POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



711 



Spencer, J. W. Reconstruction of the Antil- 

 lean Continent. Rochester, N. Y. : Geological 

 Society of America. Pp. 36. 



Stone, Witmer. The Birds of Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania and New Jersey. Philadelphia: Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences. Pp. 185. 



Tariff Laws of 18510 and 1S94. Comparison of 

 Text. Washington : Government Printing OflBce. 

 Pp. 241. 



Thompson, Sylvanus P. Elementary Lessons 

 in Electricity and Magnetism. New Edition, re- 

 vised throughout, with Additions. New York : 

 Macmillan & Co. Pp. 628. $1.40. 



Tolman, William H. History of Higher Edu- 

 cation in Rhode Island. Washington : United 

 States Bureau of Education. Pp. 208, with Plates. 



Ward, C. Osborne. The Equilibration of 

 Human Aptitudes, and Powers of Adaptation. 

 Washington : National Watchman Company. 

 Pp. 333. $1.25. 



Ward, Lester F. Natural Storage of Energy. 

 Washington. Pp. 12. 



White, Theodore G. The Geology of Essex 

 and Willsboro' Townships, Essex County, N. Y. 

 Contributions from the Geological Department of 

 Columbia College. Pp. 14, with Plates. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Transportation of Dnst in tlie Air. 



In his studies of the atmospheric transporta- 

 tion of matter, Prof. J. A. Uddin finds that 

 the velocities in the atmosphere being so 

 much greater than those obtaining in rivers, 

 lakes, and seas, the distances over which 

 materials may be transported in it will be 

 corresponding!}' greater, as was shown by the 

 Krakatoa dust, of which the finer particles 

 circled round the earth for months and even 

 years. The greater depth of the aerial ocean 

 renders it but little dependent in its move- 

 ments on smaller elevations of the land. 

 Few of our mountain ranges are so high 

 as to stand materially in the way. " While 

 the conditions requisite for much aerial ero- 

 sion are limited to rather small areas of the 

 land of the globe, there can be little doubt 

 that deposition is much more general and 

 widespread ; for dust is carried everywhere, 

 and if it be conceded that the atmosphere is 

 never entirely free from dust, it follows that 

 sedimentation occurs wherever and whenever 

 there is a comparative calm. In places in 

 the ocean where sedimentation is known to 

 be very slow, atmospheric dust may be sup- 

 posed to form an appreciable part of the de- 

 posits. The areas of deposition being much 

 greater than the areas of erosion, it is evi- 

 dent that the accumulations of atmospheric 

 sediments, as a rule, are insignificant, only 

 exceptionally exceeding on the land the sec- 

 ular erosion by water, and therefore accumu- 



lating only in such exceptional cases. From 

 a dynamical point of view the wind theory 

 would appear to furnish an adequate explana- 

 tion of the occurrence of the loess in the 

 Mississippi Valley, at least as to most of its 

 phases." 



Habits of Polar Brars. Appropriately 

 to the recent mortal illness of the large 

 polar bear in the London Zoological Gar- 

 dens, a writer in the London Spectator re- 

 marks upon the mistake we make in suppos- 

 ing that the denizens of the frozen north 

 necessarily suffer unduly in warmer climates, 

 that "in all stories of arctic travel the ex- 

 treme of cold appeals so strongly to the im- 

 agination that the heat of the nightless sum- 

 mer, in which the Eskimos strip themselves 

 naked in their snow houses, is often forgot- 

 ten. The good health and long life of the 

 polar bears in this country [England] is less 

 surprising than it at first appears when this 

 extraordinary range of arctic temperature is 

 remembered ; moreover, the white bears are 

 absolutely indifferent to fog and wet. Crea- 

 tures that live and thrive on islands like 

 Nova Zembla, where half their life is spent 

 in fog and darkness, are little troubled by the 

 London fog and damp of Regent's Park. . . . 

 They will plunge and roll in the bath with as 

 much pleasure in pouring rain or when the 

 tank is full of clinking ice as on a hot sum- 

 mer day, and the only weather which seems 

 to cause them discomfort is a hot August 

 afternoon, when they pant and loll out their 

 tongues like Newfoundland dogs." The size 

 of these bears approaches that of the ox or 

 the elephant, rather than that of the true car- 

 nivora. In some respects the bears' powers of 

 movement exceed those of cats. They " can 

 maintain a gallop at a pace equal to that of 

 a fast horse, leap wide gulfs with ease, swim 

 fast enough to catch a salmon, and dive like 

 a seal or an otter. They heartily enjoy their 

 play, but are dangerous animals. No crea- 

 tures are more carefully kept at arm's length 

 by their keepers. Men who will rub their 

 hands over a lion's face and eyes or pat the 

 neck of a tiger, shift a bison bull across its 

 stall like a bullock, or handle a python like a 

 length of rope, would think it rash to put 

 hand or limb within reach of these bears. . . . 

 The fierceness of the polar bear is probably 

 due to his enforced carnivorous diet. Every 



