86o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



manual labor as simply nonsensical.' The 

 next neighbor to this 30ung man's father is 

 a man of the same nationality and in simi- 

 lar circumstances, who showed me with no 

 little pride two silver medals which a son 

 and a daughter, now working together in the 

 same shoe-factory, obtained at the high- 

 school. ' But,' said I, ' I have just been 

 reading the writing of a man of learning 

 and influence condemning the free high- 

 school, and arguing that it should be abol- 

 ished.' 'That man,' he replied, 'I consider 

 an enemy to his country.' " 



Two Xew Zealand Monntalns. — Mr. J. II. 



Kerry Nicholls, while exploring the " King 

 Country " of Xcw Zealand, succeeded in as- 

 cending the tabooed volcano of Tongariso, 

 which the Maoris consider it sacrilege to 

 approach. The cluster of cones that marks 

 it forms collectively an almost complete cir- 

 cle, rising from a level plateau about 3,000 

 feet above the sea ; while the burning mount- 

 ain itself, of wonderfully symmetrical pro- 

 portions, rises from the bottom of an ex- 

 tensive basin-like depression in the very 

 center of this great circle of cones and ex- 

 tinct craters. At 7,000 feet above the sea 

 the traveler was able to look over the hot, 

 quaking edge of the crater, which is circu- 

 lar, nearly a mile in circumference, and 400 

 feet deep. Within it was a smaller or inner 

 crater, funnel-shaped, and separated from 

 the larger one only by a narrow slip or ridge. 

 At the bottom of the crater were scattered 

 about huge rocky ridges, from the large 

 fissures of which jets of steam burst forth 

 with a roaring, screeching noise that echoed 

 from the depths below with a wailing sound. 

 " Hot springs sent up streams of boiling 

 water, which, running over the rocks and 

 losing themselves in the hot soil, were sent 

 high into the air again in the form of coil- 

 ing jets of vapor. Miniature cones of 

 dark, smoking mud rose up in every direc- 

 tion, while around all was a seething fused 

 mass of almost molten soil. In every di- 

 rection were large deposits of pure yellow 

 sulphur, some of which assumed a rock-like 

 formation. At other places it formed a 

 crust over the steaming earth, and when 

 the thermal action was less intense the glit- 

 tering yellow crystals covered the ground 

 like a thick frost." From the top of the 



neighboring great mountain of Ruapehu, 

 9,250 feet above the sea, "a glorious sight 

 burst upon the view. Peak rose above 

 peak from the dazzling expanse of snow, 

 each towering mass of rock, tinted of a red- 

 dish hue, standing out clearly defined against 

 the light-blue sky. Immediately beneath 

 where we stood was a steep precipice which 

 fell perpendicularly for hundreds of feet 

 below, and beneath this again was an enor- 

 mous circle of jagged rocks marking the 

 outline of a gigantic crater, filled to its brim 

 with snow, which was furrowed into chasms 

 of great depth." i\djoining this great 

 mountain is the Onetapu Desert, or " desert 

 of sacred sand," forming one of the most 

 curious features of the region, which covers 

 a large area of country. " In summer it is 

 parched and dried, and gives life only to a 

 few stunted Alpine plants ; and, in the winter 

 months, when the snows cover it, it is both 

 difficult and dangerous to traverse. The 

 desert at the surface is composed entirely 

 of a deposit of scoria, with rounded stones 

 and trachytic bowlders above, while in some 

 places rise enormous lava-ridges. By its 

 formations it would appear as if Ruapehu, 

 when in a state of activity, had distributed 

 its shower of ashes and lava over this wide 

 region ; and it would also appear that, at 

 the period at which this extensive deposition 

 of scoria occurred, there must have been 

 growing upon this very spot an extensive 

 forest ; for as we rode over the dreary ex- 

 panse we found the remains of enormous 

 trees, which had been converted into char- 

 coal, as it were, at the time when the fiery 

 ashes swept over them." 



Protectioa against Malaria. — We have 

 already noticed the discovery, by Profess- 

 ors Klebs and Tommasi-Crudelli, of the 

 bacterial germ of malaria in the soil of 

 the Roman Campagna. This discovery dis- 

 poses of the chemical theories of the ori- 

 gin of malaria, and redeems marshes from 

 the stigma of being its direct producers. 

 There are, in fact, marshes where there is 

 no malarial disease, and, on the other hand, 

 disease rages where there are no marshes. 

 The malarial germ, however, requires a cer- 

 tain degree of moisture for its development, 

 and, as the marshes afford it, when marsh 

 and bacteria arc brought together, there is 



