DISCOVERY 



47 



the aid of a simple knife with a semi-circular blade 

 attached to a broad wooden handle. It is said that 

 a woman dressed in her best can cut up a seal withoui 

 receiving a single splash of blood. 



" The chief recreation is dancing. I recall out^ 

 evening at Holsteinsborg on the mainland coast when 

 we danced in the open until midnight to the accom- 

 paniment of a concertina played with great skill by a 

 Greenlander. 



" The women, like the men, wear hairy seal-skin 

 trousers, but the women adorn theirs with a band of 

 white or coloured skin on the front of each leg ; the 

 boots, made of seal-skin from which the fur has been 

 removed, reach to the knees ; thej- are usually white 

 or bright scarlet and decorated with some geometrical 

 pattern made by sewing strips and small pieces of 

 coloured skin to the front and top of the boots. The 

 native boots, known as kammiker, are double ; into 

 the outer covering of seal-skin fits an inner boot of 

 dog-skin with the hair next the leg ; some dried 

 grass is placed between the two soles. The outer sole, 

 made of the skin of the Greenland seal, is turned up 

 all round the edge and very skilfully stitched to the 

 upper part of the boot, made of the skin of another 

 kind of seal (Phoca hispida). The skin of the sole is 

 first chewed by the women to soften it before being 

 stitched with sinews of whale or reindeer. The kam- 

 miker are very comfortable and warm ; their soft soles, 

 which are kept in good condition by being frequently 

 drawn backwards and forwards over a metal edge, 

 are admirabl}' adapted for walking over smooth, 

 slippery rocks, and the\^ are water-tight. Above the 

 trousers the women wear a broad belt and a blouse, 

 both made of some brightly coloured material, and on 

 special occasions an elaborate home-made collar of 

 open beadwork over the shoulders. The once pre- 

 valent custom among the women of gathering up the 

 hair into a short column on the top of the head is 

 dying out, but it is still seen, especially in the smaller 

 settlements. A red band round the top-knot is the 

 badge of a maid ; blue denotes a married woman ; 

 black a widow, and green an unmarried woman who 

 is a mother." 



UXDEl^GROUND LOXDO.X 



In his book entitled Man as a Geological Agent (H. F. 

 & G. Witherby, 20s.), Dr. R. L. Sherlock has de- 

 veloped an unusual field of knowledge by showing how 

 extensively man has altered the surface of the earth. 

 Amongst a vast amount of other important information, 

 he gives the following details concerning the enormous 

 excavations beneath London : " We find the excava- 

 tion," he says, " within the City and County of London 

 to be as follows : 



Cubic yds. 



From wells and borings ..... 70,500 



The main intercepting and storm -water sewers . 14,000.000 



The tube railways (to 1914) .... 7.143,000 



The Inner Circle ...... 4,119,000 



The Great Central Railway, Marylebone to Can- 

 field Gardens, surplus excavation . . . 540,000 

 The remaining railways ; cuttings and tunnels . 30,359,000 

 The Greenwich Footway — ^the Rotherhithe and 



Blackwall Tunnels ..... 513.967 



The Mctoria, Albert and Chelsea Embankments . 336.000 

 Docks, drains, foundations of buildings, etc., at 



least ........ 3.000,000 



ToT.\i. . . 50,081,467 

 Say . . . 50,000,000 



" Spread uniformly over the 116-9 square miles of 

 the Administrative County of London, the average 

 excavation would amount to about 3I in. The excava- 

 tions under London do not produce subsidence, as is 

 the case with mining operations, because the ground 

 is carefully supported b\' engineering structures. The 

 underground excavations, therefore, are spaces fiUed 

 with air or water. There may, howe\-er, be a small 

 amount of subsidence due to the slipping of gravelly 

 foundations under weighty buildings, as is said to be 

 the case at St. Paul's, and also to the solution of chalk 

 by the water pumped from borings." 



THEATRICALS IN TIBET 

 An' interesting account of a typical feast conducted by 

 Tibetans in celebration of the seventh day of the moon 

 is given by Mr. Eric Teichman in his recently published 

 book. Travels of a Consular Offlzer in Eastern Tibet 

 (Cambridge Uaiversit}- Press, 25s.). The author found 

 himsslf statioasd in Western China whan hostilities 

 broke out between Chinese and Tibetans on the border 

 in 1918, and acted as mediator between the local 

 frontier leaders on both sides. In the course of his 

 activities he reached and stayed at Chamdo, in Eastern 

 Tibet, in July and August. The festival started on 

 August 8, and opened with a theatrical performance ; 



" On the first day a theatrical performance was held, 

 starting at eight in the morning and finishing at dusk. 

 The stage was an open piece of ground in front of the 

 Kalon Lama's Iftouse and the players were Tibetan 

 soldiers. We \\-atched the pla\' from the windows of 

 the Kalon Lama's apartment, conversing and consum- 

 ing light refreshments between the morning and evening 

 banquets. The players refreshed themselves at fre- 

 quent intervals with copious draughts of chang provided 

 by the Kalon's stewards ; so that their acting became 

 more and more energetic as the day wore on. 



" Tibetan plays are either religious or lay. Of the 

 former, which are performed by lamas and are often 

 called Devil Dances by foreigners, the commonest is 

 the ' Dance of the Black Hat,' illustrating the killing 

 of the notorious persecutor of Buddhism, King Lang- 



