POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



»39 



pines. The Humberg is more than twenty 

 miles from the nearest Alpine summit, yet 

 the plants appropriate to such a situation 

 are represented, not by individuals, but by 

 a large mass of plants that appear to be 

 perfectly acclimated. The mystery is height- 

 ened by the fact that in a neighboring 

 mountain district of considerable higher 

 altitude, which borders on a really Alpine 

 region, only a small number of Alpine plants 

 are found. Similar anomalies have been 

 remarked in the Pyrenees. Many Alpine 

 plants can and doubtless do live and thrive 

 in lower situations than their habitual ones, 

 and their general absence from such places 

 is probably rather due to their being crowd- 

 ed out, and the ground possessed by the 

 species more peculiarly fitted to the locality 

 than to any positive unfitness of their own. 

 But if a mountain is suddenly raised up 

 or depressed, the entire vegetation growing 

 upon it is transported to a new region. It 

 will then offer a long and sturdy resistence 

 to the rival species that may come in to dis- 

 pute with it for occupancy ; and this resist- 

 ance may in the end last long enough for 

 the species to become acclimated to the new 

 conditions, when they will reproduce them- 

 selves, and the phenomena under consider- 

 ation will be manifested. 



Metal-working Art in Cashmere. — Herr 

 Carl von Ujfalvy, who has been exploring 

 in the western Himalayas, asserts that the 

 Cashmereans must be regarded as the no- 

 blest of the Indian races. " At least," he 

 says, " it must be admitted that a people 

 that prepares its food in handsome kettles 

 of beaten and carved copper, adorned with 

 tasteful engravings, drinks its tea and coffee 

 from elegantly shaped pots, and uses showily 

 decorated pitchers and cups, and beaten and 

 enameled dishes, vases, pipes, candlesticks, 

 lamps, tea-vessels, and plates, and engraved 

 spittoons, must have a peculiar artistic gift. 

 What is more remarkable is that objects of 

 such character are in daily use, not only in 

 the mansions of the rich, but also in the 

 peasants' huts ; and any one who takes this 

 fact into consideration must say that we 

 have to do with a particularly endowed race 

 of Aryans, who, too small in numbers and 

 too weak to contend with the barbarians, 

 have found satisfaction in devoting them- 



selves to art. When we reflect," adds Herr 

 von Ujfalvy, "that all the household uten- 

 sils in High Asia, Persia, and India, and the 

 innumerable idols in the latter country are 

 made of beaten or cast metal, we may be 

 able to form an approximate idea of the 

 importance and extension of this industry 

 in all those countries." Copper is the basis 

 of these industries, either pure, in ham- 

 mered, beaten, and carved forms, or alloyed 

 or set off with gold, silver, steel, tin, lead, 

 or zinc. In Turkistan a yellow, in Kashgar 

 a red, in Cashmere an ornamented red metal 

 is worked. Yellow metal is here of very an- 

 cient origin. The metal industry is most ex- 

 tensively developed and most flourishing in 

 Cashmere ; and there no difference is recog- 

 nized between art - work and mechanical 

 work, and it is therefore not strange that 

 we should so frequently meet with real mas- 

 terpieces of art. 



Blind Men's Dream*. — IIow do the blind 

 dream ? is discussed by Mr, B. G. Jones, in 

 the (English) " National Review." In near- 

 ly all ordinary dreams we imagine we see 

 something — persons or things, or both. 

 This can not happen with the blind, who 

 have no conception of things that are seen ; 

 or, if they were not born blind, of things 

 that they had not seen before they lost 

 their sight. The blind man may recall a 

 person or a place, but his recollection can 

 only be commensurate with what he has ob- 

 tained by the senses of touch, hearing, or 

 smell. A blind boy dreamed of his brother 

 who was dead. He knew him by his voice, 

 and he also knew he was in the fields with 

 him, for he felt himself treading upon the 

 grass and smelling the fresh air. His idea 

 of a field could not possibly reach much be- 

 yond this. Another person dreamed he was 

 in his workshop; he knew this by sitting 

 on a box, and by the tools which were in it. 

 A blind tramp said when he dreamed it was 

 just the same as when he was awake — he 

 dreamed of hearing and touching. A blind 

 man is mentioned who dreamed of a ghost, 

 and this is the way he told his story : " I 

 heard a voice at the door, and I said, ' Bless 

 me, if that ain't John ! ' and I took him by 

 the sleeve ; it was his shirt-sleeve I felt ; 

 and I was half-afeared of him, and sur- 

 prised he was out weeks before his time. 



