POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



425 



traordinary, according to one's preconceived 

 ideas, to behold these creatures, some of 

 them roaming about on the tree and gravel 

 when the snow was lying on the ground 

 outside, and the glass, which they were al- 

 most touching, was flaked with ice ; even 

 the pseudo-tropical specimens remained out 

 until the temperature was much lower than 

 that which seems to render our English spe- 

 cies dormant. Though prepared for a well- 

 marked difference in the temperatures of 

 their retreat and reappearance, I had no 

 idea that it would present so wide a range. 

 Another curious anomaly was exhibited in 

 the fact that daylight rather than warmth 

 seemed to operate in drawing them forth ; 

 they all sought the box at dusk, although 

 my reading-lamp raised the temperature of 

 the room from 2° to 4° above that of the 

 chilly morning, when they would issue from 

 the aperture." Mr. Stradling believes that 

 the difference in sensitiveness to cold mani- 

 fested by his snakes at the seasons of re- 

 tiring and waking is explainable on the same 

 physiological principles as those which mark 

 the condition of all animals in the fall and 

 spring. In the fall, vital activity is at its 

 highest ; the animal has accumulated a 

 coating of fat under its skin, and a store of 

 combustible matter within to last it through 

 the winter, and is able to endure much more 

 cold than in the spring, when its vitality is 

 weakened and its fat coat and surplus ali- 

 ment are consumed. 



Rrakatan's Present Condition. — MM. 



Breon and Korthnls, having just visited 

 Krakatau and the region devastated by last 

 year's eruption, have made a report upon 

 the present condition of affairs there. The 

 formerly flourishing city of Telok Betong 

 no longer exists. The splendid vegetation of 

 the Island of Seboukou has been destroyed 

 by the joint action of the sea and the storm 

 of hot cinders. The Island of Lebesia is 

 completely covered with cinders and pum- 

 ice. From the south, the Island of Kraka- 

 tau presents the ordinary profile of volcanic 

 cones. An appearance, when seen from a 

 distance, as of clouds of vapor playing over 

 the scarp, seems to indicate the existence of 

 fumeroles ; but on a nearer approach these 

 clouds prove to be only masses of dust rising 

 from land-slides which are continuously tak- 



ing place. The travelers tried several times 

 to approach the mountain from this side to 

 obtain specimens, but were always repelled 

 by a terrible bombardment of projectiles of 

 every size.^ They succeeding in landing from 

 the west, where there were no slides. Thence 

 they were able to see distinctly, in the scarp, 

 beds of rocks lying one upon another, sep- 

 arated only by small beds of siliceous tufa, 

 as in all volcanic countries. The rocks ap- 

 parently belong to the family of basalts, 

 consisting of labradorites containing very 

 little peridote. The recent eruption afford- 

 ed products of a very different character, 

 very acid pumices, seventy-two per cent of 

 silica with plagioclase, bronzite, and magnet- 

 ite. The former substance, which has, by 

 emulsion with the gases, formed pumices, is 

 a bottle-green glass, pieces of which may 

 be found in the recent pumice-beds. Evi- 

 dences were observed of a former acid erup- 

 tion of the volcano. 



Major Powell on American Languages. 



— Major Powell, in his paper at the British 

 Association on the " Classification of Ameri- 

 can Languages," expressed the opinion that 

 no other method of classifying the Indian 

 tribes than by languages would be found 

 satisfactory. The physical differences are 

 certainly not suflScient. The arts are no 

 criterion, as they are readily adopted by one 

 race from another. Institutions are more 

 permanent ; but still in some cases they are 

 adopted, and they do not sufficiently distin- 

 guish the races. Mythologies are more dis- 

 tinctive ; and, indeed, it will generally be 

 found that tribes speaking languages of 

 one stock have similar mythological beliefs. 

 There are in North America about eighty 

 linguistic stocks, and as many mythologies. 

 Major Powell proposed some important re- 

 forms, with a view to simplification and uni- 

 formity in the nomenclature of American 

 languages. 



Wampnm. — In a paper read before the 

 British Association on the "Nature and Ori. 

 gin of Wampum," Mr. II. Hale traced the 

 use of that money across the continent to 

 California ; thence to the Micronesian groups 

 in the North Pacific, where it is universal ; 

 and thence to China, where the money is 

 said to have been anciently made of tortoise- 



