576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Appomattox formation of the Mis- 

 sissippi embayment described by W J Mc- 

 Gee, which Prof. Stafford identifies with his 

 La Grange formation in Tennessee, corre- 

 sponds with an area extending from the 

 coast along the Rappahannock River west 

 to the Mississippi and north into Tennessee, 

 which is covered with an interstratified sand 

 and clay, susceptible to erosion and much 

 affected by it. It is said that three fourths 

 of the formation have been removed by ero- 

 sion. The formation overlaps in irregular 

 lines the Tertiary strata of Virginia. White 

 kaolin, or feldspar clay, is often detected in 

 it, and large quantities of white clay of com- 

 mercial value have been uncovered in the 

 northern part of Mississippi. 



The Redonda phosphate, described by 

 Prof. Hitchcock in the American Geological 

 Society, is found in the volcanic island of 

 Redonda, in the Caribbean Sea an island 

 with perpendicular walls five hundred feet 

 high, which the visitor must scale with wind- 

 lass and rope. The phosphates are found, 

 nearly forty per cent pure, nearly devoid of 

 lime, under a vast quantity of guano. They 

 are not crystalline or fossiliferous, and occur 

 in sheets between the layers of lava, or in 

 pockets. The existence of this valuable 

 substance at such a place has never been 

 satisfactorily accounted for. 



According to a paper by Prof. S. Coulter, 

 Indiana, which is the fifth lumber-producing 

 State in the Union, has one hundred and six 

 species of trees, belonging to twenty-four 

 orders. The most uniformly distributed tree 

 is the sugar maple, which is found in every 

 county. The author thought that geological 

 formations had comparatively little effect in 

 the distribution of forest trees in the limited 

 area of the State, but that the chief influence 

 came from the elevation of certain general 

 sections and of particular localities, the 

 courses of the streams, and the location of 

 swamps. The forest area of the State has 

 been reduced to 2,000,000 acres, about one 

 tenth of the total area. 



Prof. H. W. IIenshaw, describing the 

 Indian method of making maple sugar, main- 

 tained that the knowledge of the sugar and 

 the process were aboriginal, dating from 

 times unknown, and not in any degree de- 

 rived from the white man. Indians collect 

 the sap in bark vessels, which in some cases 

 hold a hundred gallons. They take advan- 

 tage of cold April nights to freeze the sap, 

 and in the morning throw out the ice. They 

 evaporate the sap by throwing hot stones 

 into the reservoirs. They make sugar also 

 from the silver maple and box elder, and, in 

 Canada and Manitoba, from the birch tree. 

 The sugar is eaten mixed with corn. Veni- 

 son and rabbits are boiled in the hot sap 

 during the process of evaporation. Some- 

 times pure sugar is the only diet of Indians 

 for a month. 



Mr. M. P. Mayo Collier disputes the 

 conclusion accepted by many authors that 

 " flat-foot " is due to a general want of 

 tone in the fibrous structure of the body, 

 and traces it by an elaborate physiological 

 argument to overstrain of the ligaments and 

 overpressure upon the os calcis, which may 

 be produced by wearing high heels. For 

 treatment of the malady he recommends 

 good food, fresh air, and as much rest as 

 possible, with a radical change in the con- 

 struction of the boot. The toe and heel 

 should change places ; or a good laced boot 

 should be worn, with the sole an inch thick 

 in front and fining off to a line or two at 

 the heel. By this means the normal incli- 

 nation of the os calcis could be maintained, 

 and the weight of the body properly dis- 

 posed of. 



According to Prof. F. V. Colville's sum- 

 mary, in the American Association, of the 

 organization of the Botanical Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture, the work is di- 

 vided into two chief parts, the economical 

 and the scientific ; the latter includes some 

 special investigations on forage plants in the 

 Western arid lands. The authoritative po- 

 sition of the bureau gives it special facilities 

 for making exchanges with other countries. 

 The results of the work are published as 

 bulletins and contributions from the scien- 

 tific investigation. An immense amount of 

 valuable material is being collected in the 

 herbarium. A resolution was passed by the 

 Association calling the attention of the de- 

 partment officers to the necessity of better 

 protection for the collections against fire. 



Prof. Joseph Moore reports that an en- 

 tire skeleton of Casteroid.es ohioensis, or 

 beaver of the days of the mastodon, has 

 been found in Randolph County, Ind., a few 

 miles east of Winchester. The bones indi- 

 cated an entire length of the animal of five 

 feet nine inches, and that its gnawing powers 

 were commensurate with its size. 



Prof. O. A. Derby explained to the 

 American Association his method of sepa- 

 ration, by means of the batea, or Brazilian 

 miner's pan, of rare and heavy accessory 

 elements in rocks. By this means certain 

 minerals, regarded as extremely rare, have 

 been shown to be common and widely spread. 

 By his new method of search he had, on the 

 day of his arrival there, found in rocks of 

 New York State minerals never before found 

 in those rocks in this country. 



The Austrian Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion reported some time ago that the evil of 

 overpressure in the public schools was real 

 and extended, and that its source was not so 

 much in the course of study as in the 

 method pursued. As remedies, he advised 

 a better division of the holidays, and aboli- 

 tion or reduction of written exercises and of 

 memorizing. 



