FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



859 



immense volumes of the primary roelis have 

 been worn away by the action of water, and 

 have furnished the material from which the 

 sedimentary rocks are derived. This wash- 

 ing away has involved the breaking open of 

 the minute reservoirs of carbonic acid, and 

 it has gone into the atmosphere, not all at 

 once, but gradually, so as to furnish a con- 

 tinuous, not excessive supply. A brief cal- 

 culation presented by Professor Claypole 

 makes it evident that the rocks would thus 

 furnish an abundant supply, and to spare, 

 for all the coal that is known to exist. 



The Houses of Saga Times. — The con- 

 struction of the dwelling houses of Saga time 

 — A. D. 875 to 1025 — has been studied in 

 Iceland by Dr. Valtyr Gudmundsson and 

 Thorstein Erlingsson in co-operation with Miss 

 Cornelia Horsford, by Lieutenant Daniel 

 Brunn, and by the Icelandic Antiquarian 

 Society ; and in Greenland by the Danish 

 Government. The ruins of the house be- 

 lieved to have been built by Erik the Red, in 

 Hawk River Valley, Iceland, and in which 

 Leif Eriksen was probably born, as well as 

 the ruins of other similar houses, when un- 

 disturbed, are low, grass-grown ridges and 

 hollows, often difficult to detect, except when 

 stones protrude through the turf. A dwell- 

 ing usually consisted of three apartments — a 

 hall or principal room, in which there was 

 always a fireplace ; a sitting room for the 

 women, and a storeroom or pantry. These 

 apartments were like small houses, each with 

 a separate roof, but attached to each other 

 with passages through the thick walls. Near 

 by were usually one or more outhouses. The 

 dwellings were built on the surface of the 

 ground ; the floor was of finely beaten earth. 

 The walls were about five feet thick, and 

 somewhat higher. The inner side was built 

 of unhewn stones, and the interstices were 

 filled with earth. The outer side was of 

 alternate layers of turf and stone, and the 

 space between the two sides was filled in 

 with earth kneaded hard. Often, however, 

 the walls were built entirely of layers of turf 

 or with only disconnected rows of stones at 

 the base. A long, narrow fireplace usually 

 extended through the middle of the room, 

 and was either paved or surrounded with 

 stones standing on edge. Besides the long 

 fire, which served to warm and light the 



hall, there was a small cooking fire made in 

 the same way. The Greenland houses re- 

 sembled those of Iceland, but the walls were 

 narrower, straighter, and stronger. The 

 dwellings were usually long and narrow, con- 

 sisting of from three to eight rooms, and 

 were surrounded by outhouses and stables 

 for cattle, sheep, and goats ; and close to 

 them are found enormous midden heaps. A 

 ruin is described by Miss Horsford as exist- 

 ing near Cambridge, Mass., bearing marks of 

 similar construction, and is attributed by her 

 probably to Thorfinn Karlsefin's men ; and 

 another one, ten miles or more from the set- 

 tlement at Cambridge, is supposed to be of 

 later date. Very few relics were found in 

 the Iceland houses, but more in those of 

 Greenland — iron nails and knives, pieces of 

 stone vessels, spinning stones, bone combs, 

 and stone pendants bored with holes and 

 incised with runelike but illegible charac- 

 ters. 



Mr. Bandelier's Explorations. — The 



archfeological researches of Mr. Adolphe F. 

 Bandelier in Peru and Bolivia for about six 

 years were prosecuted at first through the 

 liberality of Mr. Henry Villard, but since 

 1894 under the auspices of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. From a very 

 cursory summary of his work given in the 

 American Archaeologist by F. W. Hodge, it 

 appears that from almost the moment of his 

 arrival at Lima he observed, even in the 

 immediate vicinity of the city, a wealth of 

 archaeological material. It was found, how- 

 ever, that the number of ruins was indicative 

 of successive rather than contemporaneous 

 occupancy. The detailed survey of the ruins 

 proves that the cities they represent did not 

 by any means harbor the numbers of inhab- 

 itants they have been usually believed to have 

 contained. They were not compactly built 

 cities, but included cultivated lots and fields 

 occupying the gi-eater proportion of the space. 

 The buildings were of adobe and stone, with 

 very thick walls. Artificial platforms and 

 mounds are common, and tall mounds were 

 found within the area of nearly every build- 

 ing examined. The aboriginal idioms have 

 not entirely disappeared from among the 

 natives of the Peruvian coast. Of ancient 

 creeds and beliefs the practice of witchcraft 

 seems to be the only vestige. Mr. Bandelier 



