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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that this is because there is more dust in 

 them to obscure the view in summer than in 

 winter; but there is no reason why this 

 should be, while the disturbance by convec- 

 tion currents is necessarily much greater in 

 the warm season. M. Spring does not inter- 

 pret his theory as excluding any of the others, 

 but as supplementing them. 



At the Head Waters of the Niger. In the 



expedition to the sources of the Niger, of 

 which Colonel J. K. Trotter recently gave an 

 account before the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, the first station of importance mentioned 

 after leaving Freetown was Kruto, where the 

 chief collected his people and organized a 

 dance in honor of his visitors, himself lead- 

 ing and brandishing an elephant's tail. From 

 a place called Kurubundo, reached several 

 days afterward, there was no road farther 

 on, and the chief set his people to work the 

 whole night to cut a path to a village which 

 the party reached the next day. Descending 

 from the heights at the eastern limits of the 

 British sphere to the Tembi, the travelers 

 entered French territory. The guides here 

 regarded their task as ended, and declined 

 to point out the source of the Tembi, averring 

 that it was the seat of the devil, whom they 

 had no anxiety to meet, though they were 

 devil-worshipers. They believed that any 

 one who looked at the Niger source incurred 

 the wrath of the devil and would die within 

 the year, and they regarded the water as 

 poisonous. Their views concerning the water 

 seemed to be confirmed, but the agency of 

 the devil was not made evident. A marked 

 difference was observed in the aspect of the 

 country in the river valley and outside of it. 

 The part outside of the regular valley was 

 covered with canebrakes ten feet high, yel- 

 low and sun-scorched. The moment the 

 valley was reached the bush was green, the 

 foliage abundant, and the trees were covered 

 with creepers and trailers which constituted 

 formidable obstacles. Such differences are 

 characteristic of West Africa. The commis- 

 sion were disappointed at not finding the ele- 

 vation of the Niger sources higher, 3,379 

 feet being the maximum recorded. The 

 adjacent country was, however, distinctly 

 mountainous, though none of the summits 

 exceeded six thousand feet. The people in 

 whose country this part of the journey lay 



exhibited a great love of music. The ma- 

 jority of them were pagans. Occasionally a 

 Mussulman town was passed, and it was re- 

 markable to observe how far the Mohamme- 

 dans were in advance of the pagans in 

 wealth, comparative civilization, and intelli- 

 gence. The author regarded all the natives 

 of the west coast, in spite of their defects, 

 which are easily apparent and are in general 

 those of a low order of civilization, as very 

 tractable and quite ready to obey the direc- 

 tion of the Europeans. Their best point 

 is their light-heartedness, which indeed he 

 thinks is the bright spot of West Africa. 

 It is a country where the worst jokes never 

 fail to be appreciated, and where one is cer- 

 tain of bringing down the house without any 

 claim to being a wit.' 



The Wastes of Civilization. Improvi- 

 dent Civilization was the subject of the 

 chairman's address by Prof. R. T. Colburn, in 

 the Section of Social and Economic Science 

 of the American Association. Touching the 

 currency question, the speaker observed that 

 when we speak of value, equivalency, wealth, 

 risk, trust, distrust, panic, prosperity, we are 

 dealing not with concrete substances like 

 gold pieces, but with states of mind. Yet 

 these ideas lie at the foundation of commer- 

 cial exchanges and monetary science. " Have 

 any of you ever imagined what would hap- 

 pen if some modern Rosicrucian should suc- 

 ceed in the turning of base metals cheaply 

 into gold ? . . . Such a discovery would in- 

 troduce into the world of commerce, and in- 

 deed into all fiscal relations of men, an ap- 

 palling confusion : first, by a general rise of 

 prices ; and, second, by a dislocation of fixed 

 payments of interest, salaries, and otherwise. 

 Among other curious results we should wit- 

 ness would be a change of side s and tunes 

 between the advocates of the gold and silver 

 standards. . . . The same thing would hap- 

 pen, only more slowly, if a vast deposit of 

 gold were unearthed ; and if, after gold was 

 thus discredited by a practically inexhausti- 

 ble supply, the attempt were made to put 

 silver in its place (the price of which would 

 be enormously enhanced), this state of things 

 would be liable in its turn to be upset by 

 similar discoveries." By precipitating the 

 necessity of inventing some more efficient 

 tool of exchanges, a scientific and more sta- 



