56o 



NA TURE 



{April 17, 1890 



able to support them and their progeny without great difficulty. 

 Now a little consideration will show that the longer the life and 

 the slower the reproduction of the trees, the greater will be 

 the contrast. If the plant infested by the borers had been an 

 annual herb, it might have contrived to perfect its seeds, and 

 the death of the old stem would be but a natural and inevitable 

 process, and fresh plants might have been produced in suffi- 

 cient numbers to continue the species in spite of all insect- 

 attacks.. But in the case of trees — oak-trees especially, the rate 

 of growth and reproduction is such that, unless the insect-borers 

 can live in galls, they will destroy the plants entirely, and 

 themselves in consequence. Indeed, I have no doubt, that if 

 all the gall-makers now existing could suddenly be transformed 

 into stem-borers, the genera Querctis, Rosa, and Salix, now so 

 dominant, would shortly disappear from off the face of the earth. 

 The other hypothesis — here assuming that the production of 

 galls is due more to the tree than the insect — is this. Suppose 

 an oak-tree with four branches, all attacked by internal- feeding 

 insects. Two of the branches produce swellings in which the 

 insects live, while the other two produce none, and the insects 

 have to devour the vital parts. Now the two branches which 

 produced no swellings would quickly be killed by the insects, 

 but those which produced galls would live, and the more 

 perfect the galls, the greater the insect-population they would be 

 able to support. Hence the tree would finally, by the survival 

 of its gall-producing branches, become purely gall-producing, 

 and we may assume that its progeny would inherit the pecu- 

 liarity. 



I am aware that the above arguments will sound a little like 

 those of the Irishman, who said he ought not to be hanged, be- 

 cause, "in the first place, he did not kill the man; in the 

 second place, he killed him by accident; and thirdly, he killed 

 him in self-defence," — but I do not represent either of the 

 above hypotheses as the precise truth of the matter, and I think 

 they sufficiently illustrate the principles involved. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



West Cliff, Custer Co., Colorado, March 16. 



On the Use of the Edison Phonograph in the Preserva- 

 tion of the Languages of the American Indians. 



The present state of perfection of the Edison phonograph led 

 me to attempt some experiments with it on our New England 

 Indians, as a means of preserving languages which are rapidly 

 becoming extinct. I accordingly made a visit to Calais, Maine, 

 and was able, through the kindness of Mrs. VV. Wallace Brown, 

 to take upon the phonograph a collection of records illustrating 

 the language, folk-lore, songs, and counting-out rhymes of the 

 Passamaquoddy Indians, My experiments met with complete 

 success, and I was able not only to take the records, but also to 

 take them so well that the Indians themselves recognized the 

 voices of other members of the tribe who had spoken the day 

 before. 



One of the most interesting records which was made was the 

 song of the snake dance, sung by Noel Josephs, who is recog- 

 nized by the Passamaquoddies as the best acquainted of all with 

 this song "of old time." He is always the leader in the dance, 

 and sang it in the same way as at its last celebration. 



I also took upon the same wax cylinder on which the im- 

 pressions are made his account of the dance, including the 

 invitation which precedes the ceremony. 



In addition to the song of the snake dance I obtained on the 

 phonograph an interesting "trade song," and a "Mohawk war 

 song "which is very old. Several other songs were recorded. 

 Many very interesting old folk-tales were also taken. In some 

 of these there occur ancient songs with archaic words, imitation 

 of the voices of animals, old and young. An ordinary conversa- 

 tion between two Indians, and a counting-out rhyme, are among 

 the records made. ' 



I found the schedules of the United States Bureau of Ethno- 

 logy of great value in my work, and adopted the method of 

 giving Passamaquoddy and English words consecutively on the 

 cylinders. 



The records were all numbered, and the announcement of the 

 subject made on each in English. Some of the stories filled 

 several cylinders, but there was little difficulty in making the 

 changes necessary to pass from one to the other, and the Indians, 

 after some practice, were able to "make good records" in the 

 instrument. Thirty-six cylinders were taken in all. One apiece 

 is sufficient for most of the songs and for many of the short 

 stories. The longest story taken was a folk-tale, which occupies 



nine cylinders, about " Podump " and " Pook-jin-Squiss," the 

 "Black Cat and the Toad Woman," which has never been 

 published. In a detailed report of my work with the phono- 

 graph in preserving the Passamaquoddy language, I hope to give 

 a translation of this interesting story. 



Boston, U.S.A., March 20. J. Walter Fewkes. 



Solar Halos and Parhelia. 



A magnificent display of solar halos and parhelia was 

 witnessed here this afternoon, exceeding in beauty and brilliancy 

 that observed on January 29, 1890, and described in Nature, 

 February 6, p. 330. 



The phenomenon was similar to the one of January 29, 

 except that the mock suns were distinctly outside the first circle 

 or halo, at a distance of 5° or 6°, and were when first seen 

 at 3 p.m. aboz'e the level of the true sun ; a handkerchief stretched 

 at arm's length from one to the other gave the blurred image of 

 the sun several degrees lower. 



At 3.49 the patch of white light appeared about 90° from the 

 right mock sun and connected to it with a curved band of white 

 light, concave side upwards. The right mock sun must then 

 have been below the level of the sun, as the band appeared to 

 pass upwards through it to the sun. This band only remained 

 a few minutes ; the right sun and zenith arc at the time were 

 most intensely brilliant, with the colours exceptionally clear and 

 vivid. The zenith arc, and the patch of white light, were the 

 last to disappear at 4. 22, 



The cirro-stratus cloud during and after the display was 

 rapidly advancing from the north, 



Driffield, April 9, J. Lovell. 



Cambridge Anthropometry. 



I have read with much interest, in Nature of March 13 

 (p. 450), Mr. Venn's very interesting article on anthropometry 

 at Cambridge. 



There is in his tables one rather peculiar feature, of which I 

 fiad no notice taken in the text. It will be seen on reference to 

 the tables that, while the other physical characteristics increase 

 from A to B, and from B to C (weight and height being irregular, 

 however), the breath is highest in A, less in B, and least in C ; 

 thus falling with the intellectual fall. 



It is true that the difference in this as in most of the other 

 characteristics is so slight as to be — as Mr. Venn says — 

 practically negligible ; but still the fact that this should steadily 

 fall instead of rising with the other physical characteristics 

 strikes me as peculiar. I should be glad therefore to hear if 

 Mr. Venn has any comment to make on this phenomenon, or 

 any explanation thereof to suggest. F. H. P, C, 



April 4. 



A Remarkable Meteor. 



On Thursday, April 10, at 10.40 p.m., I observed a meteor 

 of extraordinary brilliancy shoot from a point just east of i8 

 Leonis. It travelled over about 10° in a north-westerly direction, 

 and was visible for fully two seconds. Its apparent diameter, as 

 nearly as I can judge, was about a quarter of that of the full 

 moon ; its colour, a very vivid pale green. J. Dunn. 



Much Marcle, Herefordshire, April li. 



Earthworms from Pennsylvania. 



Nearly twenty years ago, a very aberrant earthworm was 

 described by a French naturalist, who obtained it from Pennsyl- 

 vania. I should be greatly indebted to any naturalists or travel- 

 lers who may find themselves in that part of the United States, 

 if they would collect some of these worms and send them to me. 

 The most convenient mode of transmission would be to pack 

 the living worms in moist earth with moss or grass, in a tin box 

 perforated at one end : this should be inclosed in a wooden box. 

 Both small and large worms should be collected : some might be 

 preserved in strong spirit, but living specimens would be the 

 most useful. W. Blaxland Benham. 



University College, London, April 10. 



Crystals of Lime. 

 Since the appearance of my letter on this subject (p, 515) I 

 have found that similar crystals have been recently observed ' 

 Mr. J. Joly, and were described by him in the Proceedings j 

 the Royal Dublin Society, vol. vi. p. 255. H, A. MlERS.] 



