66 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 159. 



Harvard, and many other well known American 

 men of science. Subscriptions may be sent to 

 and will be acknowledged by Dr. Cyrus Adler, 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, or 

 by Dr. George Bruce Halsted, President of the 

 Texas Academy of Science, 2407 Guadalupe 

 street, Austin, Texas. 



Raphael Meldola, 

 Hon. Organizing Secretary. 

 Technical College, London, England, 

 December, 1897. 



TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION. 



To THE Editor op Science : In my book on 

 ' Travel and Transportation,' published in the 

 Smithsonian Report for 1894, pages 280 and 281, 

 will be found pictures of the only climbing de- 

 vice ever reported to have been used by an 

 American Indian. At the time of describing 

 this apparatus I had no information as to the 

 manner of its use. During the last summer 

 Doctor Franz Boas made a journey among the 

 Bella Coola Indians, British Columbia, and saw 

 the apparatus employed in climbing. It is also 

 used by the Tlingit and other tribes as far south 

 as Vancouver Island. 



The wooden portion figured in the Report Is 

 not a boatswain's chair, but a foot-rest ; the 

 soft, flat portion is for use around the upper 

 part of the back of the climber, under his arms. 

 This combination is necessary in the Northwest 

 country because the trees are not altogether de- 

 void of limbs and knots ; therefore, at certain 

 points on the tree, the climber must unship his 

 apparatus in order to pass the obstruction. My 

 figures show that both parts of the device have 

 loops so that the rope may be withdrawn at 

 any time. The climber connects the upper half 

 with the lower half of the apparatus by means 

 of lines. When he arrives at a limb he draws 

 his foot-board up as high as possible ; then rest- 

 ing his body on this he readjusts the upper por- 

 tion, sustaining his back above the obstruction, 

 and moves upward as far as he can reach. 

 Then, hanging himself in this, he is able to draw 

 up and readjust his foot-board and make fast 

 again after the manner of the inch worm. 



The specific diflTerence between this device 

 and any other with which the writer is ac- 

 quainted is in this facility of readjustment on 



account of knots and limbs by means of the 

 connecting lines between the upper and lower 

 half of the apparatus as explained by Doctor 

 Boas. O. T. Mason. 



'time wasted.' 



To THE Editor of Science : Apropos the 

 article in your last issue ' Time Wasted,' a pro- 

 fessor in a reputable theological seminary in the 

 West lately informed me that the astronomers 

 were now convinced the end of the world was 

 imminent. To substantiate his statement he 

 showed me an article in a religious paper. The 

 Prophetic News and Israel's Watchman, where 

 such a prediction was made on the strength of 

 some utterances from " Professor S. J. Carrigan, 

 Director of the Carleton University, North- 

 field, Minnesota, the great university of the 

 Northwest of America. ' ' Professor Carrigan is 

 spoken of as having written an article in ' Popu- 

 lar Astronomy, the recognized organ of Ameri- 

 can astronomy ' on the subject, and he is said 

 to have ' discovered the existence of three 

 hitherto unknown planets, which are tearing 

 through space between our earth and the sun.' 

 The following extracts are then made from his 

 article : "This new planet (one in the process 

 of evolution from the sun) may at any instant . 

 break away from the sun, and the terrific ex- 

 plosion which will necessarily accompany this 

 breaking away will produce a great disturbance 

 of the entire universe, but particularly of the 

 earth, perhaps completely smashing it, and 

 surely destroying all animal life on land as weW 

 as in the waters. " "Neither is this tremen- 

 dous disturbance of the earth and the destruction 

 of all life upon it completely unprecedented. 

 A similar detachment of solar matter by the 

 same means is known by the scientists to have 

 occurred twenty-three million years ago, a 

 period simultaneous with the Paleozoic age, at 

 which time all aflimal and vegetable life then 

 existing on the face of the earth was crushed 

 out." "The results of my investigations on 

 this subject indicate that the earth is closely 

 approaching a critical epoch. These results 

 convince me that it is imminent." 



An account of the etiology of these peculiar 

 products of journalism would be of interest. 



X. 



