NOTES. 



719 



selves. Such maps, like a bird's-eye or 

 " balloon " map, give a very good idea of 

 the locality, but in them the scale is continu- 

 ally changing, so that they do not fulfill the 

 true function of a map, to enable measure- 

 ments to be made. In plans, as distinguished 

 from maps proper, the ground is treated as 

 if level, and no notice is taken of the curva- 

 ture of the earth. A map proper makes 

 allowance for mountains and hills and the 

 earth's curvature. The speaker referred to 

 the pleasure a traveler might obtain from 

 marking out his journey day by day on a 

 map. Nothing can more convince a man 

 how little he knows of his own country than 

 a map on which are indicated all the rail- 

 ways he has traversed. He would find the 

 places he had seen much less numerous than 

 those he had not. 



NOTES. 



The course of eighteen lectures and con- 

 ferences on social problems of the day, 

 which was begun February 13th under the 

 auspices of Columbian University, Washing- 

 ton, is to be continued, with three lectures a 

 week, till March 28th. The conferences have 

 special reference to the labor question, which 

 will be considered from the points of view of 

 ethics, economics, politics, education, and re- 

 ligion. Each conference is introduced by an 

 address from a chosen speaker. 



Attention has been recently directed to 

 the artificial cultivation of India-rubber trees. 

 Those of mature size of one species are found 

 in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Trinidad to 

 produce the gum in paying quantities ; and 

 several species of the genus have thriven 

 there. Dr. Ernst urges that every effort be 

 made to extend and preserve the forests, 

 thickets, and groves on the Orinoco, and sug- 

 gests that collectors be required when they 

 work a grove to plant a certain number of 

 trees. Only by such means, and by adopt- 

 ing a chemical mode of coagulation instead 

 of the present crude way of evaporating the 

 juice in the dense smoke of a wood fire, can 

 the India-rubber production of the Amazon 

 territory be increased in quantity and im- 

 proved in quality. 



The clock school at Furtwangen, in the 

 Black Forest, Germany, established by the 

 Duke of Baden in ISTY, furnishes three 

 years' instruction in preparatory, clockmak- 

 ing, and supplementary courses. It com- 

 prises theory and practice, the higher me- 

 chanics, and electricity. The means of in- 

 struction include a large collection of all 

 kinds of tools, instruments, drawings, mod- 



els, etc., and carefully constructed and 

 equipped school premises. Factories, elec- 

 tric plants, etc., are often visited tinder the 

 direction of the teachers or of the mechanics 

 employed in the places visited. The library 

 contains books relating to clock and watch 

 making, and the technique and mechanics 

 of clock and watch making and electricity. 

 Reading rooms, drawing rooms, laboratories, 

 etc., are open to the pupils daily. 



In the department of reptiles of the Paris 

 Museum is a snake which climbs up the ver- 

 tical smooth wall of its glass cage. It is 

 about a foot long, and starts on its climb by 

 lifting its head against the glass to a height 

 of about six inches. It then disgorges 

 through its salivary and lachrymal glands an 

 abundant secretion of viscous mucus, which 

 serves as an adhesive liquid and permits it to 

 raise itself still higher till the hinder end of 

 its body is no longer in contact with the floor 

 of the cage. It climbs thus all the way up, 

 very slowly. 



Assuming that if man was already pres- 

 ent in the United States when the Indian 

 tribes first came here, his remains would be 

 most likely to be found in caves near the Ap- 

 palachian Mountain passes, Mr. H. C. Mer- 

 cer, of the University of Pennsylvania, ex- 

 amined the caves of the New, Kanawha, and 

 Ohio Rivers along six hundred miles of their 

 course, and failed in all to find any traces of 

 pre-Indian wanderers. He remarks also, in 

 his paper describing his research on the ab- 

 sence from the caves of remains of any of 

 the older animal inhabitants of the region. 



The final report of the committee of the 

 British Association on the Circulation of Un- 

 derground Water represents that the excep- 

 tionally dry season rendered a special inquiry 

 necessary as to the rate of descent of the un- 

 derground water line and the rate of its sub- 

 sequent restoration. The drought had miide 

 clearly plain the weakness of gravitation wa- 

 ter supplies. The quality of the water in the 

 best reservoirs steadily deteriorated as the 

 quantity stored was reduced. The great value 

 of underground water supplies was strongly 

 brought out by the present yield of the Gains- 

 borough Local Board well. Its total depth 

 was thirteen hundred and sixty-one feet, 

 and the yield of twenty thousand gallons an 

 hour, in spite of the drought, did not fall 

 off. 



A CURIOUS list of laws is published as 

 having been enacted at a recent grand pa- 

 laver of the inhabitants of Abbeokuta, West 

 Africa, who call themselves Egbas. They 

 provide that " the practice of striking Eng- 

 lish silver coins upon the ground or upon 

 stones to test them should cease, and that 

 all English silver coins, whether new or old, 

 should be received as a legal medium " ; that 

 the worship of the Shopernee, or smallpox, 

 be discontinued throughout the country ; and 



