January 7, 1892 J 



NATURE 



235 



ty Dr. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the Department, in which 

 are shown the chemical composition of maize, and its relative 

 value for food purposes in comparison with other cereals- 

 There is also a chapter, prepared by the assistant statistician, 

 Mr. B. W. Snow, under the direction of the statistician, offering 

 some additional observations as to the possibility of extending 

 the use of this cereal among the people of Europe as a human 

 food, and presenting a number of statistical tables showing the 

 yield and value of the American corn crop. 



An important Bulletin on the forest and mineral wealth of 

 Brazil has lately been issued by the Bureau of the American 

 "Republics. The forests of Brazil abound in woods of great value, 

 some of the finest of which are said to be entirely unknown in 

 Europe. With regard to mineral resources, Brazil is not less 

 fortunate. Scientific explorers have found great deposits of coal 

 and iron, and have also proved that the country possesses 

 copper, manganese, and argentiferous lead ore. There are also 

 mines of gold and diamonds. Diamonds are co-extensive with 

 the gold deposits, and, like that metal, are most abundant in 

 Minas Geraes, where they have been found since 1789. The 

 most important locality known for the production of these gems 

 is the district of Diamantina, in the above-named State. They 

 are found in Parana, in the gravels of the River Tibagy, and in 

 the bed of streams dry during the summer. Since the discovery 

 of diamonds at the Cape of Good Hope, the Brazilian produc- 

 tion has greatly diminished. As regards iron, the State of 

 Minas Geraes abounds with it. Tt is not found in veins or 

 strata, buried deep in the earth, but in enormous beds, often 

 lying at the surface, or in mountain masses. These vast deposits 

 are worked only by small scattered furnaces, charcoal being 

 used in the reduction of the ore. Of these small furnaces there 

 are five groups, producing about 3000 tons annually, the pro- 

 duct being used in the surrounding districts in the manufacture 

 of articles of home consumption, such as hoes, shovels, picks, 

 drills, nails, horseshoes, &c. In the State of San Paulo are 

 found deposits similar to the best Norwegian ore ; and one of 

 the mines is worked by the Government establishment near the 

 village of Sorocaba. This establishment has two furnaces, and 

 produced in one year about 790 tons of pig-iron. The ore has 

 about 67 per cent, of iron. In Santa Caterina, not far from a 

 harbour accessible to the largest vessels, are vast deposits of 

 haematite, containing, on an average, 30 per cent, of manganese, 

 and 20 to 30 per cent, of iron. In the State of Goyaz, as in 

 Minas Geraes, are found enormous masses of the ore itaberite. 



Prof. George H. Williams contributes to the latest of the 

 Johns Hopkins University Circulars an interesting account of 

 a geological excursion in Maryland by students of that Uni- 

 versity in May 1891. The land area of Maryland is approxi- 

 mately 10,000 square miles, which may be in round numbers 

 divided between the three topographically and geologically 

 distinct provinces as follows : (i) Central Maryland, called the 

 Piedmont Plateau, with 3000 square miles between the Catoctin 

 Mountain on the west and a line drawn from Washington to 

 Wilmington on the east, exhibits a gently rolling country of 

 moderate elevation and relief. This is composed of the most 

 ancient and contorted rocks — highly crystalline toward the east, 

 and semi-crystalline toward the west. (2) Western Maryland, 

 or the Appalachian Mountain province, embracing the 2000 

 square miles west of Catoctin Mountain. This region is formed 

 of the entire sequence of Palaeozoic strata thrown into a series 

 of regular folds or undulations. (3) Eastern and Southern 

 Maryland, belonging to the coastal plain, has about 5000 

 square miles of undisturbed and unconsolidated strata, in nearly 

 horizontal position, and representing the accumulations from the 

 Jurassic to the present. In the course of each year an effort 

 is made to give students of geology at the Johns Hopkins 

 NO. II 58, VOL. 45] 



University a practical acquaintance with the petrography, 

 palaeontology, structure, and topography of each of these three 

 provinces by a series of excursions which are conducted ex- 

 clusively for this purpose. In the excursion in May the route 

 of the party lay along the section through the Appalachian 

 Mountains exposed by the gorge of the Potomac River. 



In the new number of the Internationales Archiv fiir 

 Ethnographie there is a learned and well-arranged paper, by 

 C. M. Pleyte, on the use of the sumpitan and bow in Indonesia. 

 A line may be drawn passing over Flores, to the east of Mang- 

 garai and Buru, to the west of Halma-Lera, and to the east of 

 the Philippines, exactly marking the limit of the use of the bow. 

 To the east of this line the bow is in general use, while to the 

 west it is found only sporadically. A second line traced west- 

 ward of Sumba, eastward of Sumbawa, to the south and east of 

 Celebes, and to the east of the Philippines, marks the limit of 

 the use of the sumpitan, which is found nowhere to the east 

 of it. Between these two lines — on the islands of Sumba, 

 West Flores, Saleyer, Buton, Buru, the Sula Islands, the Bang- 

 gai Archipelago, and the Sangi and Talaut Islands — neither 

 sumpitan nor bow are known. The author points out that 

 these two limits correspond very closely with the line accepted 

 by Dr. Brandes, separating the eastern from the western branch 

 of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. It appears, therefore, 

 that those natives who use the sumpitan form one family in 

 point of language, and that the like is the case with those who 

 use the bow. 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt contributes to the Proceedings of 

 the U.S. National Museum two interesting prints of Havesu-pai 

 Indians. The prints are reproductions of photographs which 

 were taken several years ago by Mr. B. Wittick, formerly a 

 photographer in the employment of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

 The Havesu-pais live in one of the grandest canons in Arizona, 

 occupying their primitive lodges along the bank of the stream 

 that passes through it. They are a dying race, and very little is 

 known about them. The styles of their lodges are well shown 

 by Dr. Shufeldt's plates, which also display the varied costumes 

 of the men, women, and children, and the peculiar forms of 

 their baskets. The fashion in which the hair of the women 

 and girls is "fixed" seems to point to affinities between the 

 Havesu-pai and the Pueblan Indians. 



In the new number of Insect Life, Dr. C. V. Riley 

 directs attention to what he calls a new herbarium pest. In 

 September 1890, a number of small Geometrid larvae were 

 found by the botanists of the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 infesting certain dried plants in the Department herbarium, and 

 especially those which had been received from Mexico and 

 Lower California. The fact that the insect has appeared on dry 

 plants from the comparatively arid western regions may. Dr. 

 Riley thinks, furnish a clue to its original habit. It would seem 

 possible, if not probable, that it normally feeds on the dead or 

 dry plants of Mexico and adjacent arid regions, and that it has 

 simply adapted itself to the somewhat similar conditions prevail- 

 ing in herbaria. It is a new species, and for the present may be 

 placed in the Acidalinae. 



Mr. W. Verner writes to the current number of the 

 Zoologist that the Kentish plover, like the stone curlew, or 

 thickknee, is being rapidly exterminated in the county from 

 which it derives its name, by collectors and so-called "natural- 

 ists," who, with walking-stick guns, in and out of season, 

 destroy all they can approach. "These gentry," says Mr, 

 Verner, "do more harm even than they imagine, for I have 

 come across many small plovers and other birds which have 

 been ineffectually 'peppered,' and have gone away to die. 

 Still oftener I have found nests of the ringed and Kentish 



