POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



567 



desirable to preserve certain parts of the 

 natural forest growth and extend it else- 

 where this favorable influence is due to the 

 dense cover of foliage mainly, and to the me- 

 chanical obstruction which the trunks and 

 litter of the forest floor offer. Any kind of 

 tree growth would answer this purpose, and 

 all the forest management necessary would 

 be simply to abstain from interference and 

 leave the ground to Nature's kindly action. 

 This was about the idea of the first advo- 

 cates of forest protection in this country. 

 But would it be rational and would it be 

 necessary to withdraw a large territory from 

 human use in order to secure this beneficial 

 influence? It would be, indeed, in many 

 localities, if the advantage of keeping it un- 

 der forest could not be secured simultaneous- 

 ly with the employment of the soil for useful 

 production ; but rational forest management 

 secures the advantages both of favorable 

 forest conditions and of the reproduction of 

 useful material. Not only is the rational cut- 

 ting of the forest not antagonistic to favor- 

 able forest conditions, but in skillful hands 

 the latter can be improved by the judicious 

 use of the axe. In fact, the demands of for- 

 est preservation on the mountains, and the 

 methods of forest management for profit in 

 such localities, are more or less harmonious ; 

 thus, the absolute clearing of the forest on 

 steep hill-sides, which is apt to lead to desic- 

 cation and washing of the soil, is equally detri- 

 mental to a profitable forest management, 

 necessitating, as it does, replanting under 

 difficulties. Forest preservation, then, does 

 not, as seems to be imagined by many, ex- 

 clude proper forest utilization, but, on the 

 contrary, these may well go hand in hand, 

 preserving forest conditions while securing 

 valuable material ; the first requirement only 

 modifies the manner in which the second is 

 satisfied. 



The Zebra's Stripes. It has been shown 

 by several authors that the stripes of the ze- 

 bra are a means of protection to it in the 

 forests, by producing light effects like those 

 of the limbs of the bushes by which it is 

 surrounded. One can readily see, says a cor- 

 respondent of Nature, how the shadows of 

 the branches in a tropical forest, falling upon 

 the zebras, would so intermingle with the 

 stripes of the animals as to add enormously 



to the difficulties of recognition by human 

 eyes, and also by the eyes of their animal 

 foes. This correspondent believes that the 

 stripes have a still deeper meaning and value. 

 At night, when the animal is lying down 

 partly on its side and partly on its belly, and 

 doubles up its legs, the horizontal stripes on 

 them run in the same general direction with 

 the vertical ones of the body and seem to be 

 continuations of them ; or, if it rests on its 

 side and stretches out its limbs, the vertical, 

 diagonal, and horizontal stripes would then 

 be more horizontal than anything else, but 

 pointing in different directions, and would so 

 assimilate themselves with the crossed and 

 varying directions of the shadows as to have 

 the same practical effect in hiding the sleep- 

 ing animal from its foes. 



An Ancient Japanese Burial Custom. 

 Prof. Hitchcock, of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, calling attention, in a paper on Ancient 

 Tombs and Burial Mounds of Japan, to some 

 small clay figures representing human beings, 

 said it was an ancient custom in Japan to 

 bury the retainers of a prince standing up- 

 right around his grave. The compassion of the 

 Emperor Suisina (97-30 b. c.) was aroused 

 by the sufferings of the persons who were 

 thus treated when his younger brother died, 

 and he desired to change the custom. When 

 the empress died, the plan was proposed of 

 substituting clay figures of men and horses 

 for the living victims. From the publication 

 of an edict in the year 646 forbidding the 

 burial of living persons, and also the burial 

 of gold, silver brocade, diaper, or any kind 

 of variegated thing, it is inferred that the 

 custom of living burial was kept up to some 

 extent till the seventh century. Specimens 

 of the figures, called tsuchi ningio, introduced 

 to take the places of the living sacrifices, are 

 now very rare, and this fact leads to the sup- 

 position that the figures were not buried, but 

 were left exposed on the surface of the 

 ground. 



The Lung-fish. The Ceratodus or lung- 

 fish of Queensland, according to Prof. Spen- 

 cer's account of it in the Australasian Asso- 

 ciation, lives only in the Burnett and Mary 

 Rivers, in Queensland, and belongs to a small 

 group which may be regarded as interme- 

 diate between the fishes and the amphibia. 



