NovEsiBER 9, 188:5.' 



SCIENCE. 



633 



clods of clay, burnt red and pretty hard. The process 

 of burning is supposed to have been similar to that 

 discovered by Schliemann at Troy. Tho soil, a sort 

 of loam, had been thrown up into a rampart, the 

 whole coated with clay matted together with bushes 

 and sedge. Over all were heaped prairie-grass and 

 trees, and the pile set on fire. Dr. Yarrow describes 

 a like process pursued in North Carolina grave- 

 mounds. — ( Wise. hist, coll., ix. 99.) J. W. P. [352 



EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 



History of agricultural prices in Sugland. — 

 >[. Jusserand reviews Mr. Thorold Kogers's work 

 upon this subject. He pronounces it one of the 

 great books of our century, and indispensable to 

 the student of economic history. It is full of facts 

 hitherto unknown, or, if known, unclassified, and in- 

 accessible to most students. Mr. Kogers's opinion 

 that the fifteenth century, and the beginning of the 

 sixteenth, was a golden age for the laboring-people of 

 England, is cited as especially notable, inasmuch as 

 a contrary opinion has generally obtained up to this 

 time. — {Rev. critique, IS juin, 1SS3.) D. w. R. [353 



Indirect taxation among the Romans. — M. 

 Dareste sums up all, or nearly all, that is known upon 

 this subject. Very little is known; and very little is 



likely to be known, unless some more inscriptions, 

 like that discovered not long ago in the ruins of 

 Palmyra, should be found. It w,as an important find, 

 — a custom-house tariff with regulations regarding 

 the collection of duties. (See Bull, corresp. hellen., 

 niai-juin, 1S82.) The inscription has not yet been 

 published. The primipal indirect taxes of the Ro- 

 mans were, the custom-house duty (portorium), a 

 tax on successions, upon the manumission of slaves, 

 and the sale of movable goods. They were not very 

 heavy taxes at any time. M. Dareste gives us a very 

 good account of the portorium. The Roman custom- 

 houses were scattered about here and there, wher- 

 ever merchants were wont to pass or to congregate. 

 A list of localities where there were custom-houses is 

 given. The portorium was a percentage levied upon 

 the value of merchandise. Only merchandise was 

 stibject to it. Personal effects of travellers, iii- 

 strumenta ilinei-is, etc., were free of duty. A list of 

 writings upon the subject is given. The principal 

 work cited is that of JI. R. Cagnat : £lude historique 

 .lur les imputs indirects cliez les Bomnitis. It was 

 written before the discovery of the Palmyra inscrip- 

 tion. — {Seances trav. acad. inscr., Feb.-March, 

 1883. ) D. w. K. [354 



INTELLIGENCE FR03I AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 



(jeological snrvey. 



Field-work of the division of the Great Basin. — In 

 consequence of the extension of the work of the 

 survey to the Atlantic states, the director has found 

 it necessary to divert some of its force from investi- 

 gations already initiated. One of the most important 

 researches thus stopped is that of the quaternary 

 lakes of the Great Basin. The corps was reduced 

 at the beginning of the fiscal year, and instructed to 

 devote the field season to supplementing the material 

 already acquired, so as to prepare it for publication 

 without future visits to the district. 



The office at Salt-Lake City was closed on the .iOth 

 of June, and field operations were immediately begun. 

 Mr. I. C. Rnssell, assistant geologist, proceeded to 

 Mono valley, California, and carried to completion his 

 examination of the existing lake and its ancient ex- 

 pansion. He included in his study, also, the six 

 extinct glaciers which anciently debouched in the 

 Mono valley, tracing them to their common source 

 in the great n4\f. of the Sierra Nevada. Incidentally 

 he examined the ice-masses associated with some of 

 the summits of the Sierra, and brought the camera 

 to bear on them. These have been called glaciers by 

 Muir and others, but are said by King to be unworthy 

 of the name; and it may be hoped that these later 

 observ.itions and illustrations will suflice to place the 

 matter beyond controversy. 



From the Mono basin he proceedetl to the Walker, 



Carson, Pyramid, Winnemucca, and Black Rock ba- 

 sins, for the purpose of re-investigating certain points 

 connected with the history of the ancient Lake 

 Lahontan, upon which he is preparing a report. 



Mr. W. D. Johnson, topographer of the division, 

 spent the summer, under Mr. Russell's direction, in 

 surveys for a general map of the Mono basin, and is 

 now engaged on a series of special maps of ancient 

 glacial moraines. 



Ensign J. B. Bernadou, detailed from the navy for 

 the purpose, has acted during the summer as Mr. 

 Russell's assistant. 



Mr. G. K. Gilbert, who has general charge of the 

 work, spent a few weeks in the field, visiting locali- 

 ties of special interest in tht Lahontan, Bonneville, 

 and Mono basins. He was accompanied in the Lahon- 

 tan basin by Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, the conchologist, 

 who is engaged in a study of the molluscan faunas of 

 the quaternary lakes of tho Great Basin, and took the 

 field for the purpose of familiarizing himself with 

 their geological relations. 



The Champlain valley. — Mr. Charles D. Walcott, 

 with Mr. C. Curtice as assistant, has been studying 

 the formations between the archean and Trenton in 

 Saratoga county, N.Y., and along up the Champlain 

 valley on both sides of the lake. 



Saratoga village, west of the fault-line along which 

 the springs occur, was found to be builtover a massive, 

 gray, magncsian limestone, that carries a strongly 

 marked fauna closely allied to that of the Potsdam 

 sandstone of Wisconsin. The geologic section from 



