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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



of a domesticated dog to testify recognition, 

 and the howl of an uncivilized dog as the 

 moon rises, or of a civilized dog when the 

 church-bells begin, are all, to human ears at 

 least, unchanging sounds, sounds with one 

 meaning and no other." So with numerous 

 other familiar sounds peculiar to certain ani- 

 mals, and well understood ; but they can not 

 be regarded as " language " in the sense in 

 which the term is used in the proposition 

 under review. An interesting detail of the 

 discussion concerns the grating sound not 

 unlike the " gnashing of teeth " of the scold- 

 ing or " swearing " of birds, which they utter 

 also evidently in play as kittens and dogs 

 are also fond of playing bite, and dogs 

 bark. However much there may be that 

 one can not learn of the " language of ani- 

 mals," the study of the little that is at our 

 command is enough to furnish profitable as 

 well as amusing occupation. 



A Glance at Cambodia. A French trav- 

 eler, writing from Penompein, the capital of 

 Cambodia, says that "in passing from Co- 

 chin China to Cambodia, the difference be- 

 tween the Cambodian and the Annamite 

 type is very striking. The Cambodian is al- 

 most the height of Europeans, and is idle 

 and dirty, while the Annamite is small and 

 active. A full-grown Annamite woman is 

 like a French girl of twelve. A book on 

 Cambodia would be very interesting. The 

 banks of the river are covered with luxu- 

 riant vegetation. The entire territory and 

 its inhabitants belong absolutely to the king, 

 who lives here, with a second and third king 

 besides him, while a fourth king is stationed 

 in the interior. He has three hundred wives, 

 chosen from the handsomest women in the 

 whole country. The second king at present 

 is in opposition to King Merodom. All the 

 Cambodians are the king's earraen or slaves, 

 and pay him rent. . . . The country is a most 

 curious one. Elephants are very numerous 

 here, and wander about in freedom through 

 the brushwood, like oxen in the meadows of 

 France. The capital of Cambodia consists 

 of only one street, which is nearly four miles 

 long. In all the town there are not ten 

 houses built of stone or of bricks, and those 

 so built are public buildings. All the offi- 

 cers are lodged together in two payothes, 

 which are almost contiguous. A payollu is 



composed of a wooden floor resting in turn 

 on a scaffolding of bamboo. The walls are 

 formed of a trellis of straw or leaves, in the 

 style of the thatch of cottages all over Eu- 

 rope. If you push with your finger a little 

 strongly, it will pass through the wall. The 

 roof is of thatch. The furniture is very 

 primitive. It consists of a bed, formed of a 

 frame in bamboo on which is placed a mat, 

 and a table." 



Stages of Himalayan Vegetation. Gen- 

 eral R. Strachey describes the changes which 

 the traveler meets in ascending one of the 

 great mountain-ranges, as embodying a com- 

 pendium of the climates and vegetation of 

 the entire globe. Nowhere can such a display 

 be better or more easily obtained than upon 

 the Himalayas. The transition is abrupt 

 from the well - cultivated plain of northern 

 India, with its fields of rice and millet, or 

 golden-flowering mustard, to the dense, um- 

 brageous forests along their base, almost 

 wholly composed of trees of tropical forms, 

 with a few oaks and an elm, which, with a 

 tangled growth of undershrubs and creep- 

 ers and epiphytal plants, give cover to the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, and tiger, and af- 

 ford shelter to the peacock and other gayly 

 colored birds. The glens are choked with 

 gigantic grasses and feathering bamboos. 

 Great forests cover the outer ranges of the 

 chain, scandent palms spreading over the 

 lofty trees, whose stems are splendidly fur- 

 nished with the dark-green foliage of climb- 

 ing aroids ; the ground beneath them is con- 

 cealed under a rich growth of tree and other 

 ferns, orchids, and Scitaminece, or broad- 

 leaved plantains. With gradually increas- 

 ing elevation and falling temperature the 

 character of the vegetation changes. More 

 open woods of evergreen trees, typical of 

 warm temperate climates, succeed, including 

 rhododendrons, oaks, and laurels. Lofty 

 pines cover the vast mountain-slopes through 

 many thousand feet of altitude in unbroken 

 uniformity. Still ascending, are reached 

 forests of deciduous trees of surpassing size 

 and beauty, crowning the hill-tops and fring- 

 ing the courses of the rivers, intermingled 

 with many flowering shrubs and an abun- 

 dant display of herbaceous plants, of which, 

 at the greater elevations, the forms are for 

 the most part allied to or identical with 



