168 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 6. 



Thus for the past ten years the number of collisions 

 was as shown in the second line below, the number 

 of derailments as in the third, and the number of 

 brol^en bridges as in the fourth : — 



While the length of railroads increased from 

 70,000 miles in 1873, to 110,000 miles in 18S2, the 

 whole number of accidents decreased steadily, from 

 1,283 in 1873, to 740 in 1878, and then increased to 

 1,365 in 1882; while the number of collisions ranged 

 from 392 in 1S73, to 220 in 1878, aud then steadily in- 

 creased to 581 in 1882. Moreover, this increase in 

 collisions is shown very plainly to be due to the 

 crowding of the tracks, as the butting collisions 

 range from 102 in 1873, to 70 in 1878, and from that 

 number to 160 in 1SS2; while the rear collisions run 

 from 187 in 1873, to 142 in 187S, and from that num- 

 ber to 388 in 1882. Comparing the accidents month 

 by mouth, we find two periods when disasters are 

 most numerous; viz., the first quarter of the year, 

 and the three months August, September, and Octo- 

 ber. The accidents during the first quarter are very 

 largely due to the exti-eme cold of that season, — the 

 total disasters fi-om broken rails in the ten years 

 above having averaged six times as many during the 

 first quarter as in July, August, and September. In- 

 deed, we can always detect the unusually cold winters 

 by the number of broken rails. The disasters of 

 August, September, and October are supposed to be 

 due to the crowded state of the roads during the 

 excursion-season, when a large number of irregular 

 trains are run. 



It is hard, from the imperfect records at our com- 

 mand, to draw such definite conclusions as would en- 

 able us to improve the condition of alfairs upon our 

 railroads; but the statistics recorded by the Gazette 

 are of great value as far as they go, and will eventu- 

 ally furnish the data we need for i'licreasing the safety 

 of railway-travel. George L. Vose. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 A caterpillar-eating hen-hawk. 



In July, 1882, my nephew Malcolm Storer, being at 

 Moosehead lake, had the curiosity .to examine the 

 stomach of a hawk which he had shot there, and was 

 surprised to find that it contained a large number of 

 caterpillars in all stages of decomposition through 

 digestion. Though the examination was made soon 

 after the bird was shot, none of the caterpillars were 

 found alive; but ten or twelve of them were perfect, 

 and fifteen or twenty could still be distinguished as 

 caterpillars in the mass of more completely digested 

 matter. It was evident, moreover, that the stomach 

 contained no other kind of food. The caterpillars 

 were of green color, with yellowish rings or blotches, 

 and were as thick and almost as long as a man's 

 little finger. The wings of the bird, having been 

 brought to Cambridge, were found to be those of the 

 broad-winged hawk (Buteo pennsylvanicus). In view 

 of what is known of the food of hawks, it is not at 

 all strange that they should regale themselves upon 



caterpillars'' when opportunity offers. The marsh- 

 hawk (Circus hudsonius), for example, is said to be 

 'an indiscriminate feeder upon fish, snakes, and even 

 worms;' and many other hawks are known to feed 

 upon snakes occasionally, as well as upon lizards, in 

 regions where they are to be had. The fact that both 

 large hawks and small devour many insects, such as 

 crickets and grasshoppers, has often been noticed. 

 F. H. Stoker. 



An Indian burial-mound. 



At my request Mr. Frank La Flesche, an educated 

 Omaha, made inquiries of the older men of his tribe 

 about the burial of the famous Omaha chief Big 

 Elk, who died about 182.5. He writes me as follows : 

 "In compliance with yom- request, I made inquiries 

 about the mound made by the Omahas, in which Big 

 Elk was buried; and was told that it was about as 

 high as the shoulders of a tall man standing up, and 

 that he was buried with great ceremonies. His 

 "favorite horse was strangled to death by his grave, 

 and most of his horses and household goods were 

 given to the poor. The place where he is buried is 

 known by the Omahas as ' Big Elk's grave,' but by 

 the whites as 'Black Bird hills,' as Black Bird was 

 buried in the same place. It is said that Black Bird 

 was buried with very little ceremony, as he died when 

 the Omahas were being very much "troubled with the 

 small-pox; and he was not buried riding a live horse, 

 as stated by some. A grandson of his is still living, 

 and is about one hundred years old; and he thinks 

 his grandfather died before he was born." 



As we have very few reliable records of the erection 

 of burial-mounds by Indians since the settlement of 

 the country by the whites, the statements quoted 

 above are of considerable importance; but these facts 

 do not prove that all mounds are recent, or that all 

 were made by the immediate ancestors of the Indian 

 tribes which still erect mounds over their noted dead ; 

 any more than, for the same reason, they prove that 

 the Omahas and other recent mound-building tribes 

 are of the same stock with the ancient Greeks. The 

 custom of raising a mound of earth or of stones over a 

 grave is world-wide, and must not be taken for more 

 than it is worth in archeology. There are so many kinds 

 of mounds in this country, that it shows a limited 

 experience in their investigation when a writer here 

 and there asserts that they are all the work of the 

 present Indians, or tlieir immediate ancestors; and 

 an equal disregard of known facts, when another as 

 confidently asserts that they were all made by a people 

 unlike and superior to the Indian race, and of great 

 antiquity. Each earthwork, mound, and burial-place 

 should be investigated and studied by itself. Side by 

 side we may find earthworks entirely different in their 

 character, and to be assigned to very diverse ages; 

 so we may find burial-mounds of the same character 

 near together, one of which may be so I'ecent as to 

 contain glass beads and other things obtained by the 

 Indians from the whites, while the other may be of 

 great antiquity. Their proximity will not in itself 

 prove that they were made by the same people. Much 

 careful and systematic work has yet to be done before 

 the question so often asked. Who made the mounds? 

 can be satisfactorily answered. By a projier study 

 of the mounds and earthworks of North America, 

 facts will at last be acctimulated by which an approxi- 

 mate determination of their chronology and relation 

 to existing peoples will be made possible. In this 

 work the Peabody museum has been engaged for 

 several years, and during the past season most im- 

 portant results have been 'secured. F. W. Putnam. 



Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 19. 



