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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their heads, while others placed supports 

 under it at each successive lift. Stout poles 

 tied together like shears were then brought 

 into play, while the lifters took sharp-pointed 

 poles, about eight feet long, and standing in 

 their former positions, lifted the pole (which 

 was immediately supported by the men with 

 the shears) by means of these sticks, until it 

 attained an angle of about forty-five degrees. 

 The butt was then gradually slipped into its 

 place and the gangs at the ropes, who had 

 been inactive all this time, got the signal 

 to haul, when, amid the most indesci'ibable 

 bellowing, hallooing, and yelling, the pole 

 was gradually and surely elevated to the per- 

 pendicular position. When the setting was 

 completed, the crowd adjourned to the house 

 of the owner, who feasted the people, and 

 afterward took the place of Eitlahgeet, great 

 chief. Next he distributes his property, a 

 task requiring great discrimination. Often 

 he adopts a new name. When he proclaims 

 to the crowd that he is quite impoverished 

 and has distributed all his effects, they ap- 

 pear to be delighted, and regard him as in- 

 deed a great chief. 



The Races of Pern. — According to Senor 

 F. A. Pezet, the aboriginal or Indian race 

 which populated Peru, 12,000,000 souls 

 strong when the Spaniards conquered the 

 country, still holds its own, although it has 

 to a great extent degenerated through the 

 miseries which, during centuries, it endured 

 at the hands of its conquerors. It repre- 

 sents to-day about fifty-seven per cent of the 

 entire population. In the interior of Peru 

 it has kept in many places quite pure, not 

 having mixed with any of the other races 

 that have been brought into the country. 

 There are tribes existing to-day with the 

 old Inca Indian features quite distinct, and 

 among these people there is a great and 

 natural intellect. The other great race is 

 the European, or white, imported from Spain 

 at the time of the conquest, which has ever 

 been on the increase since then. It represents 

 to-day about twenty per cent of the popula- 

 tion, and is spread over the whole country, 

 but particularly on the coast. As the Peru- 

 vian Indian was made to slave at the mines 

 for his Spanish master, the Spaniards had to 

 introduce Africans to till the ground and 

 work on the cotton and sugar estates along 



the coast. No Africans have come to the 

 country since slavery was abolished in 1854, 

 and the race has been confined to some of 

 the agricultural districts, and is now rapidly 

 dying out. In its place are the " mestizo " and 

 " zambo," cross-breeds of blacks with whites 

 and with Indians. The cross-breed of whites 

 with Indians has produced the " cholo " race, 

 which of all castes is to-day the most numer- 

 ous. These mixed races represent about 

 twenty-three per cent of the whole population. 

 Of some fifty thousand Chinese imported since 

 1854, to be agricultural laborers, the greater 

 part have settled for good, and not a few 

 have embraced the Christian faith and mar- 

 ried with Indians, cholos, zanibos, mestizos, 

 blacks, and whites, thereby forming a diver- 

 sity of castes. 



Ventilation at the Top and at the Bottom 

 of Rooms. — The impression, which is very 

 common, and is even held by engineers, that 

 impure air, on account of its superior w r eight, 

 accumulates to excess in the lower parts of 

 rooms, while the upper parts are free from 

 it, and that ventilation should be applied 

 near the floor rather than near the ceiling, is 

 controverted in the Sanitarian by Dr. W. H. 

 Thayer. The property of gases to diffuse 

 and intermix with one another, irrespective 

 of relative densities, is lost sight of by these 

 authorities. Dr. Thayer finds that the car- 

 bonic-acid gas of respiration and illumi- 

 nation will eventually be equally diffused 

 through the atmosphere, although it is re- 

 tained at the upper part of a room as long as 

 the high temperature continues ; and that it 

 never, under any circumstances, is precipi- 

 tated in excess in the lower part of the room. 

 This conclusion, partly drawn from the phi- 

 losophy of the matter, has been amply veri- 

 fied by experiments. Dr. H. Cresson Stiles, 

 of the Metropolitan Board of Health, having 

 analyzed the air of many public schools, 

 hospitals, theatres, and churches, found the 

 air taken from near the ceiling always more 

 highly charged with carbonic acid than that 

 in the lower parts of a room, with the dif- 

 ference often very marked. St. Ann's Church, 

 Brooklyn, which was ventilated on the " bot- 

 tom ventilation" theory, was found to be 

 badly ventilated, with the carbonic acid in 

 the gallery at the close of the service in 

 larger quantity than near the floor. The 



