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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of inclosures — ^not cages — liberal in extent, 

 and in strict accordance with the respective 

 habits and instincts of the animals to be 

 confined. Cages can not well be avoided by 

 traveling menageries ; in zoological gardens 

 they are inexcusable." In the landscape feat- 

 ures of a zoological garden, the aim should 

 be to unite beauty with use. The surround- 

 ings should imitate, as near as the climate 

 permits, the scenic characteristics of the 

 homes of the various specimens. "This 

 would be a pleasant delusion to both visitor 

 and animal. These widely different styles of 

 scenery should, of course, be blended into a 

 harmonious and well-balanced composition 

 by a very guarded and gradual transition, 

 thus affording delightful surprises at every 

 step." 



The One Hundred Cataracts of the Igua- 

 zn (Soath America), — One of the most 

 remarkable systems of waterfalls in the 

 world is described by Ilerr Gustav Nieder- 

 lein, who last year made an exploration of 

 the Parana River into the Argentine prov- 

 ince of Misiones. The falls are • called 

 the One Hundred Cataracts of the Tguazu, 

 a stream which at that point defines the 

 boundary between the Argentine Republic 

 and Brazil. The river, which is about three 

 miles wide at a short distance above, falls 

 from the Albert Archipelago in a three- 

 quadrant arc, which is compared with that 

 of the Victoria Falls, a descent of about one 

 hundred and seventy feet. The falls ap- 

 pear in three divisions, called the Brazilian, 

 Island, and Argentine Falls, or as Herr Nie- 

 derlein prefers to style them, the Emperor 

 Dom Pedro, the Emperor William, and 

 the General Roca falls. The first excel in 

 grandeur, the last in beauty, while the Em- 

 peror William falls, less extensive, and 

 situated between the other two, impinge 

 upon the handsomely wooded Emperor 

 WilHam's Island. The Dom Pedro Fall 

 plunges a sheer depth of forty or fifty metres 

 into a narrowly contracted basin, whence 

 flows the Brazilian arm of the Iguazu, into 

 which farther down the island-cataracts pour 

 their masses. The bow-shaped Argentine 

 Fall is broken into two stages, the upper 

 one of which is divided by the interposi- 

 tion of a rocky mass into two minor bows, 

 sp that it is really a kind of triple fall. 



This triple cataract feeds the smaller Ar- 

 gentine arm of tlie river, which joins the 

 Brazilian arm farther on. Not far from 

 these falls the stream receives from the Ar- 

 gentine side the two Bosetti Falls, which, 

 issuing from side-clefts, throw their water- 

 masses over a ledge, about fifty feet high, 

 upon a rocky platform, whence they imme- 

 diately plunge into the Iguazu. Still below 

 these are fourteen smaller falls, and, final- 

 ly, the Prince Bismarck Cataract, which 

 falls with a descent broken into two falls, 

 about one hundred and twenty-five feet into 

 a gulf fringed with the primitive sub-tropi- 

 cal forest. About ten miles below this, the 

 Iguazu, now about six hundred and sixty 

 feet wide, unites with the Parana. 



The Sonthern Andes and Patagonia. — 



Dr. Karl Martin, of Jena, has recently pub- 

 lished a description of the Patagonian wil- 

 derness and the lower Andes, from his own 

 observations. The Andes do not stretch in 

 a continuous chain to Cape Horn, as is often 

 supposed, but are broken south of Central 

 Chili by several interruptions. Down to the 

 volcano of Villarica, in south latitude 39°, 

 they are a solid range ; but below that peak 

 the mountains fail far below the sixteen thou- 

 sand feet which it attains. From its south- 

 ern slope the Shoshuenco River, the chief af- 

 fluent of the Valdivia, penetrates the mount- 

 ains through a pass of only about thirteen 

 hundred feet above the sea, receiving its 

 water from a lake which is separated only 

 by a low ridge from the waters of the 

 Limai, a stream flowing into the Atlantic. 

 The mountain standing between this and 

 the next pass of three thousand feet in 

 height is 8,700 feet high, while south of it 

 are lower mountains, between which a num- 

 ber of little known but not very elevated 

 passes lead into the Patagonian highland. 

 A view from the hills surrounding the city 

 of Osoruo shows a number of considerable 

 mountains with no connecting ridge between 

 them, and, in the south, a chain of three 

 peaks. One of these peaks, the shapely 

 cone of the volcano of Osoruo, rises from 

 between two lakes, into one of which flows 

 from the east the Puella, a stream whose 

 source is in the glacier of the Tronador, 

 ten thousand feet high. Near it and sepa- 

 rated by a pass of only twenty-nine hun- 



