572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



threads ; and in this respect it is almost 

 identical with that particular process which 

 is known as tapestry- making ; but tapestries 

 are finished for display on one side only. 

 They are made upon vertical threads, when 

 they are high-warp or haute lisse, or upon 

 horizontal threads, when they are low-warp 

 or basse lisse, tapestries. But the results of 

 both methods are virtually identical, so that 

 it is almost impossible to detect any pecul- 

 iarity which shall distinguish one from the 

 other. The earlier hangings appear to have 

 been of lighter material than that of the 

 special fabric ; and they were ornamented 

 by weaving, embroidery, or painting. The 

 special process was applied in early times 



to making small 



ornamental trimmings for 



costume. Its application to works on a much 

 larger scale appears to date from the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries, although it had 

 probably been already employed in old 

 Asiatic civilizations for carpets. The num- 

 ber of colors of the earlier tapestries was re- 

 stricted, but, after the tapestry-making craft 

 was established, a more generous scheme of 

 colors was employed. This has developed 

 in such a way that it is a boast now at the 

 Gobelins factory that they have upward of 

 fourteen thousand four hundred tons of 

 colors in dyes for threads. 



Our Arid Regions aud the Rainfall. 

 The soils of the arid regions of the United 

 States, according to the paper read by Prof. 

 J. R. Dodge at the meeting of the American 

 Association, are generally fertile to excess. 

 The only amelioration they require is that 

 which is secured by the application of water. 

 That may be obtained from natural precipi- 

 tation; by irrigation from supplies at pres- 

 ent available or from storage reservoirs and 

 catch-basins to be erected to hold the sur- 

 plus of rains ; by pumping from the under- 

 ground channels of streams ; or by means 

 of artesian wells. After all available water 

 has been obtained by these means and ex- 

 pedients, there is still a large part of the 

 superficial area that must remain unirrigated. 

 Some say that this part constitutes four fifths 

 or five sixths of the whole, but those who 

 have an intimate knowledge of the practical 

 work of irrigation insist that it is not more 

 than one tenth or one eighth of the area. 

 Still, the remainder is not quite a desert. 



There are what are called agricultural rain- 

 belts which, with from fifteen to eighteen 

 inches of water, sometimes twenty inches per 

 annum, are found to produce good crops of 

 corn up to an elevation of three thousand or 

 four thousand feet, and wheat, oats, potatoes, 

 alfalfa, and many grasses up to six thousand 

 or seven thousand feet, by adaptation of 

 methods of cultivation to suit the best utili- 

 zation of available moisture. The question 

 of increasing rainfall gains an affirmative 

 answer from practical cultivators, while the 

 records of the rain-gauge fail to make such 

 a response. There is an increase, if not in 

 actual rain, certainly in available moisture ; 

 for the water which formerly flowed away 

 with as much facility as from the back of a 

 duck, is nearly all retained by cultivated 

 lands. If the irrigation is general and con- 

 tinued for years, there is a change of climate, 

 with more moisture in the atmosphere, dews 

 at night frequent where they were formerly 

 unknown, and general enhancement of the 

 agricultural value of the air. 



The Beanty of Childhood. A recent dis- 

 covery of classical sculptures has recalled 

 attention to the fact that the ancients had, 

 so far as appears from their works, no ap- 

 preciation of the beauty of childhood. In 

 the present instance, in which the figures 

 relate to death scenes and include family 

 pictures, while the mature characters are 

 represented with the best skill which the 

 artist could command, the children at the 

 age fullest of beauty for a modern eye are 

 executed with archaic clumsiness. Miss Har- 

 rison has pointed out, in her lectures on 

 Greek sculpture, that representations of in- 

 fancy are characteristic of the decaying art 

 of Alexandria ; the best period of art affords 

 no specimen of such a choice of subject. 

 " The artists whose work has afforded models 

 for all time have not left a single specimen 

 of that beauty which modern eyes most ad- 

 mire, the beauty of childhood." And in 

 Grecian and Roman literature there is none 

 of that happy picturing, that dwelling with 

 delight upon the beauties of childhood that 

 seem to have entered into the very essence 

 of modern natures. To the Romans, " in- 

 fancy was only a journey toward manhood ; 

 the sooner it was over the better." In the 

 reference to childhood which is most truly 



