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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may deal with him for the time being with- 

 out inconvenience. In doing this, we regard 

 the other person simply as a fellow-member 

 of the human race, and say to him by im- 

 plication : " The good elements of the race 

 command my respect. I will presume that 

 you belong to them, but I have at present 

 no occasion to inquire whether that is so or 

 not. I will act upon this presumption till 

 the contrary is shown. Deal with me on 

 the same priuciple." We must look for the 

 origin of the outer manifestations of courte- 

 sy to the signals of peace manifest among 

 savage ti'ibes and rude men. As manners 

 become ameliorated, what in the beginning 

 meant " Your life is safe," comes to mean 

 "You are welcome." Some of the mani- 

 festations may be traced directly back to 

 gestures, or to attitudes showing the person 

 using them to be unarmed. He stoops as 

 if to drop his weapons ; he holds up his 

 empty hands ; he crosses his arms upon his 

 breast ; he kneels, or he touches the ground 

 with his forehead. From these come the 

 "present arms" of the military service; 

 from the taking off of the helmet came the 

 opening of the visor of the old knights and 

 the raising or touching the hat of the mod- 

 ern salutation ; and possibly from the rais- 

 ing of the empty hands, the " shake-hands" 

 gesture of the present time. The idea that 

 we pay honor to another by standing in his 

 presence is doubtless a survival from times 

 when more scanty provision was made for 

 seats than now, and the best place was 

 given to the preferred person. 



A Remarkable Specimen of Rock-Crys- 

 tal. — Mr. George F. Kimz exhibited to the 

 American Association some remarkably large 

 specimens of rock-crystal from Ashe County, 

 North Carolina. His attention was first 

 called to thelocality by receiving from there 

 a fifty-one-pound fragment which was said to 

 have been broken from a mass weighing 

 three hundred pounds, by a moimtain-girl 

 twelve years old. Other specimens from 

 farms in the same neighborhood were a re- 

 markably clear twenty-pound half-distort- 

 ed crystal, one weighing one hundred and 

 eighty-eight pounds, and another — twenty- 

 nine inches long, eighteen inches wide, and 

 thirteen inches thick, showing one pyrami- 

 dal termination perfect, and another partly 



so — weighing two hundred and eighty-five 

 pounds. These localities are on a spur of 

 the Phcenix Mountain, about fifty miles from 

 Abingdon and forty miles from Marion, Vir- 

 ginia. The crystals were all found in dis- 

 integrated crystalline rocks, consisting prin- 

 cipally of coarse feldspathic granite, which 

 have all decomposed to a greater depth 

 than their position. Most of them are ob- 

 tained by digging where one crystal has 

 been found, or by driving a plow till some 

 hard object is struck. Several dozen have 

 been found weighing from twenty to thirty 

 pounds each. Some of these crystals afford 

 larger masses of clear rock-crystal than 

 have ever before been found in the United 

 States, and suggest the use of that substance 

 for such objects of luxury as crystal balls, 

 clock-cases, mirrors, etc., of which examples 

 may be seen in the Austrian Treasury at 

 Vienna. 



Origin of River-Swamps.— Prof. N. S. 



Shaler has observed, in studying the fresh- 

 water swamps of New England, that those 

 rivers which flow southwardly run in clear 

 beds, through valleys that are free from 

 swamps ; while the valleys of all the rivers 

 flowing to the north are swampy. The 

 former rivers flow freely, the latter are 

 sluggish. He believes that this condition 

 may be accounted for as the result of suc- 

 cessive movements or changes of level 

 which took place during the Glacial period, 

 or at and after its close, the succession hav- 

 ing probably been as follows : 1. The sub- 

 sidence of the land-surface under the weight 

 of the ice to a depth below the level of the 

 sea ; 2. With the retreat of the ice, a re-eleva- 

 tion, in a sudden manner, to a height above 

 the level of the sea ; and, 3. With the dis- 

 appearance of the ice from the continent, a 

 readjustment of its position and a conse- 

 quent lowering of the southern portion of 

 the glaciated area. It is not likely that in 

 the readjusted condition of the continent all 

 parts are equally elevated or equally low- 

 ered. The present levels of the several 

 divisions of the continental area would 

 probably be determined by complicated 

 equations of thrusts, and it is probable that 

 in this way we may explain the fact that 

 certain of the lesser valleys of New England 

 show little effect from the tilting movement 



