468 
Section F,—EcoNoMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 
On the Aptitude of North American Indians for Agri- 
culture.—James Heywood, M.A., F.R.S. Indian Reservations 
in Canada are under the control of the Secretary of State 
at Ottawa. Mr. W. Spragge, Deputy-Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs, presents annually to the Secretary of State 
a report on the Canadian settlements of Indians. The Six 
Nations Indians in the Tuscarora reserve, near Brantford, on 
Grand River, in the province of Ontario, form the most important 
settlement of aborigines in Canada. Their reservation comprises 
55,000 acres, surrounded on all sides by thriving communities of 
white settlers. The Indian population of this reserve amounts 
to about 3,000 persons, including 2,800 of the Six Nations, and 
about 200 of the Mississaguas, or Ojibbeways, located near the 
river New Credit, at the southern extremity of the Tuscarora 
reserve. According to a report of Commissioners, appointed by 
Sir Edmund Head, Governor-General of Canada, in 1856, the 
Six Nations Indians were settled in the Tuscarora reserve, by 
Mr. Thorburn, the Commissioner, in ‘‘ farm lots, averaging 100 
acres each by actual survey.” ‘The total clearing of the Tusca- 
rora reserve ‘‘ amounted in 1856, to 7348 acres, more than half 
of which had been done by the Indians themselves, the remainder 
having been chopped by squatters, who had been removed from 
the land.” ‘‘ Most of these squatters were compensated for their 
improvements to the amount of more than 8,000/., paid from the 
funds of the Six Nations Indians.” The Commissioners of 1856 
report that the Six Nations Indians cultivate on their reserve 
“separate farms, and each is secure in his possession from the 
other Indians on the lot he occupies. His heirs inherit his im- 
provements, but the soil belongs to the Six Nations in common. 
The Indian has no right of transferring his portion of land to 
another. The revenue of the Six Nations Indians amounts to 
39,489 dollars annually.’ Besides the two Schools in the 
New Credit district, maintained by the Indian bands of that 
locality, there are in the portion of the Tuscarora reserve 
inhabited by the Six Nations, eight Schools, principally 
supported by the New England Company, a Londen corpora- 
tion, formed under the Commonwealth, whose funds are 
devoted to the extension of civilisation and Christianity among 
the aborigines in British Colonies, and especially in Canada. Mr. 
Henry Lister, a member of the New England Company, visited 
the Tuscarora reserve in 1868, and reported of the Six Nations 
Indians that their chief crops were ‘* wheat, Indian corn, oats, 
and hay.”” Most of the Indian houses in this reserve, Mr. Lister 
described as “cottages of one or two rooms, built of boards or 
logs, and usually heated by a stove. There is not a single 
village,” Mr. Lister remarks, ‘‘ on the reserve ; each house stands 
in its own lot of about 50 acres.” An agricultural society was 
formed in 1868, among the Six Nations Indians of the Grand 
River, at an annual subscription of one dollar (about four shillings), 
for each member, and their first show was held on the 15th of 
October, 1868, on a farm within the reserve. The policy 
hitherto pursued in Canada, with regard to Indians, has been 
to induce them by means of small annuities to remain, to a 
great extent, as residents in the Indian reservations of the 
Dominion to which their lands or settlements may respectively 
belong. According to the Rev. Edward R. Roberts, missionary 
to the New England Company at Chemong, near Peterborough, 
in Canada, the province of Ontario was ‘‘ divided into districts, 
with reference to the Indians. The land of each district was 
valued ata certain rate per acre, and the interest of the aggregate 
sum was paid half-yexrly to the Indians included in that district, 
which constituted their annuity. And, in addition, each band of 
Indians had a reserve of land in a particular locality for their 
settlement. The aggregate annuity of the several bands,” Mr. 
Roberts observes, ‘‘remains the same, whatever changes by 
death, birth, or emigration may take place. Ifa band of Indians 
becomes less in number, those who remain receive proportionably 
more annnity. While, however, an individual Indian (or family) 
ceases to receive his annuity from the fund appropriated to the 
band he leaves, he may be received into another band, by appli- 
cation, and a vote of the people; but as such an accession to 
their numbers diminishes their individual annuity by allowing 
others to share it, an application of this sort is seldom acceded to, 
as might be expected.” 
Section G.—MECHANICAL SCIENCE 
On the Extent to which existing Works and Practice militate 
against the profitable Utilisation of Sewage.—Mr. J. Bailey 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 6, 1870 
Denton, M. Inst. C.E, The author stated that, notwithstanding 
the great amount of attention devoted by chemists and other 
scientific persons during the last twenty-five years to the treat- 
ment of sewage, the general opinion arrived at now is that the 
refuse of towns can only be made to give up its fertilising 
elements by transporting it direct to the land either by the 
agency of matter or earth. In support of this view he made two 
quotations from the reports prepared by the Rivers’ Pollution 
Committee of Inquiry. It is generally admitted that wherever 
people are congregated, and a number of dwellings exist to- 
gether, it is not possible to provide for the largely increasing use 
of water, by a population doubling itself within the period of 
fifty years, without underground conduits for the discharge of 
liquid sewage. In nearly all our cities and large towns systematic 
sewage already exists. In the midland and southern towns 
water-closets are comparatively numerous, though privies with 
cess-pools still predominate, but in the northern towns wiater- 
closets are comparatively few, and the middens nearly universal. 
After mentioning various instances in which there is infiltration 
of subsoil water into the sewers, doing mischief in a variety of 
ways, the author called attention to the evil of indiscriminately 
admitting a largely disproportionate quantity of water into the 
sewers, without any power to regulate the time and extent of 
dilution. Assuming, with the Rivers Pollution Commissioners, 
that sewage must be utilised upon the land by the process of 
irrigation, Mr. Denton proceeded at some length to consider the 
conditions which should be observed in order to obtain the 
maximum amount of benefit from sewage farms. He con- 
cluded by saying, ‘‘ With a sewage farm naturally or artificially 
drained, and the surface sloped so as to make the absorption and 
filtration of sewage certain; intermittent filtration may be 
practised by itself at any time when it is desirable to resort to it 
independently of irrigation, At seasons when the sewage may 
be applied profitably to vegetation, of course the two processes 
will proceed together ; but it will only be by operations ad- 
mitting alike of combined or separate action that purification 
and profit may be secured free from all chance of malaria. 
With the prospect of applying the sewage of towns extensively 
to land by way of irrigation, it is most desirable that the proper 
preparation of land to receive it should be indisputably under- 
stood and acted upon, 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, Sept. 12.—M. Faye communicated 
a note on the mode of observing the approaching transit of 
Venus, in which, after giving some account of Mr. Newcomb’s 
memoir on the same subject, he suggested an application of 
photography by means of electrical apparatus. M. Faye also 
presented a note on the chemical agents to be employed in oppo- 
sition to miasmatic infection, in which he remarks upon the ap- 
plication of the phenic compounds to this purpose. —M. Dumas 
and M. Chevreul made some observations on the subject of this 
paper.—A letter was read from M. Sédillot on the surgical indi- 
cations and the consequences of amputations in connection with 
wounds.—M. C. Bernard presented a note by M. Rabuteau, on 
the means of annulling the effects of insufficient alimentation. 
The author described the effects produced by Coffee in diminish- 
ing the waste of material in vital operations, and maintains that 
by the free use of coffee life may be supported in full activity 
with much less than the theoretical amount of nourishment. 
Cocoa and Tea partake of the same qualities. 
CONTENTS PAGE 
Screntiric ADMINISTRATION . SP ee elites a, et one 449 
Owens Co_LeGE, MANCHESTER. ... - Fo Legit sat nn 449 
Letters To THE Epiror :— 
Aurora Borealis.—Sir N. A. STAPLES . . . . «. «© «© « « + 452 
Fuel of the Sun.—J. J. Murpuy, F.G.S. .. ... =. «. « = 45% 
Suggestions for the Improvement of Meteorological Investigation . 45r 
Colour Blindness. —W. H. S. Monck z Pry career 
The Effect of Tannin on Cotton.—H. R, Pro TE: . «. . + « «© 4:2 
The Intended Engineering College.—W. M. Wittiams . . + 453 
NOTES. as (0* 0-0) nee wei Be) ss: te") co ca a tee 
ON CERTAIN PRINCIPLES TO BE OBSERVED IN THE ESTABLISHMENT 
or A NaTIoNAL Museum oF Naturat History. By Dr. P, L. 
ScpaTER, F-R.S. (Wsth [liustyration.)) «Vel: ©: a te) an tee SSS 
SoctaL Science Concress, Newcastie. Dr. PLayrair’s ADDRESS 
TO. EDUCATIONAL, SECTION, «4 s)).q <e)\ta xt, wily) of p) Hnuvieeceeey 
Tue BritisH Associa TION :— : 
Lecture BY ProFessoR RANKINE . «. 6 » « + « « + + «+ 460 
SeEcTIONAL PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS . « « + ~ 462—468 
SOCIETIES’AND ACADEMIES ¢ 5 +s a. W 0 0 » » 0/7 15) Gm 
