MISCELLANY. 



631 



and the bodies of the dead are boxed up in 

 wooden coffins and elevated on four posts. 

 On the islands the soil is not permanently 

 frozen, and graves might be easily dug, but 

 wood is scarce. Here the bodies might 

 easily be buried, were it desirable. But, 

 then, why bury the dead, if there are no 

 wild animals to disturb the remains ? The 

 islands have no such animals, and hence 

 the natives laid their dead away in nooks 

 and crannies of the rocks. 



Mr. Dall describes as follows the method 

 adopted by the Kaniags and Aleuts in pre- 

 serving dead bodies : First, an opening was 

 made in the pelvic region, and the internal 

 organs removed. The cavity was then filled 

 with dry grass, and the body placed in run- 

 ning water. This in a short time removed 

 most of the fatty portions, leaving only the 

 skin, bones, and muscles. The knees were 

 then brought up to the chin, and the whole 

 body secured as compactly as possible by 

 cords. The bones of the arms were some- 

 times broken to facilitate the process of com- 

 pression. The remains were then dried. 

 When thoroughly dried, the cords were re- 

 moved, and the body usually wrapped in a 

 shirt made of the skin of aquatic birds, 

 with the feathers on ; over this were wrapped 

 pieces of matting, varying from coarse to 

 exceedingly fine. Over this sometimes a 

 water-proof material, made from the split 

 intestines of the sea-lion, sewed together, 

 was placed. Outside of this were usually 

 the skins of the sea-otter, or other fur-ani- 

 mals, and the whole was secured in a case 

 of seal-skins, coarse matting, or similar ma- 

 terial, secured firmly by cords, and so ar- 

 ranged as to be capable of suspension. 



Age of the Niagara Gorge. It has for 



thirty years been the received opinion of 

 geologists that the whole of the gorge of 

 the Niagara, from Queenstown to the Tails, 

 was excavated since the glacial period, and 

 the work here done has been assumed to be 

 a more or less accurate measure of the time 

 elapsed since that period. But Mr, Thomas 

 Belt, on a visit to Niagara last year, discov- 

 ered what he takes to be sufficient evidence 

 for asserting that the post glacial gorge ex- 

 tends only from Queenstown up to the whirl- 

 pool, and that between the latter point and 

 the Falls the Niagara flows in its preglacial 



bed. The author holds that the present 

 river is cutting back the gorge much more 

 slowly than Lyell estimated ; that, instead 

 of one foot yearly, the retrocession is not 

 more than, if it is as much as, one foot in 

 ten years ; and that, allowing for the com- 

 parative softness of the rocks below the 

 whirlpool, we must put back the occurrence 

 of the glacial period to at least 200,000 

 years ago, supposing the entire gorge from 

 Queenstown to the Falls to have been ex- 

 cavated since that time. " But if," says 

 Mr. Belt, "the conclusion at which I have 

 arrived is correct that the gorge, from 

 the whirlpool to the Falls, is preglacial, and 

 that the present river has only cut through 

 the softer beds between Queenstown and 

 the whirlpool, and above the latter point 

 merely cleared out the preglacial gorge in 

 the harder rocks then 20,000 years, or even 

 less, is amply sufficient for the work done, 

 and the occurrence of the glacial epoch, 

 as so measured, will be brought within the 

 shorter period that, from other considera- 

 tions I have argued, has elapsed since it 

 was at its height." 



Have Animals a Sense of Humor ? A 



writer in Nature, George J. Romanes, brings 

 together some instances tending to show the 

 existence in some animals of a sense of hu- 

 mor. A young orang-outang in the Lon- 

 don Zoological Gardens used frequently to 

 amuse the spectators by inverting on her 

 head her feeding-tin, and the animal was 

 evidently gratified when her conduct called 

 forth a laugh. A Skye terrier belonging to 

 Mr. Romanes, "while lying upon one side 

 and violently grinning, would hold one leg 

 in his mouth." The animal was much 

 pleased whenever this "joke" was duly 

 appreciated, but would become sulky if no 

 notice was taken of it. This dog was fond 

 of catching flies upon the window-panes ; 

 but, if ridiculed when unsuccessful, he was 

 evidently much annoyed. Having failed 

 repeatedly on a certain occasion to catch 

 a fly, he eventually became so distressed 

 that " he positively pretended to catch the 

 fly, going through all the appropriate ac- 

 tions with lips and tongue, and afterward 

 rubbing the ground with his neck as if 

 to kill the victim. So well," continues Mr. 

 Romanes, " was the whole [jrocess simu- 



