40 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Februaky 1, 1895. 



the general intention of personal ornament. He enumerates 

 seventeen purposes, as follows : — 1, To distinguish between 

 free and enslaved, without reference to the tribe of the 

 latter ; 2, to distinguish a high and low status in the 

 same tribe ; 8, as a certificate of bravery, exhibited by 

 supporting the ordeal of pain ; 4, as marks of personal 

 prowess, particularly ; 5, as a record of achievements in 

 war ; G, to show religious symbols ; 7, as a therapeutic 

 remedy for disease, and 8, as a prophylactic against 

 disease ; 9, as a brand of disgrace ; 10, as a token of a 

 woman's marriage, or sometimes, 11, of her marriageable 

 condition ; 12, identification of the person, not as tribes- 

 man or clansman, but as an individual ; IS, to chai-m the 

 other sex magically ; 14, to inspire fear in the enemy ; 15, 

 to magically render the skin impenetrable by weapons ; 

 16, to bring good fortune, and 17, as the device of a secret 



society. 



— i-*H — 



The ethnologist and sociologist will not fail to recognize 



in some of these conclusions the close relationship between 



customs among people low down in the scale of human 



evolution, and customs, with the necessary variants, among 



people of the highest culture at the present day. It is 



remarkable, too, that there exist tribes or clans of people 



but little advanced from the palteolithic stage, among whom 



tattooing, or face painting, is unknown ; among others, the 



inhabitants of Eossel Island, New Guinea, and some of the 



natives on the north-east mainland. The former do not 



even know the use of pottery, but according to Macgregor 



(oificial despatch, 0323, 1891, p. 197), "the men carry 



sponges to wash their faces," and the latter (1892 



despatch) " wear (many of them) the hair in long, matted 



ringlets, some of the men wear false whiskers." How 



long they wall remain in this primitive state of unpainted 



cleanliness is doubtful. Tattooing (Haddou) " has spread 



to a certain extent among the Papuan hill tribes of the 



Peninsula, the Koitapu women appear to have thoroughly 



followed the fashion of then Motu neighbours." The 



motif here would come under conclusion 13 : "to charm 



the other sex." Its variant among the females of the 



hairy Aino people of Japan at the present day takes the 



form of a painted moustache, which is not impleasing, 



and in varying degrees of artistic, expressive, or necessarily 



lavish application, it can be studied any night to advantage 



when Irving, as the good Hamlet, speaks these words : 



" Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let 



her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come ; 



make her laugh at that." 



— *'*-* — 



Latest advices from America, relating to the progress of 

 the Cataract (Electric) Construction Company's works at 

 Niagara, are of a most encouraging nature. That, with its 

 far-reaching and indeed almost illimitable economic possi- 

 bilities, combined with the recent exploration and descrip- 

 tion of the even greater Hamilton Eiver Falls of Labrador, 

 suggest reflections on the rate of river recession under 

 certain geological conditions. The recession of the Eiver 

 Niagara, from Lake Ontario to the present Falls, has been 

 calculated at the rate of from one to three feet per annum ; 

 in all, thirty-six thousand years. In one of his biological 

 lectures before the Catholic University of America, Dr. 

 Shufeldt, dealing with the subject of river erosion, 

 said : "If the comparatively short and shallow gorge 

 of the Niagara Eiver takes thirty-six thousand years 

 to be carved back to its present site, I beg to leave it to 

 your imagination how long it took the Colorado Eiver to 

 find its present bed, a mQe below the surface of the earth, 

 and for a distance of three hundred miles in length." | 



It is interesting to note that the distance of the Hamilton 

 Eiver Falls is also almost exactly three hundred miles, 

 and taking the Niagara Eiver recession as a basis of calcu- 

 lation, and allowing for differentiations in the varying 

 resisting hardness of rock, kc, penetrated, the time in 

 either instance cannot be intelligibly set down in figures. 



1 ^« 



Intelligence has been received of a fallen " meteoric 

 stone " at Easchanya, Eussia, of " unparalleled dimen- 

 sions," but up to the present no reliable particulars are to 

 hand of the most important factor, namely, its component 

 parts. As in the case of others previously examined, it will 

 probably be found that this new visitant is of the earth 

 earthy. The problem of its original volcanic habitat 

 involves important points, which need not be subject of 

 speculation at the present. 



— I » I 



That Lord Kelvin should have expressed his confidence 

 in the practicabihty and scientific value of the recent 

 discoveries in the production of electricity, otherwise than 

 by the expensive dynamo, by two yoimg Scotchmen, is in 

 itself an important fact. Working on a broad platform of 

 accredited data, these two men have made extensive 

 experiments, and the net result, up to the present, appears 

 to be the discovery of a primary battery in which the 

 decomposition of the zinc plates is rendered much slower, 

 and the chemicals used trivial in value. The strength of 

 the battery thus formed is very greatly increased. If this 

 proves to be the case, it will mean a great increase of 

 power, economy of weight, and reduction of cost, thus 

 putting aside the primary obstacle to the more general use 

 of electricity for public and private " consumption." 



The last Australian mails bring intelligence of the 

 terrible ravages of an insect pest which bids fair to prove 

 as destructive as the rabbits ; but unlike the rabbits, 

 without one solitary redeeming economic virtue. Mr. Box, 

 the entomologist for the Tasmanian Government, has 

 furnished a very able report on the subject, and points out 

 that this underground grub is a moth ; not anything like 

 the May bug, which takes three years to reach maturity. 

 He has called it the " grass grub." The insect matures in 

 one year, and when fully developed covers tbe pasture lands 

 like a plague of locusts. The grass grubs, says Mr. Box, 

 "may be seen flying about irr the evening just after sunset 

 in the months of December and January over the surface 

 of the pasture fields, where they deposit their eggs at the 

 roots of the grass, and where the young grubs can get food 

 immediately they are hatched." He thinks these grubs 

 are hatched "just after the first autumn rains, when they 

 commence to feed upon growing grass and continue to 

 feed all the winter imtil the beginning of spring," thus 

 doing an incalculable amount of damage. His personal 

 observations on the life-habits of this new (?) pest are 

 apparently exact, and will prove interesting to entomolo- 

 gists : — " In the month of June I found them just under 

 the surface of the ground about half an inch long. In July 

 and August they had increased in length to an inch and an 

 inch and a half, burying themselves in the grotmd, and 

 covering their holes with a web, from which they emerge 

 every evening to feed. During the month of September they 

 will eat of tbe grass close to the ground, letting the upper 

 part remain untouched, which causes the fields afifected with 

 them to have a withered appearance. This is generally the 

 time when they are noticed first, but it is in fact the time 

 when they have almost completed their work of destruction. 

 After they have attained their fuU size, which is about two 

 inches in length, they turn to a chrysalis, and then to a 

 brown moth." 



