ancient out- 

 let of Great Salt Lake. . . . Thus you may 

 have the gratification of knowing of an inde- 

 pendent and entirely unbiased verification 

 of your determination of this point." 



A Fresh-water Mcdnsa. A new medusa, 

 which lives in fresh water the first fresh- 

 water medusa known has been discovered 

 in the tank of the water-lily house of the 

 Royal Botanical Society in London. It 

 flourishes and multiplies rapidly in water 

 of a temperature of about 90, and the spe- 

 cimens with which the tank swarms are 

 described as being very energetic in their 

 movements and apparently in the conditions 



which contribute most completely to their 

 well-being. The new jelly-fish has attracted 

 great attention among naturalists, and mi- 

 nute descriptions of it are given by Mr. Ro- 

 manes and Drs. Allman and E. Ray Lankes- 

 ter. Mr. Romanes has found that exposure 

 to sea-water kills it, and that it is more in- 

 tolerant of sea-water than are the marine 

 medusas of fresh water. Dr. Allman has 

 named it Limnocodium Victoria and gives 

 it a position between the Leptomedusce and 

 the Trachomedusa, while he regards its af- 

 finity with the Leptomedusce as the closer. 



Origin of Chinese Civilization. A new 



view of Chinese civilization has been pre- 

 sented by M. A. Terrien de la Couperie, who 

 asserts that the ordinary opinion, which 

 would regard China as a world by itself 

 with a distinct language, and a peculiar way 

 of writing which it has invented for itself 

 is incorrect, and is based on insufficient 

 study. The error has been committed by 

 regarding the Chinese and their language 

 as they are, and not studying them histori- 

 cally and tracing them as far back as pos- 

 sible. This M. Terrien de la Couperie has 

 done, according to the testimony of Profes- 

 sor Robert K. Douglas, with success. Great 

 changes were made in the language in the 

 early centuries of the Christian era, and the 

 present system dates from no further back 

 than the fourth century. The more an- 

 cient language may be studied from a num- 

 ber of sources, of which M. Terrien specifies 

 eleven classes. One of the most important 

 documents is the Yh King, which is supposed 

 to embody some of the most ancient writings 

 in the language. Some of the texts are at- 

 tributed to the times of the legendary Fuh- 

 he, b. c. 2S52, and became the subject of 

 commentaries as early as b. c. 1150. M. 

 Terrien is the first person in modern times 

 who has succeeded in explaining any of 

 it. The archaic Chinese characters were de- 

 rived from hieroglyphics, and the hieroglyph- 

 ics were accompanied by a certain number 

 of phonetic signs. A study of the most 

 ancient forms and a comparison with the 

 other sources of information have led M. 

 Terrien to recognize in the Chinese spoken 

 language an ancient member of the Ural- 

 Altaic family of agglutinant languages, in 

 which it constitutes a new, a third division 



