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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



restrial energy are growing feeble, that the 

 most active denudation now in progress is 

 less vigorous than that of bygone ages, and 

 hence that the stratified part of the earth's 

 crust may have been put together in a much 

 briefer space of time than modern events 

 might lead us to suppose. But no confirma- 

 tion of this argument can be gathered from 

 the rocks. We can see no proof nor any 

 evidence that suggests that on the whole the 

 rate of waste and sedimentation was more 

 rapid during Mesozoic and Palaeozoic times 

 than it is to-day. A yet further and im- 

 pressive body of evidence is furnished by 

 the successive races of plants and animals 

 which have lived upon the earth and have 

 left their remains sealed up within its rocky 

 crust. We have no data as to the rate of 

 this evolution, but only the negative evidence 

 that it has made no visible progress since 

 man began to observe and record. And 

 when we look beyond the narrower range of 

 human history at the remains preserved in 

 even the most recent geological strata, we 

 encounter the most impressive proofs of the 

 persistence of specific forms. After careful 

 reflection on the subject, the speaker af- 

 firmed that the geological record furnishes 

 a mass of evidence which no arguments 

 drawn from other departments of Nature 

 can explain away, and which can not be 

 satifactorily interpreted save with an allow- 

 ance of time much beyond the narrow lim- 

 its which recent physical speculation would 

 concede. 



Chaga (Mount Kilimanjaro) and its In- 

 habitants. — Chaga, or the temperate region 

 of Mount Kilimanjaro, according to Dr. W. 

 L. Abbott, extends a distance of about sixty 

 miles, and is inhabited by a population of 

 sixty thousand. At no point does the culti- 

 vation extend lower than three thousand 

 feet, and nowhere above five thousand four 

 hundred feet. This narrow zone is from two 

 to four or five miles wide. It is divided into 

 some thirty states, each governed by a more 

 or less independent sultan, and separated 

 from its neighbors by a strip of wilderness 

 or a deep gorge. The largest state, Mechame, 

 contains probably ten thousand people, while 

 some of the lesser states have only a hun- 

 dred or two subjects. The state of Useri is 

 governed by Malimia, an energetic sultan 



who is rather shy of strangers, having a fear 

 of being bewitched. The Sultan of Marang, 

 Miliari, is a great friend of the Europeans. 

 Fumba, the chief of Kilimma, is remarkable 

 for his hugging habits, which make him an 

 extremely unpleasant host. In Moshi, the 

 Sultan Mandara has had more intercourse 

 with strangers than any other chief, and has 

 accumulated European curiosities of every 

 imaginable description — toy steam-engines, 

 clocks, guns of many patterns, stereoscopes, 

 sewing machines, cavalry helmets, books, 

 uniforms. Cena, the Sultan of Kibosho, is 

 the most powerful chief on the mountain, 

 and seems to hold his own, with all the other 

 states allied against him. He is very friendly 

 toward Europeans, and is liberal in his pres- 

 ents of cattle, etc., to those favored visitors. 

 He has constructed a large series of under- 

 ground passages or galleries beneath his 

 boma or stockades. The huts are arranged 

 in a circle, and a sloping shaft leads down 

 from the floor of each hut. From this main 

 gallery another runs off to open out upon a 

 hill-side several hundred yards distant. By 

 means of this arrangement his wives and 

 cattle would be able to escape in case of a 

 surprise or sudden attack. Two hundred 

 warriors keep nightly guard around his 

 house. Many women of Mandara's harem 

 would be beauties in any country, in spite of 

 their dark skins. 



Prof. Lc Conte on the Origin of Niagara 

 Falls. — Explaining his views of the origin of 

 Niagara Falls at the excursion of the Amer- 

 ican Association to that place, Prof. Joseph 

 Le Conte said that, as the ice-sheet was 

 pushed slowly backward after the conclusion 

 of the Glacial period, the first of the lakes 

 to be uncovered was Lake Erie. " After 

 that the ice was pushed back from the other 

 lakes. When Lake Ontario was uncovered, 

 the ice was still upon the St. Lawrence River, 

 aud the lake had no outlet in that direction as 

 it has at present. It was for this reason that 

 the waters of the lake rose to such a height, 

 and formed the Iroquois beach which extends 

 along the lake to Rochester in what is known 

 as the Ridge Road. It is my opinion that at 

 this period Lake Ontario was drained off 

 through the Mohawk Valley by the Mohawk 

 River, and thence by the Hudson River to 

 the sea. About that time the Niagara River 



