POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



blue and others red, and twelve serpent- 

 heads, " exquisitely sculptured and painted 

 in bright colors." The decorations on the 

 outside of the building are chiefly represen- 

 tations of the face of the mastodon, and 

 between the eyes of twelve of those faces 

 is a human face surrounded by an aureole, 

 or halo, of life-size. Dr. Le Plongeon claims 

 to have discovered the key to the Maya 

 hieroglyphics, and assumes to interpret all 

 these figures, carvings, and inscriptions, to 

 which he gives definite historical signifi- 

 cance. We are not aware that the validity 

 of his theory and interpretations has been 

 critically passed upon. 



A « Nearly Perfect » Civil-Service Sys- 

 tem. — Mr. Gordon Gray has attempted, in 

 the " Fortnightly Review," to estimate the 

 value of the competitive examinations which 

 prevail in the British official service, as it 

 is shown by their workings. His general 

 conclusion is that " we have no sufficient 

 evidence as to the working of open compe- 

 tition in the Home Civil Service, but that in 

 the Indian Civil Service and the army we 

 have a balance of testimony, official and in- 

 dependent, to the effect that the officers se- 

 lected under it have shown themselves not 

 unworthy of their positions. But as much as 

 this could surely be said for their predeces- 

 sors. There is no evidence that the new 

 men are superior to the old, no positive evi- 

 dence even that they are altogether their 

 equals, for their opportunities have been 

 fewer ; and it yet remains to be seen wheth- 

 er when the opportunities do come the men 

 will rise to the occasion." Earl Salisbury 

 said in 1874, writing to the Indian Govern- 

 ment : " With respect to the principle of 

 competition itself, the evidence you have 

 collected sufficiently shows that it can not 

 be disturbed without injury to the public 

 service. The expressions of opinion which 

 I have received from competent judges in 

 England lead me to the same conclusion. 

 Of its success as a mode of selecting per- 

 sons fit to serve in the Indian Civil Service 

 there seems to be no reasonable doubt. The 

 ability which it collects is not the same in 

 kind as that which distinguished the serv- 

 ants appointed under the previous system, 

 and there may be truth in the allegation for 

 which some of your officers contend, that 



under it instances of conspicuous ability are 

 rare. ... On the other hand, it is generally 

 admitted that if exceptional powers are rarer 

 than in olden times, exceptions of an oppo- 

 site kind have almost entirely disappeared." 

 Since this was said, wholesome improvements 

 have been introduced into the examinations. 

 Mr. Gray sees defects in the British system, 

 and objects to it that it does not profess to 

 discover the best men "all round," but 

 " only professes to discover those who can 

 pass the best literary examination in a lim- 

 ited number of subjects. Whether these 

 men are inferior or superior to their com- 

 petitors, in physical and moral qualifica- 

 tions, it neither knows nor inquires. It in- 

 deed inquires rigorously into those qualifi- 

 cations to the extent of discovering absolute 

 unfitness, and occasionally a successful com- 

 petitor at the literary examination is rejected 

 for unfitness under one of these heads, but 

 the test is only one of minimum qualifica- 

 tions. The authorities have only a right of 

 excluding a candidate who fails to satisfy 

 them that he just reaches the minimum ; 

 they have no power to give preference to 

 conspicuous merit over mediocrity." Mr. 

 Gray adds that a system of selection which 

 should bring all the three elements — the 

 mental, the moral, and the physical — that 

 compose the human individual into compe- 

 tition, " would indeed be perfect." The 

 civil-service examinations conducted under 

 our Civil-Service Commission are intended 

 to satisfy this requisition. They are not 

 literary, but comprehensive and practical ; 

 and they are varied for each position to 

 which they are applied, for the purpose of 

 bringing out the evidence of fitness in the 

 peculiar qualities which it demands ; they 

 are, therefore, wisely directed to approach 

 what the author characterizes as a " nearly 

 perfect " system. 



Increase of Temperature in lake Su- 

 perior Mines. — H. A. Wheeler has made ob- 

 servations of the differences of temperature 

 in the copper-mines of Keweenaw Point, 

 Lake Superior, which, being now among the 

 deepest mines in the United States, present 

 an excellent opportunity for obtaining data 

 as to the rate of thermal increase with de- 

 scent into the earth. While the usual ther- 

 mic gradient is from fifty to fifty-five feet 



