SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BART RAM. 839 



ure from visiting the garden as a boy, and was resolved to pre- 

 serve it without the sacrifice of a tree or a shrub. In 1853 a 

 Handbook of Ornamental Trees, by Mr. Thomas Meehan, was 

 published, the main purpose of which, as stated in its preface, 

 was to describe the trees then in the Bartram garden. After Mr. 

 Eastwick's death, the fate of the garden was for some time dubi- 

 ous. His executors saw no duty but to get as much money out 

 of the estate as possible. About 1880 Prof. C. S. Sargent, of 

 Harvard University, obtained the promise of a private subscrip- 

 tion to buy the old garden, and a price was agreed upon, but the 

 executors withdrew from the agreement. In 1882 Mr. Thomas 

 Meehan became a member of the Common Councils of Philadel- 

 phia and at once introduced a scheme for small parks for the 

 city, in which the Bartram place was included. Repeated re- 

 elections enabled him to follow the matter up, and finally, in the 

 spring of 1891, the city took possession of the property, and put a 

 superintendent in charge of it. The great gale of September, 1875, 

 and some fifteen years of neglect had had their effect among the 

 trees, but many planted by the botanist's own hands yet remain. 

 It should be a source of gratification to all cultivators of science 

 that this relic of the beginnings of botany in America is now as- 

 sured of preservation. 



Mb. "W. W. Rockhill was credibly assured during his travels in Thibet that 

 wild men were to be found in the eastern part of that country. His informant, a 

 Mongol who had accompanied a Chinese trader in quest of rhubarb, described 

 these savages as covered with long hair, standing erect, and making tracks like 

 men. The author is of the opinion that they were nothing but bears ; but he 

 acknowledges that intelligent and educated Chinese, well acquainted with the 

 appearance and habits of bears, believe that primitive savages are to be found 

 in the Thibetan mountains ; and he himself speaks of a forest fire in the Horpa 

 country having driven out of the woods a number of hairy wUd men, clad in skins 

 and speaking an incomprehensible language. The Indian traveler Kishen Singh 

 and Lieutenant Kreitner testify to the existence of wild men in those parts, and 

 the former minutely describes them and their habits. It is curious, too, the 

 Athenajum remarks, that the habitat of the wild man, whose progenitors may 

 easily have relapsed into savagery, owing to the exceptional sterility and inaccessi- 

 bility of northern Thibet and its adjacent deserts, should be the same as that of 

 the wild camel and the wild horse, which there is good reason to believe are the 

 prototypes of the domesticated varieties. 



Me. E. H. Max says that the little island of Chowry has for generations en- 

 joyed the monopoly of pottery manufacture in the Nicobars. The work of pre- 

 paring the clay and of molding and firing the finished vessel devolves on the 

 female members of the community. The inliabitants of the island seem to guard 

 their art jealously, and the value of trade-marks is recognized. No vessels are 

 made especially by the Nicobarese for funeral purposes, but cooking-pots are 

 among the personal and household articles that are laid on a grave after an inter- 

 ment. The people have no knowledge of anything like the potter's wheel. 



