192 



NATURE 



[December 20, 1900 



Table I. — Relative Impurity as Estimated by Permangana'e. 



Raw sewage deprived 

 its suspended matter 



on 



Effluent from chemicall 



treatment / 



Effluent from single bac-T 



terial treatment / 



Effluent from double bac-\ 



terial treatment ... ...J 



River water (high-tide) ... 



„ „ (low-tide) ... 



3-696 



3*070 

 1799 



0-550 

 0429 



Percentage purifica- 

 tion calculated on 

 clear raw sewage. 



(10) The bacteriological condition of the effluent corresponds 

 in the main with that of the raw sewage. The total number of 

 bacteria undergoes some reduction in the coke-beds, but the 

 different kinds of bacteria which were present in the sewage are 

 still represented in the effluent. 



(11). The introduction of such a sewage effluent into the lower 

 Thames is unobjectionable. The river water at the points where 

 the effluent is discharged is uniformly muddy ; it is always 

 brackish and frequently salt to taste, owing to the presence of 

 tidal sea water. It is, therefore, not capable of being used for 

 drinking purposes. The effluent would certainly cause no de- 

 posit upon the river bed, and would ordinarily tend to render 

 the muddy river water more clear by mixing with it. No 

 offensive smell would be emitted by the effluent as it is dis- 

 charged into the river. And, although the effluent contains 

 more organic matter than the river water does, the bacteria 

 which it contains would slowly and inoffensively remove this 

 organic matter from the effluent after it has been introduced 

 into the river. The effluent would be suitable for the mainten- 

 ance of healthy fish-life. 



A PRE-COLUMBIAN SCANDINA VIAN COLONY 

 IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



''PHE evidence in favour of a partial settlement of Massa- 

 ■*• chusetts by Scandinavians is gradually accumulating, and 

 in the current number of the American Anthropologist (New 

 Series, vol. ii., p. 550), Mr. Gerard 

 Fowke adduces new observations. He 

 says, few persons living among the 

 evidences of Norse occupancy have 

 ever paid any particular attention to 

 them, taking for granted that they are 

 the work of the earlier generations of 

 English inhabitants of the region. 

 Those who give more than a passing 

 thought to these objects of unknown 

 origin can see at once that many features 

 connected with them not only would 

 have been unsuitable for any of the 

 necessities of the latter people, as they 

 were then compelled to live, but could 

 not have been turned to any practical 

 use when completed. Such a conclu- 

 sion is followed at once by the inference 

 that they must pertain in some way to 

 the social customs in vogue among the 

 American Indians ; but it does not 

 require an extended acquaintance with 

 aboriginal remains to convince an 

 observer of the error of this in- 

 ference, the two classes of works being 

 entirely different in many of their most 

 distinctive characters. 



Peculiar to the valley of the Charles 

 river are the hut-sites excavated in the 

 hillsides with their rows or piles of boul- 

 ders to afford a resting place or foundation for the walls of the 

 structures ; the ditches that extend with practically a water level 

 along the slopes of the hills ; the dams that obstruct the river and 

 many of its tributaries on both sides ; the artificial islands walled 

 or protected with stones ; the stone walls along the margin 



of the streams, between high and low tide — none of these has a 

 counterpart in any known works which can be attributed to 

 Indian habits and life. Of very different character are the 

 extensive earthworks in the bottom-lands ; the hill-top fortifica- 

 tions of earth and stone ; the immense tumuli of earth or stone, 

 or both combined ; and the huge flat-topped mounds of the 

 Mississippi valley, erected by the Indian tribes popularly known 

 as " mound-builders." 



Remains of rectangular houses with very thick walls composed 

 of stones and turf have been found of a size sufficient to accom- 

 modate several families in the old Scandinavian fashion. The 

 long-houses of the Iroquois and some of the larger houses built 





 0: 





FftOf/K rAC'f^O NCA/iLY SOurM 



Fig. 1. 



-House-site above Sibley's, on opposite side of swamp, near 

 Massachusetts Central Railway. 



by the Chippewa had the same general form, but with that the 

 resemblance ceases. No foundation was necessary in the Indian 

 house, and it was made principally or entirely of wood and bark. 

 Similarly, nothing at all of Indian origin is known like the cot or 

 hillside huts, of which a number have been examined. These 

 are made by digging back into a sloping surface until a level 

 floor of the desired area is formed ; sometimes stones were placed 

 around the sides, in one case (Fig i) walls of stone and turf 

 were built along the sides. There are indications that such 

 places were covered with timber on which earth was piled. 

 Near East Watertown is a large natural depression or " kettle- 



Fig. 



Supposed Nor se grave at Clematis Brook, Charles River, Massachusetts. 



hole." Around two-thirds of the circumference of this, artificial 

 terraces have been constructed, apparently to furnish seats from 

 which spectators might view the exercises or ceremonies 

 which piesumably took place on the enclosed level area at 

 the bottom. Somewhat more than a mile south of this " amphi- 



NO. 1625, VOL. 63] 



