86o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that those who have left the world are sure 

 to return to it, and that, as there are four 

 ways, the traveler might wander aimlessly 

 about, not knowing in which direction his 

 home lay ; therefore his friends pray for him 

 at one of the roads, so that he may choose 

 the right path, and not be misled by evil 

 spirits. The mock court of Coucou was 

 held at Palleur every year in August, at the 

 nearest inn, and then, by adjournment, on 

 the bridge. All the henpecked husbands 

 and those who possessed any peculiarity 

 were summoned before it, when the most 

 ridiculous pleadings wei'e had, nonsensical 

 questions were asked, and appeals on mooted 

 points were made to strangers present. The 

 accused were always found guilty, sentenced 

 to pay a fine, which must be spent at the 

 inn, and then put into a cart, which was 

 backed to a suitable mud-hole or pool, where 

 they were shot out. The proceedings ended 

 with the trial and ducking of the last man 

 married in the village. 



Types of Cliffs.— Dr. Archibald Geikie, 

 in his book on " The Scenery of Scotland 

 viewed in Connection with its Physical Ge- 

 ography," describes how the configuration 

 of the coast is afi'ected by the action of the 

 sea. This work is traced around the clifPs, 

 and the overhanging rocks which skirt the 

 coast of parts of Caithness and Orkney are 

 consequences of the direction of the great 

 joints which run at right angles to the dip 

 of the beds, so that wherever the strata de- 

 scend with their planes of bedding toward 

 the sea, the cliffs overhang. The joints are 

 often pierced, so that the sea penetrates in- 

 ward. The encroachments of tidal waters 

 are recorded all along the coast. There are 

 three types of sea -cliff which owe their 

 characters to the rock forming them. First, 

 the crystalline schists and old gneiss, which 

 form a range of precipices running north- 

 ward on the west coast of Scotland to Cape 

 Wrath ; crumpled, folded, and irregularly 

 jointed, it is strikingly rugged, full of deep 

 recesses and tunnels, and buttresses which 

 extend into the sea. A second type of cliff 

 ia formed by the Cambrian sandstones of 

 the west coast. They rise a few miles to 

 the east of Cape Wrath in vertical cliffs six 

 hundred feet in height. The perpendicular 

 joints separate masses from the main cliff, 



and everywhere present a red or brown tiage. 

 A third form of cliif is produced by basalt, 

 well seen on the west of Skye, where it rises 

 in precipices reaching to one thousand feet 

 above the sea. But owing to the varying 

 durability of the basaltic I'ock, it weathers 

 so as often to form steep descents, which 

 chai'acterize these ancient lava-streams. 



Private Lanatic Asylnms in Great Brit- 

 ain. — The fortieth report of the British 

 Commissioners of Lunacy shows an increase 

 both in the general number of insane pa- 

 tients and in the number of those confined 

 in private asylums over the numbers re- 

 ported in the previous year. The general 

 increase is less and the increase in the num- 

 ber confined in private asylums is relatively 

 still less than was the increase returned in 

 the previous year over the year preceding it. 

 The patronage of the private institutions 

 seems to have been materially affected by 

 the agitation that has been made respecting 

 them. Medical men are averse to running 

 the risk of being involved in actions, and 

 decline to sign lunacy certificates. The 

 friends of persons of unsound mind have 

 learned to look upon the private asylums 

 with distrust. The effect of some recent 

 judicial decisions has been to permit many 

 weak-minded but not dangerous persons, who 

 would previously have been put under super- 

 vision, to go at large. But the commission- 

 ers profess to be satisfied that the impression 

 that patients are unduly detained in these 

 establishments is wholly unfounded, and say 

 that the houses were gcnei'ally conducted 

 during the year to their satisfaction. 



Bees as Weattier Indicators. — Prof. Em- 

 merig, of the Royal Seminary in Lauingen, 

 Germany, recommends bees as the surest 

 prognosticators of the weather for the day. 

 These insects are usually among the most 

 docile and good-humored of animals, and 

 show no disposition to sting unless they are 

 provoked. But, if a storm is impending, they 

 become restless and irritable, and are danger- 

 ous to approach. Sometimes the barometers 

 will give the most emphatic indications of a 

 storm, while the bees will continue quiet. The 

 storm may break somewhere else, but not 

 where the bees have omitted to give warning 

 of it, or, if it breaks there, it will be light. 



