October 9. 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



199 



cents per string. Others are generally sold in lots not strung. 

 The buyer, howe^'er, is not guided in his purchase by the number 

 of sponges on a string, but by what a certain lot will weigh, and 

 the weight is never given, but the buyer uiust estimate it. Hence 

 ■practical experience is needed in the purchasing of the sponges. 



Sponges are offered for sale on five days of the week at the 

 sponge exchange. Tbey are landed from the vessels, and each 

 cargo is piled up by itself. The weight is entirely unknown. The 

 buyers examine the lots, and each man hands in a private tender, 

 in writing, for the lot, and it is awarded, on opening the tenders, to 

 the highest bidder. A successful buyer must be able to judge 

 correctly by his eye and experience just how many pounds of 

 good sponges he will be able to get out of a given lot when it has 

 been carefully worked up. Nearly all the sponges are bought by 

 resident agents, who buy for New York, London, and Paris houses, 

 shipping the goods to their principals. A few merchants handle 

 sponges on their own account. 



Along the southern coast of Florida the sponge business is in a 

 flourishing condition, and has been for years, with its headquarters 

 at Key West, and hundreds of the people of that vicinity are en- 

 gaged all the time in gathering, curing, and shipping sponges. 

 Many natives of the Bahamas visit Florida from time to time and 

 find employment in the sponge business; though all the crews 

 necessary to introduce the business on the Gulf coast of Florida, 

 men well versed in the industry, can be obtained easily at Key 

 West, without the least necessity of importing labor into the State 

 from the Bahamas. It is said that the sponges growing along the 

 Florida coast are much superior to the sponges of the Bahamas. 



THE KHEVSURS OF THE CAUCASUS. 



Monsieur V. Dingelstedt has published some notes on this 

 singular people in Le Globe (tome xxx. No. 2), an abstract of which 

 appears in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for September. 

 The name is derived from the Georgian word Khevi, signifying a 

 mountain gorge, and is unknown among the people to whom it is 

 applied. They call themselves after the different localities they 

 inhabit not by any collective name. Their country is situated to 

 the east of the Pass of the Cross, on both slopes of the central 

 chain of the Caucasus, to the west and north-west of the mountain 

 Borbalo, and has an area of about 570 square miles. Its mean 

 altitude is over 6,500 feet, and it contains peaks rising above the 

 limit of eternal snow, which, in the central part of the Caucasus, 

 is at an elevation of 10,600 feet. About seven thousand persons 

 inhabit this wild region, in a bleak climate, where the cultivable 

 soil is of small extent and the vegetation poor. 



In the summer the Khevsurs feed cattle and sheep on the rich 

 grass ■which springs up on the mountain slopes, but in the winter 

 forage is difficult to obtain, and the animals and their owners 

 often succumb to famine. The Khevsurs. in contrast to the other 

 mountaineers of the Caucasus, are plain in appearance, of rather 

 short stature, and with large hands and feet, though they are 

 muscular and agile. A great variety is observable in the color of 

 their e\es and hair, their s-tature, and even in the form of their 

 skulls, and this diversity may be ascribed to a mixture of race. 

 Their original ancestors were probably Georgians, who, some time 

 before the twelfth century, took refuge in the mountains. These 

 were probably joined by men of other races, who, for various 

 reasons were obliged to fly from their native lands, or were at- 

 tracted by the life of brigandage which the Khevsurs led up to 

 recent times. Their Georgian ancestors had reached a fairly high 

 standard of civilization, but in their savage solitudes the Khevsurs 

 have relapsed into semi-barbarism, and have now a fierce and de- 

 fiant expression. They wear coats of mail, brassarts, and helmets, 

 like cavaliers of the Middle Ages. They live in communities con- 

 sisting of one or several villages, under the nominal authority of 

 a chief called a Khevisberi. These villages are grouped around 

 some spot supposed to be sacred to a saint, and this religious bond 

 has taken the place of the old tribal unity. 



The Chevsurs have a vague belief in one God, but they never 

 address him in prayer, and their rites consist in sacrifices and in- 

 vocations to various saints. Christian and pagan, among which 

 Saint George is held in high repute. Most of the work falls on 



the women, while the men spend their time in idleness. Marriages 

 are concluded either with Christian or pagan rites. The wife 

 brings with her a dowry of cattle and a trousseau. The offspring 

 of the cattle belong to the house of the husband, but the original 

 herd is the private property of the wife, and any loss must be 

 made good by the husband. The wife has no share in the prop- 

 erty of her husband at his decease. It is divided among his male 

 heirs, and, in default of these, goes to the community. So, too, 

 the wife's property is divided among her sons, her trousseau only 

 being left to her daughters. 



Monogamy is the rule, but custom permits a man to repudiate 

 his wife when she grows old, or if she bears no children, and to 

 take another, provided that he gives an indemnity of five or six 

 cows to the parents of the former. In other cases divorce is easily 

 effected, but is seldom resorted to. The dead are buried in vast 

 caves. They are dressed in coats of mail, and sometimes musical 

 instruments are placed in their hands. Festivals are held in their 

 honor five times, or, in the case of poor families, twice a year, 

 when there is a lavish display of hospitality, and quarrels fre- 

 quently take place. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In the last paragraph on page 192 of Science for Oct. 2, "An 

 initial velocity of seven miles a second," should read, "An initial 

 velocity of six miles a second." 



— Amos E. Woodward, late assistant geologist on the Geologi- 

 cal Siu'vey of Missouri, died of pneumonia at Castle, Mont., in 

 the last week of September. During his connection with the 

 Missouri survey, Mr. Woodward's special subject was the mineral 

 waters of the State, though he also conducted much other work 

 in the laboratory. He was a painstaking, ambitious, and most 

 industrious worker, and was held in high esteem by those who 

 knew him. 



— The flesh-colored, hydrated manganese sulphide which is 

 obtained by the addition of ammonium sulphide to a solution of 

 manganize chloride, on standing, or more rapidly on boiling with 

 water, changes color to green. This green sulphide when washed 

 and dried yields a powder of the same color, which is also unstable, 

 being oxidized by mere exposure to air. It is, however, accord- 

 ing to P. de Clermont and H. Guiot {Mining and Engineering 

 Journ.), rendered permanent by removing its water of hydration, 

 which is effected by heating it moderately in a current of hydro- 

 gen sulphide, carbon dioxide, or ammonia. Thus prepared it is 

 suitable for application in paper staining, etc. • 



— Dr. L. Webster Fox is of opinion, says Nature, that savage 

 races possess the perception of color to a greater degree than do 

 civilized races. In a lecture lately delivered before the Frank- 

 lin Institute, Philadelphia, he stated that he had just concluded 

 an examination of 250 Indian children, of whom 100 were boys. 

 Had he selected 100 white boys from various parts of the United 

 States, he would have found at least five of them colorblind : 

 among the Indian boys he did not discover a single case of color- 

 blindness. Some years ago he examined 250 Indian boys, and 

 found two color-blind, a very low percentage when compared 

 with the whites. Among the Indian girls he did not find any. 

 Considering that only two females in every 1,000 among whites 

 are color-blind, he does not think it surprising that he did not find 

 any examples among the Indian girls. 



— Some time ago the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria organ- 

 ized an excursion to the Kent group of islands, the object being to 

 collect specimens, and to determine whether the group is most 

 nearly related with Victoria, to which it is closest geographically, 

 or with Tasmania. At the annual conversazi07ie of the club, held 

 recently, as we learn fi-om Nature, Mr. C. A. Topp, the retiring 

 president, referred to the results of the expedition. The bulk of 

 the fauna and flora were found to be common to Victoria and 

 Tasmania, but there were six or seven varieties of birds peculiar 

 to Tasmania to two peculiar to Victoria. The conclusion was that 

 the islands had been separated from Tasmania after that island 

 was disjoined from the mainland. Among the plants, several 



