638 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the flora being derived chiefly from the 

 former, and the fauna mostly from the lat- 

 ter. The marine fauna of the coral region 

 of South Florida he pronounces a West In- 

 dian colony engrafted on the more or less 

 North American fauna of the east and west 

 coasts of the peninsula. Of the land ani- 

 mals the mammals are entirely North Amer- 

 ican. The batrachia and reptiles, too, belong, 

 with a very few exceptions, to North Ameri- 

 can species. The insects are probably of 

 mixed origin, coming from North America, 

 Cuba, and the Bahamas. The laud-shells 

 of the Keys are the same as those of the 

 mainland. 



As regards the flora of Florida and its 

 Keys, the author says of the pine that it is 

 confined to the mainland, there being only 

 one small group of Keys which bears a 

 growth of pines. Pine-forests, indeed, are 

 characteristic of the shores of Florida, and 

 of all the Southern States, while the char- 

 acteristic trees of the Keys are fig-trees, 

 quassia, torch-wood, mahogany, and a few 

 others, interspersed with a dense shrubbery, 

 in which several species oi Euycnia are per- 

 haps most common. 



How the American Aborigines disposed 

 of their Dead. The modes of disposing of 

 the bodies of the dead in use among the 

 aborigines of America are classed by Mr. 

 Edwin A. Barber, in the Naturalist, under 

 four heads, viz. : inhumation, cremation, 

 embalmment, and aerial sepulture. Of these, 

 the first was most usually employed, the 

 bodies being interred either in ordinary 

 graves, in mounds, or in caves. Several 

 tribes, among them the Lenni-Lenape, or 

 Delawares, were accustomed to incase their 

 dead in stone boxes or tombs. In tumulus- 

 burial, the dead were generally laid near the 

 original level of the surface, and the mound 

 heaped over them. Only isolated instances 

 of cave-burial have been signalized in the 

 United States, as in Breckenridge County, 

 Kentucky, and in the Canons of Utah, Arizo- 

 na, and New Mexico. Cremation was of two 

 kinds in graves and in urns. Among the 

 Pueblos of Arizona and Utah the body was 

 sometimes burned, and the ashes deposited 

 in shallow tombs. Several tribes on the 

 Gila River, in Southern Arizona, burned the 

 bones of the dead in urns. But few cases 



of embalming are known to have occurred 

 in the limits of the United States. As ex- 

 amples of this mode of preparing the corpse 

 may be mentioned the Mammoth Cave and 

 Salt Cave mummies of Kentucky. These 

 bodies have been preserved by a rude spe- 

 cies of embalmment and by exsiccation. 

 Aerial sepulture was of two kinds the first 

 by suspension on scaflblds or in trees, the 

 second by sepulture in canoes. Several 

 tribes still employ the former mode of burial. 

 The Sioux elevate the bodies of their dead 

 into trees, or stretch them out on raised 

 platforms, wrapping them in blankets and 

 leaving them to the mercies of the elements 

 and carnivorous birds. 



Accnratc Geological Estimates. A good 

 illustration of the exactness of modern geo- 

 logical science is found on comparing the 

 results actually obtained in the sinking of 

 artesian wells in London with the conclu- 

 sions reached by Prof. Prestwich as long 

 ago as 1851. In a work published in that 

 year, " A Geological Inquiry respecting the 

 Water-bearing Strata of the Country around 

 London," Prestwich made the prediction 

 that the chalk beneath London would be 

 found to have a thickness of 050 feet, the' 

 upper green-sand of 40 feet, and the gault 

 of 150 feet. At the time of this announce- 

 ment, as we learn from Nature, no well in 

 London had been sunk to a greater depth 

 than 300 feet in the chalk, but now there 

 are four deep borings which marvelously 

 confirm Prof. Prestwich's reasonings. We 

 take from our London contemporary the 

 following table, showing the results as cal- 

 culated by Prestwich, and as actually ascer- 

 tained by borings : 



STRATA. 



Chalk 



Upper green-sand . 

 Gault 



Boring at 

 Meux's 

 Brewery. 



653 



28 

 159 



" When it is remembered," adds Nature, 

 " that the chalk graduates downward insen- 

 sibly into the upper green-sand, and that it 

 is almost impossible to decide on their line 

 of separation, it will be admitted on all 

 hands that the agreement between the es- 

 timated and proved results is marvelously 

 close." 



