51 G Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



many of the specimens of pottery discovered displaying considerable 

 taste and skill. 



Dr. Foster concludes that the Mound-Builders were an indus- 

 trious, peaceful, and numerous race, pursuing agriculture as a 

 means of support, maize being their staple article of food ; ruled 

 over by a despotic government, under whose direction their great 

 public monuments were carried out ; and lastly, that their extermi- 

 nation has resulted from the invasion of a less civiHzed but mora 

 vigorous and warlike people. 



3. ASTEONOMY. 



{Including the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society.) 



The successful observation of the eclipse of August 7th is a for- 

 tunate circumstance for science, because it is not likely that either 

 of the two next total eclipses (in 1870 and 1871) will afford a 

 favourable opportunity for observations of the coloured prominences. 

 The eclipse of 1872 will last but a few seconds as a total eclipse, 

 and will only be visible as such over parts of the South Pacific. 



The observations made by the American astronomers leave 

 httle to be desired. The photographs which have been obtained 

 will probably be the best which have hitherto rewarded the exertions 

 of astronomers in the particularly difiicult art of celestial photo- 

 graphy. Major Tennaut at Guntoor, and the German observers at 

 Aden, last year obtained remarkably good photographs of the 

 eclipsed sun ; but the intense heat of the Indian climate added 

 largely to Major Tennant's difficulties, while the observers at Aden 

 had to photograph the prominences soon after sun-rise, when their 

 light was received through the denser atmospheric strata. In the 

 United States all the circumstances were highly favomvable ; and 

 from the known skill of the American astronomers in the art of 

 celestial photography, we may hope for results of the utmost im- 

 portance and scientific value. It is seldom that an eclipse visits 

 astronomers so near tlieir own home as this one did, its track lying 

 close past several of the leading American observatories. 



The most interesting result of the observations, so far as our 

 information as yet extends, is the discovery that the spectrum of 

 the prominences contains several lines more than had hitherto been 

 discovered. M, Kayet last year discovered eight, but some doubt 

 was thrown on his observations by the fact that none of the other 

 astronomers engaged in the spectroseojnc analysis of the prominences 

 saw so many lines. Professor Winlock, observing the recent eclipse 

 at Shelbyville, Kentucky, saw no less than eleven bright lines. 



