Marci£ 6, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



135 



blue-bottles. I cut an ounce of raw veal into dice, and dropped 

 it in the bottom of the jar in a heap. He did not seem to see or 

 smell it, but after a while happened to dive into it. He appeared 

 to be full of joy at the discovery. One fragment after another he 

 took in his hands, held it closely to bis jaws, and sucked it dry by 

 strong pulls. At each pull I could mark the recedint; red juice of 

 the meat. When the veal was reduced to a pale fibre, he let it 

 go and took a fresh bit. He always retired to the shelter of the 

 paper to eat, with the sole exception of the mouthful be made of 

 the mosquito. Like the Kipg of Dahomey, he would not eat in 

 public. JtTLiA McNair Weight. 



Fulton, Mo., Feb. 26. 



Cold and Warm Waves 



The observations taken at the meteorological establishment on 

 the Eiffel Tower in Paris have led to several most interesting re- 

 sults ; and among other things it has recently been found that 

 the velocity of the air during an ordinary strong wind is about 

 twice as high at the top of this tower as it is at its base. Such 

 being the case, we should expect to find advancing cold or warm 

 waves far ahead in upper regions of what they are closer to the 

 earth's surface ; and so they actually are found to be, as mentioned 

 by Professer Hazen in your last issue, when be says that the 

 temperature change at isolated mountain-peaks, as Mount Wash- 

 ington or Pike' Peak, occurs several hours earlier at their tops 

 than at their bases, or when he says that high areas, etc. , advance 

 with a velocity double that of the surface air. These phenomena 

 give us, therefore, a very instructive illustration o"r proof of the 

 effect of the friction between the earth's surface and the air mov- 

 ing over it ; and they confirm the old popular belief that weather- 

 changes are brought about by the wind, or, what amounts to the 

 same thing, that the advance of cold and warm waves is entirely 

 due to mechanical action, or displacement of the surface-air 

 as a body, in conformity to such rules as I have set forth in my 

 paper, " On the Cause of Trade Winds" {Transactions of the Ameri- 

 can Society of Civil Engineers, vol. xxiii.), which paper also gives 

 a very simple clew to the increased cold or heat in the border 

 current of cold and warm waves. 



Professor Hazen, however, does not appear to be acquainted 

 with the important results of these olDservations at Paris, when 

 be concludes that the changes in temperature and humidity of the 

 ail- accompanying the advance of these waves cannot be due to 

 the wind, or are entirely independent of the motion of a mass of 

 air, although he curiously enough states at the same time that a 

 rapid motion of an advancing wave has a tendency to increase the 

 wind, which seems contradictory. 



Starting from these false premises, no wonder our meteorologist 

 arrives at some most startling results. He finds that the moisture 

 of the air is "removed," " eliminated," or, as he says elsewhere, 

 "sucked out" of ihe air in less than no time by some mysterious 

 agency or another which cannot as yet be accounted for. Storms 

 are transported or transferred through the air without the air- 

 particles being moved at all. Indeed, when it is considered that 

 the literal meaning of the word " storm " is " violent agitation or 

 commotion," or, in otlier wotds, " wind," he wants to tell us that 

 when a wind blows, the air-particles don't move at all : it is all 

 deception, and the storm is due to electric energy or something 

 else. The professor's mistaken notion here is, however, precisely 

 similar to the one I pointed out in my last letter, when I tried to 

 explain the fallacy of the result he arrived at, — that condensation 

 did not always take place when saturated air " got chilled." His 

 ideas of the principles of motion seem to differ remarkably from 

 those engineers are accustomed to go by. 



Finally, an entirely different subject is brought up by him, and 

 treated in the same mysterious manner : '■ A portion of the heat in 

 our storms is due to a peculiar condition of the atmosphere which 

 intercepts the heat of the sun, and this heat gradually works down 

 from the upper ataiosphere to the earth." Mightn't it be simpler 

 to say that when the sun is prevented from warming the earth's 

 surface, its heat is taken up by the clouds, and consequently, when 

 the cloud- carrying layers are brought near the earth's surface, as 

 we know they are towards rain, this heat is felt by us ? 



Professor Hazen is a meteorologist without a theory ; and, al- 

 though it may he much easier to run down than to build up, no 

 doubt he has done excellent service by constantly finding fault 

 with others in just conformity to this negative standpoint; but, as 

 the professor always seems so very anxious "to strike at the very 

 heart of present theories of storm-generation,'' and this evidently 

 in his strong point, I may recommend him to strike at the heart 

 of a rain theory I some time ago had the honor of presenting to 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers, and he may thereby 

 possibly be able to prove that his notions of the principles of 

 motion, etc., are more correct than those held and practised by the 

 members of that distinguished body. 



Franz A. Velschow, C.E. 



Brooklyn, N.Y., March 2. 



The Piney Branch Indian Workshop. 



The " Annual Eeport of the Curator of the Museum of Archaeol- 

 ogy, Philadelphia" (Vol. i. No. 1) contains a criticism of recent 

 work done, and conclusions drawn, by Mr. W. E. Holmes of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology at the Piney Branch Workshop, near Wash- 

 ington, D.C., and of Mr. Holmes's papers thereon {American An- 

 thropologist of January and July, 1890), that to the writer ap- 

 pears to do great injustice to Mr. Holmes. 



In his report. Dr. Abbott, who has visited the site and obtained 

 specimens therefrom through Mr. Holmes, says, "The enormous 

 number of ' blocked out ' implements have recently been held as 

 conclusive evidence that such objects are to be considered as 

 ' failures,' and, this being so, that similar objects found under any 

 circumstances in this country are of like signification," To such 

 conclusion the doctor dissents (p. 8). 



Again he says, " While the position taken by Mr. Holmes and 

 others as to the archseological significance of the Piney Branch 

 deposits may be wholly correct, and stand the test of every objec- 

 tion, the inferences drawn are too sweeping, and have not neces- 

 sarily the bearing upon the question of man's antiquity in Amer- 

 ica which he practically claims. The conditions under which 

 i-ude paleolithic implements occur in the valley of the Delaware 

 are wholly different. Here they are characteristic of a horizon ; 

 are so associated with a well-marked deposit, that by no verbal 

 jugglery can they be relegated to • incongrous association,' and so 

 are adventitious " (p. 9). 



And concluding, the doctor says, " On the other hand, to ac- 

 cept Mr. Holmes's conclusion, that all rude implements, howso- 

 ever and wheresoever found, are Indian -failures,' is not merely 

 to remove from the class of implements the so-called ' turtle- 

 backs ' of the Delaware valley, but to remove the paleolithic im- 

 plements of Europe, Asia, and Africa from the prehistoric archaeol- 

 ogy of those continents." 



Mr. Holmes is an officer of the Bureau of Ethnology, whose 

 works on pottery, on the antiquities of the South- West, and on the 

 Chiriquian objects, have familiarized his name to all students of 

 American archasology as a most painstaking and careful investi- 

 gator ; and, had he taken the ground asserted, he would have 

 laid himself open to the charge of want of due care in conduct- 

 ing a scientific work. 



Thus it will be observed that Dr. Abbott first says the Piney 

 Branch objects "have recently been held as conclusive evidence 

 that such objects are to be considered as failures," and dissents 

 from such conclusion. Again he says, " Whilst the position taken 

 by Mr. Holmes and others" may be correct as to Piney Branch, 

 the conclusions are too sweeping, and have not the bearing which 

 he (Mr. Holmes) practically claims. And in conclusion, Dr. 

 Abbott, while claiming that the discovery of paleolithic imple- 

 ments of the Delaware valley occurred under different conditions 

 from those under which the implements at Piney Branch were 

 found, says the Delaware valley implements "by no verbal 

 jugglery can be relegated to ' incongrous associations.' " The report 

 starts by saying that the Piney Branch objects " have been held," 

 and, later on, by " Mr. Holmes and others." In the last part of 

 the latter sentence in which " JNIr. Holmes and others" occurs, 

 the doctor, in specifying Mr. Holmes individually, saddles the 

 latter with conclusions which began with " have been held," and 

 then defends the paleoliths of the Delaware from being by " verbal 



