FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



507 



they have tended toward economic for- 

 est management so far as their object 

 was the continued use of the land for 

 producing woods. Among the measures 

 looking in this direction Mr. Pinchot 

 mentions in his circular the practice 

 which has been adopted " because it 

 pays," in some of the spruce lands of the 

 Northwest, of leaving the small trees 

 standing, so that the lumbermen can 

 return for a second crop earlier than 

 would otherwise be possible; and the 

 adoption by farmers of methods in get- 

 ting their wood, for saving the best 

 trees and promoting their growth and 

 that of the new ones; of keeping 

 sprout lands to be cut over regularly 

 and systematically, for periodical re- 

 newal, and of tree planting on waste 

 places, hillsides liable to be washed, and 

 the banks of streams. Other forms of 

 planting are the institution of wind 

 breaks in the treeless West, and special 

 plantations for fence posts, etc. A kind 

 of forestry practice is likewise indi- 

 cated in the special pains that are taken 

 by farmers and in lumbering disti'icts 

 to lessen the danger of fires. Forester 

 Pinchot desires that all the information 

 that can be gained be communicated to 

 him for the proposed article. 



Professor Putnam on the Origins 

 of the American Races. — In his ad- 

 dress as retiring President of the Ameri- 

 can Association, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 

 after expressing his high opinion of the 

 late Dr. D. G. Brinton and his scientific 

 labors, referred to the differences of 

 opinion that had existed between them 

 in respect to the origin of the American 

 peoples, and proceeded to expound his 

 own views on the subject. He regard- 

 ed the term " mound-builders " as com- 

 prehensive enough to include all the 

 peoples who had left the marks of their 

 former presence in this country. Even 

 the shell heaps could not be regarded 

 as the work of one people. From the 

 time of the earliest deposits — which 

 were of great antiquity — to the present, 

 such refuse piles had been made and 

 many of the sites reoccupied, sometimes 

 even by a different people. So with the 

 mounds of earth and stone; many of 

 them are of great antiquity, while others 

 were made within the historic period, 

 and even during the first half of the 

 present century. These works were de- 



voted to a variety of purposes, and there 

 are many different kinds of them. Be- 

 sides the mounds, there are groups of 

 earthworks of a different order of struc- 

 ture, that must be considered by them- 

 selves — great embankments, fortifica- 

 tions, and singular structures on hills 

 and plateaus that are in marked con- 

 trast to the ordinary conical mounds, 

 and mounds in the form of animals and 

 of man. The considerable antiquity of 

 these older earthworks is proved by the 

 accumulation of mold and the forest 

 growth upon them. " If all mounds of 

 shell, earth, or stone, fortifications on 

 hills, or places of religious and ceremoni- 

 al rites, are classed, irrespective of their 

 structure, contents, or time of forma- 

 tion, as the work of one people, and that 

 people is designated as the ' American 

 Indian ' or the ' American race,' and con- 

 sidered the only people ever inhabiting 

 America north and south, we are sim- 

 ply . . . not giving fair consideration 

 to differences, while overestimating re- 

 semblances." Citing analogies between 

 our earthworks and Mexican structures, 

 and looking upon the Pueblos as a con- 

 necting link, " we must regard the cul- 

 ture of the builders of the ancient earth- 

 w^orks as one and the same with that 

 of ancient Mexico, although modified by 

 environment. Our northern and eastern 

 tribes came in contact with this people 

 when they pushed their way southward 

 and westward, and many of their arts 

 and customs still linger among some of 

 our Indian tribes. It is this absorption 

 and admixture of the stocks that has 

 in the course of thousands of years 

 brought all our peoples into a certain 

 uniformity. This does not, however, 

 prove a unity of race. 



Heat Insulators.— Mr. C. L. Nor- 

 ton has made experiments, at the re- 

 quest of Mr. Edward Atkinson, in order 

 to determine the relative efficiency of 

 several kinds of steam-pipe covering 

 now on the market ; to ascertain the fire 

 risk attendant upon the use of certain 

 methods and materials employed for in- 

 sulation of steam pipes; to show the 

 gain in economy attendant upon the in- 

 crease of thickness of coverings; and to 

 find the exact financial return that may 

 be expected from a given outlay for cov- 

 ering steam pipes. A method of experi- 

 mentation was adopted which repre- 



