POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



speed of traveling the motion became intol- 

 erable, and, when a high rate of speed was 

 reached, few people could liecp their seats. 

 By degrees, but very slowly, these things 

 were improved. Better ventilation was in- 

 sured, more wheels were added, and the 

 carriages were enlarged ; doors and windows 

 were so constructed as to keep out the 

 clouds of dust that choked the traveler on 

 badly made and ill-kept lines. The same 

 principle of evolution which has turned the 

 old stage-coach into the comfortable saloon- 

 carriage has been at work in every depart- 

 ment of railways and their management, 

 and the highly intricate and important sys- 

 tem of modern signaling springs from a 

 most simple beginning. Shortly after the 

 opening of the Stockton and Darlington line, 

 which was the earliest line constructed, one 

 of the station-masters is traditionally said 

 to have adopted the simple expedient of 

 putting a lighted candle in the window of 

 the station-house when it was necessary for 

 the train to stop. When the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Railway was first opened, in 

 1830, the only means of signaling the trains 

 was a flag by day and a lamp by night. The 

 first ailvance to modern signaling began 

 about four years after the line had been 

 opened, when stout posts were provided up- 

 on which lamps were placed by the points- 

 man. Nowadays the signalman's cabin is 

 the center from which all signaling radiates. 



Bainfall by Explosion. — Reviewing the 

 theories of artificial rain-making. Prof. E. J. 

 Houston draws the general conclusions, in 

 view of the present state of meteorological 

 science, that rain can never be made to fall 

 at will hj mid-air explosions on any part of 

 the eartli's surface, irrespective of the cli- 

 matic conditions there existing; but during 

 certain meteorological conditions, mid-air ex- 

 plosions may result in rainfall over extended 

 areas ; that the liberation of energy neces- 

 sary for such rainfalls is due not to the mid- 

 air explosions, but to the energy stored up 

 in the moist air from which the rain is de- 

 rived ; that the meteorological conditions 

 which must exist for the successful action of 

 mid-air explosions would probably in most 

 though not in all cases themselves result in 

 a natural production of rain ; that a com- 

 paratively high difference of electric poten- 



tial between different parts of the air, or 

 between the air and the earth, is possibly 

 favorable, when taken in connection with 

 other meteorological conditions, for artificial 

 rain-making ; and that an undirected mid-air 

 explosion is not as likely to produce rain as 

 an explosion in which the main tendency of 

 the energy liberated is to cause a general 

 uprush of the air. Among the " certain me- 

 teorological conditions " mentioned in this 

 summary is that in which the air is in a 

 state of very unstable equilibrium, when a 

 slight determining cause may result in the 

 liberation of the stored-up energy, with a 

 resulting heavy rainfall. In such cases it 

 may appear that there are no reasons why an 

 explosion in mid-air should not be followed 

 by rain. In this case rain might be eventu- 

 ally caused without artificial aid. A condi- 

 tion in which heavy rains might be artifi- 

 cially produced by mid-air disturbances, when 

 without them there would be none, may exist 

 when a layer of warm, moist air exists be- 

 tween the earth's surface and a higher layer 

 of cold, moist air, separated by a compara- 

 tively thin layer of air, and other conditions 

 are sucli as to maintain the two layers sepa- 

 rate. The breaking or piercing of the inter- 

 mediate separating layer might then per- 

 mit such an uprush of the warmer air as 

 would result in the formation of a true 

 storm center and a heavy rainfall. 



Weddings among the Sbnshwap Indians. 



— Dr. Franz Boaz, in his report to the Hon. 

 Horatio Hale for the British Association con- 

 cerning the northwestern Indian tribes of 

 Canada, describes from native accounts the 

 marriage ceremonies of the Shushwap as fol- 

 lows : " A young man who wishes to marry a 

 girl takes a number of horses and other prop- 

 erty that is considered valuable, and offers it 

 to the father of the girl he wishes to marry. 

 The latter, before accepting the price offered, 

 invites his whole family to a council and 

 asks their consent. If they agree to accept 

 the suitor, and the price he has offered for 

 the gii'l is satisfactory, they tie the horses to 

 their stable and take the other goods into 

 the house, as a sign of their willingness. 

 After this the young man may take the girl 

 without further ceremonies. After the 

 marriage the bridegroom and his family go 

 on a hunting expedition, and try to obtain 



