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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



off, and the current swings the two sections 

 apart, leaving a free opening 528 feet wide. 

 It is the widest draw in any bridge ever 

 built. The ends of the section are connected 

 by a sunken steel-wire cable, and the draw 

 is closed by winding this up on a capstan, 

 worked by one man. There is a pontoon 

 bridge across the Mississippi River at Prai- 

 rie du Chien, the draw of which requires a 

 powerful engine to close it. The bridge is 

 to be removed each winter when ice covers 

 the river. Both the pontoon bridge and 

 a crib-work structure 1,050 feet long which 

 crosses a second arm of the river were built 

 in twenty-eight days, at a cost of about 

 $18,000. For the spring floods it is pro- 

 posed to greatly increase the strength of the 

 steel anchoring cables. The bows of the 

 boats are to be sheathed with iron, and the 

 bottoms are to receive an extra planking of 

 oak. A railroad bridge of steel crosses the 

 river near the pontoon bridge. This was 

 built between December, ISSV, and June, 

 1888. • Heretofore pontoon bridges have been 

 little used except as a temporary expedient 

 for military purposes ; but their cheapness, 

 and the satisfactory character of the draw 

 and other details in the form just described, 

 bespeak for them a more extended use. 



Somali Traits.— The Somahs, as repre- 

 sented by Mr. F. L. James, who has traveled 

 among them, are a curious people, hostile to 

 Europeans, treacherous, "marauding, semi- 

 civihzed half-castes, offshoots of the great 

 Galla race, alUed to the Caucasian type by 

 a steady influx of pure Asiatic blood. They 

 are Mohammedans, but the rites of their re- 

 ligion sit loosely upon them. Although their 

 trust is in Allah, they have been known to 

 ask where he can be found, as some of them 

 would like to catch him and spear him for 

 having laid waste their homes and killed 

 their wives and cattle. Yet they let off sud- 

 den prayers with great fervor during mo- 

 ments of anxiety." The hire of camels and 

 drivers to the traveler was ratified by an 

 oath that, if the man failed to keep the 

 terms of the contract, he would divorce his 

 wife. Mr. James had to engage women- 

 servants, because the men refused to build 

 their own mat-huts or do any cooking. None 

 of their fathers had done this, they argued, 

 and were they to do the work of women the 



tribes through which they passed would de- 

 spise them. At one place the people believed 

 the caravan had descended from the heav- 

 ens, and this was confirmed when Mr. James 

 and the others began to smoke. " The pipe 

 was part of ourselves, for how else could 

 our mouths blow forth clouds, which would 

 of course bring down rain ? " The author 

 explained that these clouds were not " water- 

 bearers," but were due to plants lighted by 

 harmless fire -makers," and to prove this 

 one of the party struck a match and lit a 

 fresh cigarette. This caused further bewil- 

 derment. The match had produced light- 

 ning, and of course the cloud could produce 

 thunder ; so the travelers were " storm- 

 makers." 



Healing of tlie Broken Bones of Birds. — 



It is not often that doctors are able to ob- 

 serve a broken bone almost in the very act 

 of healthful healing, as has recently been the 

 privilege of Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. He obtained 

 on the same day a red-tailed hawk and a 

 turkey-vulture which had been shot while 

 high in the air with a 0"45 caliber govern- 

 ment carbine ; the ball in the former case 

 passing clear through the chest, and in the 

 latter case breaking in two the radius and 

 the ulna. The hawk's wound could not be 

 discovered, and the bird was apparently 

 whole and vigorous. When killed and dis- 

 sected, three weeks afterward, it was found 

 that all of the costal ribs and the scapula 

 had been broken across, but were now sub- 

 stantially healed. The ribs had individually 

 made a good union and there was no anchy- 

 losis among them, and the blade of the 

 scapula, though not perfect, was in essen- 

 tially as good a condition as ever; the whole 

 constituting a case of " a fearful wound with 

 a truly magnificent recovery." The buzzard, 

 besides having been shot, had been kicked 

 about by the soldiers, " and was more dead 

 than alive." It had recovered, and could fly 

 well in about a week, when it was killed. 

 The union of the bones was complete and 

 firm, and a mass of callus was being rapidly 

 absorbed at the sides of the fracture, while 

 the bones had remained practically straight. 

 From this and other cases within his expe- 

 rience, the author is convinced that, in case 

 of fractures of the bones of the wings in 

 birds, the good unions that result with 



