August 19, 1909] 



NA TURE 



ill summer and behind wliich tVicy hunted in winter. 

 As a whole, they are divided into two exogamous phraties 

 with matrilineal descent, one called Raven, the other 

 usually Wolf, and in the north Eagle as well. One small 

 ■ group outside both phraties could marry into either. Each 

 was subdivided into clans or consanguineal bands, which 

 originally appear to have occupied a particular camp. 

 The larger geographical groups contained members of 

 both phraties, and usually numerous clans. Finally, the 

 clans are subdivided into liouse groups. Each clan claimed 

 a few distinctive carvings and names ; occasionally they 

 might be borrowed. The house names and clan names 

 were generally distinct, and confined to their respective 

 phratry, but a man sometimes claimed the right to the 

 house name owned by his paternal grandfather's clan, so 

 that names sometimes go out of the clan. Those of a 

 man's own phratry are called "friends," those of ^ the 

 opposite phratrv " opposites " or "my outside shell." A 

 list is given of the relationship terms. The importance 

 of the phratrv system is indicated by the rules of etiquette 

 and the hospitalitv shown towards members of the same 

 phratry, and the performance by the opposite phratry of 

 certain functions at birth and death. 



.\ mourning feast is given to members of the opposite 

 phratry, food being put into the fire for the spirit of the 

 deceased. All property given away or destroyed at a feast 

 was dedicated to some" dead person, who then actually 

 received its spiritual counterpart. A Tlingit employed his 

 opposites to do everything — put up his house and pole, 

 pierce the lips and cars of his children, and initiate them 

 into the secret societies. The secret society dances were 

 imported from the south, but their observance by no means 

 reached the importance attained among the KwakiutI and 

 Tsimshian. Whistles were essential concomitants of these 

 dances. The putting up of a house or pole, and the 

 accompanying secret society performance, feasts, and dis- 

 tributions of property were all undertaken for the sake 

 of dead members of a man's clan. Rivalries between 

 opposing parties of dancers at a potlatch often resulted 

 in serious conflict, but the host's people often prevented 

 them by rushing between them bearing their emblem or 

 making the call of the phratry animal. A. C. H. 



RECEXT PVBLICATIOXS ON AGRICULTURE 



FROM INDIA AND CEYLON. 

 'THE recent issues of Circulars and Agricultural Journal 

 -^ of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, contain 

 interesting papers on cotton, Hcvea hrasiliensis, and other 

 native crops. Mr. Lock issues a concise guide to the plots 

 on the Experiment Station, Peradeniya, which will prove 

 useful to visitors, and will, w-e hope, be the forerunner of 

 a work setting out the general results obtained in the 

 Ceylon experiments and the conclusions to be drawn from 

 them. Mr. Fetch deals with certain abnormalities in 

 Hevea brasiliciisis. Nursery plants with tw'isted stems are 

 frequently sent in for examination and report. The stem 

 generally makes a complete turn at the base, either in a 

 regular curve or a combination of curves and abruptly 

 angular bends ; in other cases there are two complete 

 turns, and in a single instance three have been observed. 

 It was found possible to reproduce some of these abnor- 

 malities by varying the position of the seed in the soil. 

 The insect pests — which mainly attack the root, since the 

 rest of the plant is to a large extent self-protected by the 

 viscid caoutchouc-producing latex — are dealt with by Mr. 

 E. Ernest Green. Mr. Bamber deals in one pamphlet 

 witli tapioca, describing its method of cultivation in 

 Malacca, and in another with the cultivation of strong- 

 growing plants to overrun and " choke " weeds in rubber 

 plantations. The plants suggested are Passiflora foctida 

 and Mikania scandcns ; crotolaria is also used. When 

 growth has attained its maximum, and before the plants 

 die down, the whole mass of material, usually 12 inches 

 to iS inches deep, can be rolled up like a huge carpet, 

 leaving the surface soil quite free from weeds. Mr. 

 Jowitt describes several of the oil-yielding grasses, and 

 Mr. Stewart McCall puts in a plea for the more extensive 

 cultivation of cotton. .Altogether the papers are fullv up 

 to the high standard we have learnt to associate with 

 Peradeniya. 



N'O. 2077, ■^'OL- Si] 



It has already been remarked in these columns that the 

 Agricultural Journal of India ranks for general e.xcellence 

 among the best agricultural publications in the world, 

 and the recent numbers in no way alter the impression. 

 The list of articles includes several dealing with improved 

 methods of cultivating cotton and paddy, besides a well- 

 illustrated paper on improved implements of home-make 

 adapted to the special conditions of the native cultivator. 

 Mr. Maxwell-Lefroy deals with Eri or castor silk, and 

 Mr. Marsh discusses certain indirect benefits of irrigation . 

 not generally recognised. Among these are the possibility 

 of substituting new sowings in case of accidents to 

 advanced crops, the certainty of fodder for the cattle, 

 which are among the worst sufferers in time of drought, 

 and the general improvement of the people and country 

 which inevitably results when the conditions of life become 

 stable. The journal is issued quarterly from Pusa, and' 

 the articles are well written from a general point of view ; 

 it may be confidently recommended to all interested in- 

 Indian affairs. 



Probably no publication could give a better idea of the 

 enormous size of India, and the great diversity of con- 

 ditions, than the two volumes of agricultural statistics 

 brought out by the Government of India. The first volume 

 deals with British India, and contains 420 folio pages of 

 closely printed figures ; the second contains the records 

 of native States, and is smaller. Comparing the year 

 iqo6-7 with 1897-8, the earliest given in the volume, we 

 find the following areas, in acres : — 



British India 



Native States 



1397-98 igo6-07 1897-98 1906-07 



Xet area cropped ... 196,407,232 ... 214.026,519 ... 10,120,324 ... 14,925,731 



Irrigated 30,418,454 ... 36,653,903 ... 1,425.895 ... 1,982,668 



Total food grains ... 1,^^2,725,689 ... 195,117,838 ... 9,126,337 ... 13,123.691- 

 (Rice, wheat, maize, 



pu'se. &C-) 



Other food crops ... 5,773,267 ... 7,274,340 ... 369,392 ... 561,431 

 (Gardens, orchards, 



spice, &c.) 



Total oil seeds ... 12,566,648 ... 13,965,315 ... 603,076 ... 836,335 



Cotton 8,914,996 ... 13.771,214 ... 279,758 ... 625,694 



Indigo 1,366,513 ... 448,594 ... 1,731 ... 18,182 



This Steady, all-round increase in the area under the 

 various crops furnishes abundant proof of the increasing 

 prosperity of India, and must be a source of great gratifica- 

 tion to the British administrators and advisers through' 

 whose labour it has been made possible. The one excep- 

 tion in the general prosperity is indigo. During the ten 

 years the area has shrunk from more than one and a 

 third million to less than half a million acres. The indigo 

 planters are a highly enlightened body, and look to science 

 to help them save the industry ; their fortunes are very 

 much involved in the contest now going on between the 

 agricultural chemist and the synthetical organic chemist. 



POSITION FINDING WITHOUT AN HORIZON. 

 'X'HE Journal Ila of July 17 — an aeronautical Journal 

 published at Frankfort — contains an article which in 

 some respects is supplementary to that on the subject of 

 position finding without an horizon which appeared in 

 N.^TUKE of July 22, or, as this article was the later in 

 time, perhaps it would be more correct to say that it was 

 supplementarv to the one in lia. The latter, which is 

 written by Dr. .Alfred Brill, relates to the reduction of 

 observed altitudes for the purpose of finding position by 

 means which can be quickly and readily effected in a 

 balloon. -After showing the inconvenience of the usual 

 trigonometrical methods used on board ship, and how tire- 

 some the use of tables must be w'hiqh correlate time, lati- 

 tude, declination, and altitude, he proceeds to describe his 

 method, which is one eminently suitable and convenient, 

 that is, where a graphic method is sufficiently accurate. 



Dr. Brill employs a circular map of, say, Central Europe 

 on transparent celluloid, the projection being one of least 

 distortion. Before and behind this are two more sheets 

 of celluloid, with the Sumner equal altitude circles drawn 

 on the same projection. These sheets each have a central' 

 longitudinal azimuth line, while the map is provided with 

 a circle of degrees round its periphery. The two Sumner 

 sheets can be moved longitudinally on rollers like blinds, 

 and these two and the included map may be turned in- 



