MISCELLANY. 



119 



language of the ancient inhabitants of Yu- 

 catan, and the monuments of that country 

 bear a number of inscriptions in a hiero- 

 glyph which lias been only very partially de- 

 ciphered as yet. M. de Kosny first critically 

 analyzed the attempts at decipherment made 

 by his predecessors, the Abbe Brasseur de 

 Bourbourg and H. de Charencey. The 

 Bishop Diego de Landa first discovered a 

 clew to the meaning of these hieroglyphs ; 

 he made out the meaning of seventy-one 

 signs, and the number has been increased to 

 one hundred ami thirty-two by De Rosny. 

 The latter has also determined the order in 

 which these signs should be read. As a 

 rule, they run from left to right, but in ex- 

 ceptional cases from right to left. M. Os- 

 car Coraettant, of Paris, a musician and 

 composer, attended the Congress expressly 

 for the purpose of reading a deeply inter- 

 esting paper on " Music in America before 

 its Discovery by Columbus." The author 

 described the Peruvian flute, and, to give 

 the audience an idea of ancient" Indian 

 music, had a few simple native Peruvian 

 melodies performed by members of the gar- 

 rison baud. The effect was very pleasing. 

 A comparison of this music with that of 

 China shows that the two are in no respect 

 alike. Here was a new and unexpected ar- 

 gument against the truth of the Huei-shen 

 story. The next meeting of the " Congress 

 of Americanists " will be held in 18*77, in the 

 city of Luxembourg. 



Climatology of New Zealand. The two 



large islands of the New Zealand group, 

 North and South Island, are both very moun- 

 tainous. In the North Island the mountains 

 occupy about one-tenth of the surface, and 

 in the South nearly four-fifths. The rivers 

 are very numerous, and of large size in pro- 

 portion to the area of the country ; but 

 few of them, however, are navigable. The 

 greatest height of the main range in North 

 Island is 6,000 feet ; but in the South Isl- 

 and there are peaks from 10,000 to 14,000 

 feet in height. The changes of weather and 

 temperature in New Zealand are very sud- 

 den; calms and gales, rain and sunshine, 

 heat and cold, alternate so frequently and 

 suddenly as to defy previous calculation, so 

 that there is no uniformly dry or wet sea- 

 eon in the year. But, though these changes 



are sudden and frequent, they are confined 

 within very narrow limits, the extremes of 

 daily temperature varying throughout the 

 year by an average of 20 only, while in 

 Europe, at Rome, and other places of cor- 

 responding latitude with New Zealand, the 

 same variation is 30 or more. In respect 

 to temperature, New Zealand may be com- 

 pared either with England or Italy ; but 

 London is 7 colder than the North, and 4 

 colder than the South Island, and is less 

 moist. Strong winds are prevalent, and 

 particularly in the straits. Rain falls fre- 

 quently, but seldom in such excessive quan- 

 tity, or for such long periods, as in Austra- 

 lia. The rainfall, in 1871, was 54* inches; 

 that of New York City in 1873 was 42. 



Science-Teaching for the lonng. The 



master of a school for young boys gives an 

 account in Nature of his method of teach- 

 ing his young pupils science. For the pur- 

 poses of scientific instruction, the pupils are 

 divided into three classes, the lowest of 

 which contains about twenty boys, whose 

 average age is nine years. Class II. is 

 composed of ten boys, of an average age of 

 twelve years, while the first class contains 

 twelve boys, of an average age of twelve 

 and a half years. The time weekly de- 

 voted to science-instruction is, for Class 

 III., two lessons in botany of three-quarters 

 of an hour each, and one hour's lesson in 

 physical geography. The pupils are taught 

 to distinguish the parts of a flower, and, by 

 the aid of a chart, to discover the order to 

 which any plant belongs. The second class 

 gives two and a half hours per week to bot- 

 any. The standard of knowledge aimed at 

 is such as is contained in Prof. Oliver's 

 books, and the boys are expected to be able 

 to find out any given plant in Bentham's 

 " British Flora." The boys in the first class 

 study chemistry, and spend one afternoon 

 of an hour and a half at practical work in 

 the laboratory. Another afternoon is em- 

 ployed in listening to a lecture founded upon 

 a chapter in a text-book of chemistry. The 

 boys, after the lecture, study up its subject- 

 matter in the text-book, so as to be able to 

 answer questions on it at the beginning of 

 the next lesson. The standard aimed at is 

 the power to discover a simple acid and base, 

 and an acquaintance with the text-book. 



