864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Art Schools of the Metropolitan 

 Museum are now established under the im- 

 mediate supervision of Mr. John Ward Stim- 

 8on, of the Paris School of Fine Arts, at 214 

 East Thirty-fourth Street. Eight courses in 

 the fine arts, decorative work, and mechan- 

 ical drawing are taught by as many in- 

 structors, at prices for tuition ranging from 

 §10 to $15 per term (October 5, 1885, to 

 May 1, 1886). 



The Director of the Observatory of Har- 

 vard College, besides recording in his annual 

 report the progress of the regular work of 

 the observatory, describes the observations 

 of Professor W. M. Davis and Mr. A. Mc- 

 Adie on the height and velocity of clouds. 

 The observers, stationing themselves at dif- 

 ferent spots, and communicating by tele- 

 phone, undertook to make simultaneous azi- 

 muth observations upon identical points in 

 the clouds. About three hundred pairs of 

 measures were made in the spring of 1885, 

 with generally satisfactory results. The al- 

 titudes determined varied from 2,000 to 

 25,000 feet; for altitudes less than 8,000 

 feet the variation between the measures was 

 generally within five per cent of the height. 

 In one instance, cumulative observations of 

 a single cumulus-cloud showed its base to 

 be 4,500 feet high; its summit rose from 

 the height of 0,750 to that of 7,300 feet at 

 the rate of 200 feet a minute, while the 

 cloud drifted to south 43° east at the rate of 

 twenty-seven and a half miles an hour. 



" BowLDKR Mosaics " is what Professor 

 J. E. To(h] calls certain figures formed by 

 piling bowlders which he has observed 

 on some ridges in Dakota. One is a gi- 

 gantic figure of a turtle about fifteen feet 

 long. Another specimen is a figure of a 

 snake, one hundred and twenty paces long, 

 composed like the former of bowlders from 

 four to six inches in diameter. " The eyes 

 are much more expressive than it would at 

 first seem possible to make them with such 

 material. They have literally a ' stony ' 

 stare." Few similar figures have been seen 

 elsewhere than at these two spots, but two 

 cases are cited of structures showing geo- 

 metrical designs. Rude sketches of animals 

 on a smaller scale are also found near Pipe- 

 stone, Minnesota, chipped or pecked on the 

 smooth surface of the red quartzite. In 

 these the turtle is a favorite figure. Simi- 

 larly made figures, but quite imperfect, were 

 noticed on Wolf Creek, southwest of Bridge- 

 water, Dakota. 



A SPECIAL committee of the Prison As- 

 sociation of New York, appointed to exam- 

 ine the question of the best mode of em- 

 ploying convict-labor, has formulated its 

 conclusions in resolutions which set forth 

 that the highest tost of excellence in any 

 system of convict-labor is to be found in the 



adaptability of that system to promote the 

 end of the convicts' reformation ; that the 

 contract system, in principle and in practical 

 methods, is inconsistent with those forms of 

 discipline and treatment that are most con- 

 ducive to that object, and should therefore 

 be condemned ; that the best and most nat- 

 ural method is in the manufacture of sup- 

 plies for use in insiitutions supported by the 

 State, and in such other public work for use 

 of the State as can be carried on in confine- 

 ment ; and that State prisoners should be 

 employed on work of that kind, or, if it could 

 not be provided for all, upon the piece-price 

 plan. 



In regard to the length of the range of 

 vision, Mr. A. Shaw Page relates two in- 

 stances in which he saw the Moume Mount- 

 ains of Ireland — which are 2,798 feet high 

 — from Blackpool, England, one hundred and 

 twenty-five miles away. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Mr. James Feugcsson, an eminent Eng- 

 lish writer on historical and prehistorical 

 architecture, died, January 9th, in his sev- 

 enty-eighth year. He was a native of Ayr, 

 in Scotland. He was best known by his 

 " History of Architecture," which has gone 

 through many editions, and is accepted as 

 standard. Ue is remembered in archaeology 

 for the help he offered, in suggestions, etc., 

 in the study of the rock-cut temples of In- 

 dia, and in explaining the meaning of Mr. 

 Layard's discoveries at Nineveh, Schlie- 

 mann's at Troy, Mycena?, and Tiryns, and 

 in the ideal restorations of the temples at 

 Jerusalem and Ephesus, as well as by his 

 books on " Rude Stone Monuments " and 

 " Tree and Serpent Worship." He served 

 his Government in 1857 as a member of the 

 Royal Commission to inquire into the de- 

 fenses of the United Kingdom ; and in sci- 

 ence he contributed a paper on "The Delta 

 of the Ganges and the Natural Laws regu- 

 lating the Course of Great Rivers." 



M. DE Paint-Yenant, the " Dean " of 

 the Mechanical Section of the French Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, died at Yendome, on the 

 6th of January, in the ninetieth year of his 

 age. He preserved his bodily vigor and 

 working capacity till very near the time of 

 his death. 



The death is reported of Dr. Oscar 

 Schmidt, Professor of Zoology in the Uni- 

 versity of Strasburg, and formerly occupant 

 of the same chair at Cracow and Gratz, at 

 the age of sixty-two. He was the author of 

 the treatise on " The Doctrine of Descent 

 and Darwinism," and of the recently pub- 

 lished " The Mammalia in their Relation to 

 Primeval Times," in the " International Sci- 

 entific Series." 



