March 25, 1880] 



NATURE 



501 



M. Tirard, the French Minister of Agriculture, has directed 

 the Prefects to report -what kinds of fruit trees, pines, vines, aiid 

 cereals suffered most and least from the December frost, in order 

 that bints may be obtained for agriculturists, &c. The damage 

 sustained by the Paris parks may be judged from the fact that in 

 the Bois de Boulogne 54,000 evergreens, 20,000 firs, and 30,000 

 deciduous trees are required to fill up gaps, while in the Champs 

 Elysees 3,200 trees were killed and 6,coo require cutting down 

 to the roots. The total loss to the Municipality in the parks, 

 avenues, and nurseries is calculated at a million francs. 



As we stated last week, the council of magistrates of the city 

 of Berlin had under consideration a few days ago a proposal, 

 submitted by the firm of Siemens and Halske, for the construc- 

 tion of an electric railway across a portion of the capital. The 

 line would start from the Belle Alliance-place, and run through 

 Friedrich and Chaussee streets on to the Wedding-place. There 

 will be two lints of rails, one for the up and the other for the 

 down journey. The viaduct will be carried on iron pillars 14 

 feet 9 inches high, and nearly 33 feet apart. These pillars will 

 be placed along the edge of the footpath, so as to cause the least 

 possible interference with the ordinary traffic. The carriages 

 will be narrow and short, containing ten sitting places and four 

 standing places. The electro-dynan.ic machine which will 

 propel the carriages w ill be placed under the floor of the carriage 

 between the wheels, and a steam-engine of 60-horse power, 

 which will be employed in the production of the electricity, will 

 be placed at the terminus. The stoppages will be very few, 

 and the rate of speed w ill be, it is expected, about twenty miles 

 an hour. The chief object of the undertaking is to convey 

 persons quickly acro.-s the city, and especially to facilitate access 

 to the city line of railway. 



At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 Mr. F. W. Putnam gave an account of his explorations of the 

 ancient mounds and burial-places in the Cumberland Valley, 

 Tennessee. The excavations had been carried on by himself, 

 Mr. Edwin Curtiss for over two years, for the benefit 

 of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge. During this time many 

 mounds of various kinds had been thoroughly explored, and 

 several thousand of the singular stone graves of the mound- 

 builders of Tennessee had been carefully opened. The material 

 obtained from the explorations is now arranged and on exhibition 

 in the Peabody Museum. Mr. Putnam's remarks were illustrated 

 by drawings of several hundred objects obtained from the graves 

 and mounds, particularly to show the great variety of articles of 

 pottery and several large and many unique forms of implements 

 of chipped flint. He also exhibited and explained in detail a map 

 of a walled town of this old nation. This town was situated on 

 the Lindsley estate, in a bend of Spring Creek. The earth 

 embankment, with its accompanying ditch, encircled an area of 

 about twelve acres. Within this inclosure there was one large 

 mound with a flat top, 15 feet high, 130 feet long, and 90 feet 

 wide, which was found not to be a burial-mound. Another 

 mound near the large one, about 50 feet in diameter and only 

 a few feet high, contained sixty human skeletons, each in a 

 carefully-made stone grave, the graves being arranged in two 

 rows, forming the four sides of a square, and in three layers. 

 From the-e graves many interesting articles were obtained. The 

 most important discovery he made within the inclosure was that 

 of finding the remains of the houses of the people who lived in 

 this old town. Of them about seventy were traced out, and 

 located on the map by Prof. Buchanan of Lebanon, who made 

 the survey for Mr. Putnam. Under the floors of hard clay 

 which was in places much burnt, Mr. Putnam found the grave s 

 of children. As only the bodies of adults had been placed in 

 the one mound devoted to burial, and as nearly every site of a 

 house he explored had from one to four graves of children under 



the clay floor, he was convinced that it was a regular custom to 

 bury the children in that way. He also found that the children had 

 been undoubtedly treated with affection, as in their small graves 

 were found many of the best pieces of pottery he obtained, and 

 also quantities of shell-beads, several large pearls, and many 

 other objects which were probably the playthings of the little 

 ones while living. 



At a subsequent meeting of the same Society, Mr. rutnam 

 made a communication on the principles involved in the orna- 

 mentation of the pottery of some of the ancient nations of 

 America, with particular reference to that from the Cumberland 

 Valley in Tenne?see, and from Nicaragua; illustrating his sub- 

 ject by a fine series of vessels of various shapes, selected from 

 the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. 

 After a general review of the methods of ornamentation em- 

 ployed by American nations of the past, he .showed that, by a 

 study of such large c Elections as tho^e in the Peabody Museum, 

 the artistic development of the ancient peoples of Ameiica was 

 far greater than generally stated by writers ; and that the art of 

 ornamentation had, in many instances, risen above the simple 

 patterns made by incited lines, rude stamps, and other early and 

 crude forms. Both in colour and plastic work a realistic art 

 had been produced which had often resulted in conve 

 of great interest. He also stated that a smdy of this ancient 

 pottery, w ith the.-e principles of conventionalism borne in mind, 

 would not only place ;ome of these ancient American nations in 

 a mnch higher artistic period than formerly supposed, but would 

 also lead to the understanding of many of the singular orna- 

 ments on the ancient vessels, many of which, without this 

 know ledge of the existence of realistic and conventional art, 

 would be looked upon as crude and meaningless attempts at 

 ornament, whereas, as he showed by several series 

 mens, the simple knobs arranged symmetrically about a pot or 

 water bottle, were instances of pure conventionalism from 

 realistic forms, and prove that a comparatively high attain- 

 ment in the decorative art had been reached. A pioper and 

 careful study of the principles involved by this interpretation ol 

 the artl-tic development of the ceramic art in America,, he 

 thought, would in time furnish means of making comparisons in 

 regard to the probably connection of one ancient American 

 nati m w ith another, and also an understanding of many of the 

 singular resemblances between widely separated people-. Still, 

 he said, the whole subject was yet in its infancy, and the 

 connection of one ancient people with another in America can 

 at present only be suggested from very unsatisfactory data. 



The following are among the papers to be read at the 

 meetings of the Society of Arts after Easter, so far as the 

 arrangements are yet complete : — April 2, " The Best Route for 

 a Line of Railway to India," by B. Haughton, C.E. April 6 t 

 "Art in Tapan," by C. Pfoundes. April 7, "Buildings for 

 Secondary Educational Purposes," by E. C. Robins, F.S.A., 

 F.R.I. B. A. April S, "Recent Improvements in Benzine 

 Colours," by F. J. Friswell, F.C.S. April 14, "The History 

 of the Art of Bookbinding," by Henry B. Wheatley, F.S.A. 

 April 16, "Ku-sia's Influence over the Inhabitants of Central 

 Asia during the last Ten Years," by Prof. Vambery. April 21, 

 "The Present System of Obtaining Materials in use by Artist 

 Painters, as compared with that of the Old Masters," by W, 

 Holman Hunt. April 22, "On Some Recent Advances in the 

 Science of Photography," 'by Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R.S. 

 April 27, "Iceland and Its Resources,'' by C. G. W. Lock. 

 April 2$, "Recent Improvements in Gas Furnaces for Domestic 

 and Laboratory Purposes," by Thomas Fletcher. May 5, "The 

 last Forty Years of Agricultural Experience," by John C. 

 Morton. May 7, "The Present Condition and Prospects of 

 Agriculture iu South India," by W. Robertson, M.R.C.A. 



