570 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



widely different in all localities, but these 

 differences are multiplied and intensified in 

 great and thickly settled communities. All 

 classes meet in public schools. The schools 

 are large. The grading and classification of 

 pupils are necessarily close and arbitrary. 

 Individuality disappears, and there is small 

 opportunity to bestow special care upon 

 those personal traits of character and genius 

 which in smaller and less mechanical schools 

 are developed and cultivated so advanta- 

 geously. The exactions and controversies of 

 politics, unfortunately, encroach more upon 

 the administration of school affairs in large 

 places than in small ones. The people are 

 farther removed from the schools, and they 

 manifest less interest in them because they 

 have less responsibility and power in man- 

 aging and directing them. It not infrequent- 

 ly happens, also, that the law leaves the 

 granting of appropriations for the extension 

 or even the maintenance of a city school 

 system with the Common Council, or some 

 board which, in cither case, was chosen 

 without any reference to the schools, and 

 which seems bound to offset its extravagances 

 in other directions with severe parsimony 

 toward the schools." 



Sense of Dirc:tioa ia Insects.— Dr. H. C. 



McCook has observed a very accurate sense 

 of direction dispLiycd by the " horse-ant " 

 {Formica r:ffa) of Great Britain, in laying 

 out roads from the ant-hills to points in the 

 surrounding woods. These roads or trails had 

 in places a v;idth of from two to four inch- 

 es, and were distinctly marked upon the sur- 

 face of the ground, which was stained a dark- 

 brown or black, probably by the formic acid 

 exuded fro:n the insects, and the leaves and 

 grass over whi;.h they ran were pressed down 

 and smoothed by the constant passing of 

 innumerable logs. From one large mound 

 three roads ran beneath the tall under- 

 growth with remarkable directness to differ- 

 ent oak-trees in which numerous aphides af- 

 forded a food-supply. Road No. 1 was about 

 sixty-five feat in length, and ran in an al- 

 most perf oc:ly straight lino. No. 2 was about 

 seventy feet long, and varied less than three 

 inches from a direct line measuring from the 

 tree to a point within two feet of the termi- 

 nal tree. There the trail made a detour of 

 about sii inches. No, 3 was a little over 



one hundred feet in length. A short distance 

 from the nest it touched an old stump which 

 deflected the path at a slight angle, and fur- 

 ther on it crossed a foot-path where the trav- 

 el of the ants was much interfered with by 

 passing human feet. In spite of the difBeul- 

 tles of the track, when the entire trail was 

 staked off, its terminus was found to deviate 

 less than three feet from a straight line 

 drawn from the point of departure. 



Anstralian Message - Sticts. — The de- 

 scriptions by Mr. A. W. Ilowitt in the Brit- 

 ish Association represent a considerable va- 

 riety as prevailing among the Austrahan 

 tribes in the use of message-sticks. Some 

 of them are elaborately marked, highly or- 

 namented, and even brightly painted. No 

 messenger known to be such is ever injured. 

 The message-stick is made by the sender and 

 kept by the recipient as a reminder of what 

 he has to do. In one tribe tlic messenger, 

 for friendly meetings, carries a man's kilt 

 and a woman's apron hung on a reed ; but 

 for meetings for hostile purposes, the kilt 

 is hung upon the point of a spear. With 

 a tribe in Victoria, the principal man pre- 

 pares a message-stick by making certain 

 notches upon it with a knife. The man who 

 is to carry it looks en, and thus learns the 

 connection between the marks on the stick 

 and the message. A notch is made at one end 

 to indicate the sender, and probably notches 

 also for those who join in sending the mes- 

 sage. If all the people of a tribe are in- 

 vited to attend a meeting, the stick is notched 

 from end to end ; if part only are invited, 

 only a portion of the stick is notched ; and 

 if very few people arc invited to meet or re- 

 fen-ed to in the verbal mcssago, then a notch 

 is made for cacli person as he is named to 

 the messenger. The messenger carries the 

 stick in a net-bag, and, on arriving at the 

 camp to which he is sent, hands it to the 

 head-man at some place apart from the 

 others, saying, "So-and-so sends you this," 

 and then gives his message, referring, as he 

 does so, to the marks on the message-stick. 

 As a rule, the notches on a message-stick are 

 only reminders to the messenger of the mes- 

 sage he is instructed to deliver, and are un- 

 intelligible to a man to whom they have not 

 been explained ; but certain notches appear 

 to have a definite meaning, and to indicate 



