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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the latter, from May to October, no rain 

 falls, but the earth is occasionally moistened 

 by the depositions from fogs. From Novem- 

 ber to April heavy showers of short duration 

 prevail, and the water falls, in portions, 

 sometimes as high as one hundred and two 

 millimetres — about four inches — in two 

 hours. Long, fine rains are unknown. The 

 country is visited by cyclones, but, while 

 storms passing to the north of the station 

 turned the vane in a contrary direction to 

 that of the hands of a watch, those passing 

 it to the south turned it in a direction cor- 

 responding with theirs. The natives burn 

 the tall prairie-grass in the dry seasons, 

 causing fires that last for a long time, and 

 produce considerable meteorological effects. 

 The air is constantly loaded with smoke, 

 while cumulus clouds are formed over the 

 fires and emit lightning with thunder. One 

 of the most remarkable meteorological phe- 

 nomena of the region is the existence of a 

 southwest wind, which, beginning at sunset, 

 blows all night till sunrise with such force 

 as to raise large and dangerous waves on 

 the river. 



An Affectionate Mother-Spider. — The 



Clubiorics arc minute, grayish-yellow spiders 

 with a dark brown stripe along their back, 

 which build their nests among growing oats, 

 generally using two or three stalks. M. Ern- 

 est Mcnault, a French naturalist, looked into 

 one of their nests and found there a great 

 number of little eggs in various stages of 

 development. The mother-spider was fright- 

 ened and much excited on observing his 

 proceedings, and endeavored vainly to col- 

 lect her treasures again. From another nest 

 M. Menault tore away the protecting web, 

 but the diligent mother soon set herself to 

 work spinning a patch to cover exactly the 

 breach he had made. He repeated the ex- 

 periment several times, and the spider as 

 often came to repair the mischief. Another 

 spider, the li/rosa, gathers her eggs, as soon 

 as they are laid, into a little ball, which she 

 then wraps with a thin but compact and 

 solid covering of silky tissue. This ball, 

 stuck to her web, she drags after her wher- 

 ever she goes. When pursued, she runs as 

 quickly as the weight of the egg-ball will let 

 her, but, if any attempt be made to seize 

 the cocoon, she stops at once and tries to 



get it back, when she shows considerable 

 courage and fighting capacity. If the co- 

 coon is destroyed, the lycosa will retire into 

 a corner, and in a short time die. When 

 the eggs are hatched the mother-spider takes 

 her young upon her back, and has them 

 always with her. " It is impossible," says 

 M. Menault, " to behold without emotion 

 this little creature, naturally so quick and 

 jerky in all her movements, acquire a motion 

 so much gentler when carrying her treas- 

 ures. She carefully avoids all dangers, only 

 attacks easily won prey, and abandons all 

 chance of obtaining anything the capture of 

 which would necessitate a combat that might 

 cause her to drop the young ones, which 

 press and move by hundreds round her 

 body." Bonnet tells of a lycosa whose egg- 

 bag was captured by an ant-lion, which 

 nevertheless refused to leave it, preferring 

 to be swallowed up and share the fate of 

 her eggs. When taken away by force, she 

 persisted in returning to the scene of danger. 



Race Cbaracteristics of the Jews. — Dr. A. 



Neubauer read a paper recently, before the 

 British Anthropological Institute, on " Race 

 Types of the Jews," the purport of which 

 was to show that there had been considera- 

 ble intermixtures in the Hebrew race from 

 the time of Abraham down. Joseph mar- 

 ried an Egyptian and Moses a Midianite; 

 David was descended from a Moabitess, and 

 Solomon was the son of a Ilittite woman. 

 So we read of the non-Jewish women in 

 contact with the Israelites, and undoubtedly 

 the proselytes increased the mixture of races 

 by marrying Jewish women. Moreover, 

 some quite marked differences prevailed in 

 the middle ages, and still exist, between 

 the Jews residing in different nations, Mr. 

 J. Jacobs, in a paper " On the Racial Char- 

 acteristics of Modern Jews," took a differ- 

 ent view. Regarding only the Askenasian 

 Jews, who form more than nine tenths of 

 the whole number, he pointed out as among 

 their characteristics fertility, short stature 

 as compared with Europeans, and narrow 

 chests, brachyccphalic skulls, darker hair 

 and eyes than those of any nation in North- 

 ern Europe (though nearly one fifth of the 

 Jews have blue eyes, and they have nearly 

 twice as many red-haired individuals as the 

 inhabitants of the Continent), and a peculiar 



