104 
POPULAIl SCIENCE NEWS. 
[July, 1S90. 
Since tlie death of Mr. Lindsay, and the subse- 
quent withdrawal of a number of our members, the 
active membership has practically been reduced to 
four. Our plan of work has consequently been 
somewhat modified. Tlie subsequent " talks" were : 
fiiiio 7, — I.. L. Culvert, " ninV:rciu-t-s Hctwccn 0?'i4:uiic :in<I 
1 1101 gallic Mutter." 
June 25— C. T. Westeott, " Transforniatuins of Insects;" 
F. G. loiies, "Assimilation in Animals;" I*. P. Calvert, 
" Viscera of a Kield-Mouse." 
September 24 — P. P. Calvert, "Characters fr}r Classifying 
Draj^on-Flies." 
October S— C. T. Wcsteott, " Winjjs of Lepiiloptcni; " P. P. 
Calvert, " Intestines of a Shrew-Mole; " I^. I... Calvert, "Hail- 
storm of October 1st." 
Novcniher 19— I'". G. Jones, " Karvokinetic Changes," 
Decemlvir 17 — P. P. Calvtal, " iliological Notes on the Cell." 
January 21, 1S90 — 1'^. G. )oTies, " liacteria Cultures and Spe- 
cific (.""liaracters of Ilacteria." 
February iS — F. G. Jones exhibited tubes containinj^ yeast 
cultures. P. P. Calvert, "A Unique Anatomical Peculiarity 
of the Male Dragon-Fly." 
A number of these "talks" have been illustrated 
with crayon sketches and specimens. On October 
22, 1S89, '" consequence of the. little time for scien- 
tific work possessed by ineinbers, the number 
of meetings was clianged froin two to one each 
month. — Philip P. Calvert, Sec. 
No reports are requited from our Chapters 
during the vacation montlis August and Sep- 
tember ; but the reports of the Eighth Cen- 
tury (Chapters 701 -Soo) should reach the 
President l)efo re October i. There ;ire, liow- 
ever, a number of Chapters whose reports 
are overdue, and a few from whom no word 
has been received this year. It is hoped that 
all such will comiTiunicate at once with the 
President, as it is important that he be 
informed of the condition of every Chapter. 
"Better late than never." 
All are cordially invited to iniite with the 
Agassiz Association. Printed blanks for 
application and descriptive circulars are fur- 
nished free on application. Address all 
communications intended for this department 
to Mr. IIaulan H. ]3allari), Pittsfield, 
Mass. 
[Written for "The Out-Door World."] 
PILE-DWELLERS. 
liY UILIIORNE T. CRESSON, 
0/ the Agasniz Association. 
Prois.mu.v the earliest mention known to scien- 
tists of the present day concerning pile-dwelling 
people and their habitations, is that made by the 
great Queen llatasu, who ruled in Egypt among 
the sovereigns of the eighteenth dynasty. Along 
the side of the third terrace of Ilatasu's temple of 
Deyr-el-Bahree, she caused to be graven for the 
information of posterity an account of an expedi- 
tion to Pun-t, a locality, the site of which is sup- 
posed at the present day to be the South Arabiati 
and Soumalian coasts, as far south as Cape Garda- 
fui. The enterprise of the Egyptian queen was 
undertaken, according to inscriptions, for the exten- 
sion of commerce and increase of gold to fill the 
royal colTers. It would be interesting to give a 
detailed description of the sailors, ships, and 
precious freights described by Ilatasu's sculptors, 
but in this brief article reference can only be made 
to the representation of a village built upon piles 
by the natives of Pun-t. 
The huts are conical in shape, raised on beams, 
with ladders leading from the surface of the tnarsh 
to the platform above. An animal resembling the 
ox reposes underneath some trees ; turtles .and fishes 
swiin in the water below the habitation, leading us 
to suppose that it was in a country subject to inun- 
dation, or, perhaps, a village built over water, and 
accessible by gangways froiri the shore. 
Herodotus, at a much later date, tViakes mention 
of pile-dwelling people. This fact has frequently 
been alluded to liy well-known German and French 
arclueologists, so that a quotation from the "father 
of history" will not be necessary. A few years ago, 
remains of pile-dwellings were discovered in the 
lakes of Switzerland, and, later on, crannoge struc- 
tures atnong the mai-shes of Scotland and Ireland. 
Full accounts of these discoveries may be read in 
Keller's admirable work upon the lake-dwellers of 
Europe. 
People in other portions of the globe, far removed 
from the localities just mentioned, in a like manner 
have erected their dwellings over the water and on 
tracts of land subject to inundations. The early 
Spanish-American historians tell us of the pile- 
dwellings of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan, — the latter 
pueblo built half on land, — also Ayotzinco, founded 
entirely on piles, and having canals instead of 
streets. It is not improbable that the bell-shaped 
huts of Coquib.acoa on the Gulf of Venzuela, and 
remarked by Alonzo de Ojeda when he visited that 
coast in 1499, may have resembled the conical huts 
shown to lis in Qiieen Ilatasu's picture. Villages 
of pile-dwelling people still exist over the bays, 
lakes, rivers, and marshes of the northern portion 
of South America, the little children, in some cases, 
being secured by ropes from falling into the water, 
just as Herodotus describes the custom in his day in 
the Old World. 
Pile-dwellers have been remarked in Polynesia 
and New Guinea; other instances, also, might be 
quoted, but the reader who tnay be especially inter- 
ested is referred to any well-appointed library for 
further information upon the subject. 
A yet more primitive style of habitation is seen 
where huts have been erected on platforiris lashed 
to the trunks and branches of trees. The tree- 
dwellings of the (juaranos, a tribe living in the 
swamps of the Orinoco delta, and the dobo houses 
of the natives of New Giiinea, alTord us instances 
of this kind of architecture, which may originally 
have suggested the pile-dwellings. 
E. F. von Thurm, the scientist and traveller, 
mentions some huts on piles, built on hilltops far 
inland, in salubrious districts. A brief quotation 
in regard* to these structures m.ay be interesting: 
"It is a noteworthy fact that the platform on which 
the house stands is — as in the ease of the Warrau* 
houses — made of the .stems and branches of the 
manicole palm (Kiiterpe Oleracea), though this 
moisture-loving palm is \cry locally distributed in 
the savannah region. The Indians fetch it from 
long distances, although other apparently equally 
suitable material is near at hand. It is probable 
that these .savannah pile-dwellers revert to a form 
of house which they had seen and perhaps u.sed on 
the coast when they first reached the mainland from 
the islands." The native savannah tribes live in 
dwellings of totally different construction^ and it 
may be what F. Gamier calls the "instinct of a 
particular race" that proinpted pile-dwelling tribes 
who have migrated inland to build their houses on 
the highlands in the same inanner as they did of old 
in the swamps. They even use the same kind ol 
timber m the new regions as they did when inhabit- 
ing inundated districts, though long vo3'.ages are 
necessary to obtain it. 
*A native pile-<lwellini4 Iribe <tf' Guiana, occu]>ying the north- 
ernmost part of the coast reyion l<»\vai'd the sr)urce of the 
Orinoco. 
The dwellings of tribes that lived in the swamp 
region on the lower Mississippi were elevated on 
mounds of earth above the marsh-land on which 
they stood. This is but a step froin the pile-dwell- 
ing proper. Timber, in all probability, was scarce, 
and less labor, at all events, was required to throw 
up a substructure of earth than to fell trees witli 
tools of flint. 
After reading about the stock.ided Indian towns, 
surrounded by canals^fillcd with water, noticed by 
early explorers in ditVerent parts of what are now 
our Southern and Western States, one cannot bul 
recall the crannoge strongholds of the Irish anil 
Scotch lakes. Some of our pre-historic North 
American people at one time seem to have ap- 
proached a stage of development in culture akin to 
that of the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age in 
Europe. Prof Putinan, in speaking of remains 
excavated by him frotu the celebrated ash-pits near 
Madison, Ohio, recalls their reseiublance to the speci- 
mens in the Peabody Museum from the Swiss lakes. 
In conclusion, it luay be interesting to add that 
the Seminole Indians of Florida seem to have 
acquired the habit of elevating their dwellings 
upon piles. Letters are on file in tlie Peabodv 
Museutn, speaking of these peculiarities, which were 
noticed by their writer during the first Florida war. 
Most of these Seminole pile-habitations were, how- 
ever, on elevated ground above the swamps. The 
only case known where they stood over water is 
that of a collection of huts on Muskito lagoon, 
Volusia County, Florida, seen by the late F. Gurney 
Smith, while on a hunting excursion in 1849- Tiger- 
Tail, a well-known chief of the Seminoles, stated to 
Lieutenant Smith that hi^ people had been in the 
habit of building their huts on piles for many gen- 
erations, so that they need not have the trouble of 
changing their habitations during the wet season, 
or when they found it was desirable to locate iti 
swampy districts or on lake sides, where game and 
fish were plenty. He also said that he had been 
told by an aged relative that they had learned to do 
this from their relatives, the Cranes, (probably 
ancient names of geiites or clans, ^given to them 
through their totems), who caine from the lakes of 
a country in the distant Northwest. The prevailing 
idea that the Seminoles erect their huts upon pile- 
ends to prevent the hogs and dogs (which abouiul 
around their huts) from entering is, therefore, unten- 
able. Colonel Abert, of Kentucky, a soldier in the 
first P'lorida campaign, has furnished the writer of 
this article with sketches of Seminole pile-dwellings, 
the houses of which are square. He inentions llial 
Major Ilearne, of the U. S. Army (retired), now 
living in Frankfort, Kentucky, saw round pile-huls 
(five or six in number) at Bow-Legs-Town, south- 
east of Fort Myers, on the Coloosahalchie River. 
CuEMicAL NoMisNCLATURE. — At the International 
Congress of Chemistry, recently held in Paris, M. 
Berthelot declared that theories were not to be con- 
sidered, but only practical questions, such as relati' 
to analytical methods and nomenclature. The lasl, 
he said, urgently needs revision and improvement. 
The system hitherto followed has become insiilll- 
cient. So many new compounds have been discov- 
ered, that they are bursting through the frames 
formerly intended and thought wide enough to con- 
tain them. This is especially true of the hydrocar- 
bons and the numberless substituted azo-compounds 
<lerived from coal distillation products, and used in 
pharmacy and the arts. We cannotcontinue adding 
syllables and thus forming endless names for new 
combinations. A new and clearer system is now 
Iiecomc absolutely necessary, and it should be one 
with lines broad enough to last for some generations 
at least. 
