POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



137 



the past two and a half centuries. In as- 

 tronomical spectroscopy, by which great 

 discoveries have been made respecting the 

 constitution of the heavenly bodies, photoj;- 

 raphy has had it all its own way. Meteor- 

 ologists have made use of photography in 

 various ways, as in application to self-re- 

 cording instruments of various kinds, and in 

 observations of cloud-forms and distances, 

 and of lightning. In chemistry and physics, 

 the best photographic work has been done 

 by the camera when allied with the spectro- 

 scope. In the biological sciences and in 

 medicine the applications of photography 

 have been many and various. Anthropology 

 finds a valuable aid in photography, which 

 reproduces and perpetuates the types and 

 peculiarities of races and of individuals. In 

 the study of natural history, probably the 

 most important work done by photography 

 lies in the direction of photo-micrography ; 

 and in such researches as those of Mr. Muy- 

 bridge and M. Marey on animal locomotion. 

 The value of photography in geographical 

 science is now so well admitted that an ex- 

 plorer would almost as soon think of start- 

 ing without a rifle as without a camera. 



Time-Beckoning of Pnget- Sound In- 

 dians. — According to Mr. M. Eells's account 

 of "The Indians of Puget Sound," in the 

 " American Antiquarian," the Nisquallies di- 

 vide the year into thirteen moons, for each 

 of which they have separate names ; also 

 for the waxing and waning of the moon. 

 The daytime is divided into dawn, sunrise, 

 forenoon, noon, afternoon, sunset, and dusk, 

 while the night has the single division of 

 midnight. These Indians obtained the idea 

 of Sunday from another tribe, before the 

 English came, and after that met on Sunday, 

 sang, danced, prayed, and tried to purify 

 themselves, and throw away their bad and 

 make their hearts good. They also married 

 wives on that day. Among the Twanas Sun- 

 day means holy day, and the other days are 

 day past, two days past, etc., except Satur- 

 day, which means " alongside," that is, of 

 Sunday. March is " getting warm " ; August, 

 "the deer sheds its horns" ; October, ''the 

 grass dies " ; and November, " the grass 

 goes into the ground." The people are gen- 

 erally in debt to one another-, with obliga- 

 tions of many years' standing. The debts 



are seldom heard of except when trouble 

 arises about something else, and then there 

 is a general turning up of old scores for ten 

 or fifteen years back, and of the debts of 

 relatives and wife's relatives. At one time, 

 says Mr. Eells, an old Indian living at Sea- 

 beck was invited to a potlatch at Skokomish ; 

 he accepted the invitation, but while attend- 

 ing the feast his house was broken into and 

 robbed of property of considerable value. 

 As he could not find the trespasser, he 

 claimed that the man who invited him to the 

 potlatch ought to pay him ; because, if the 

 giver of the potlatch had not induced him to 

 leave home, he would not have lost the arti- 

 cles." 



An Evil of Civilization. — A curious ac- 

 count of the Yakutal Indians was given by 

 Prof. William Libbey, Jr., in the American 

 Association. The author mentioned the 

 strength of the men as contrasted with the 

 bent, labor-wasted bodies of the women, 

 their aptness in mechanical arts, their strict 

 idea of property, their superstitions, which 

 are valuable as influencing fortune. A whole 

 tribe got baptized to change their luck, and, 

 when their luck did not change, the mission- 

 ary had to. Their rapid decrease in num- 

 bers was due to changes in diet and clothing. 

 In their climate the canned beef and cotton 

 overalls of the white man proved poor sub- 

 stitutes for seal-fat on the inside and seal- 

 skin without. 



Lncigen. — By the " lucigen " apparatus, 

 according to Mr. J. B. Hannay, a light is ob- 

 tained from the burning of crude oil which 

 exceeds in effective illuminating power any 

 artificial light yet invented. The working of 

 it depends upon the action on a powerful jet 

 of mixed spray, hot air, and hydrocarbon 

 vapor, driven by compressed air, of an aspi- 

 rated sheet of hot air derived from the at- 

 mosphere. The flame takes the shape of a 

 cylinder, tapering at both ends, about three 

 feet long by nine inches in diameter, is in- 

 tensely white, and is without smoke or smell. 

 In this form it is available for open spaces 

 and workshops, where a lateral diffusion of 

 light is wanted. Modifications are imposed 

 upon the apparatus to adapt it to almost 

 every kind of building and work where it is 

 desired to cast a large illumination over an 



