June 8, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



869 



streams occasionally and temporarily filled 

 with water became corn-fields which yield- 

 ed boimtiful returns to the Indian agricul- 

 turist. These regions gave the surplus 

 which is necessary for the building of an 

 advanced civilization and here rather than 

 in the favorable subenvironments arose the 

 true agriculture of cereals, on which basis 

 the civilizations of the world now rest. 



The environment determined largely the 

 methods of application of water to land. 

 North of the great ridge which crosses the 

 southern portions of Arizona and New 

 Mexico, forming the watershed of the Gila- 

 Salt River, are found the more primitive 

 methods of irrigation, that is by simple 

 canals diverting water from streams to the 

 nearest land and by warping or spreading 

 by means of slight temporary barriers a fan 

 of water from a point in the stream where 

 the bank and bed of the stream are at a 

 uniform level. South of the ridge which 

 absorbs the cloud moisture and diverts it 

 into the Gila is found a more complicated 

 system in the trunk and lateral canals of 

 great extent employed by the Indians who 

 inhabited this region. Here the rivers lent 

 themselves to irrigation and the agricul- 

 tural tribes were led to employ the facili- 

 ties to their betterment. 



The somatology and culture of the 

 Pueblo Indians in ancient times are known 

 to have presented a remarkable uniformity, 

 and here may be found an argument for the 

 compelling, panurgic force of the environ- 

 ment. Time and isolation must be consid- 

 ered as concomitant factors in the forma- 

 tion of a Pueblo type under the peculiar 

 transforming character of the environment, 

 which, while it produced uniformity in 

 many respects, may have tended to per- 

 petuate the five language stocks that pre- 

 vail in the region. 



The most obvious effects of Pueblo en- 

 vironment are those connected with irriga- 

 tion, architecture, arts and religion, and in 



the last the fullest sway of its causation 

 is shown. 



Without doubt the following of these 

 and other lines of inquiry relating to the 

 habits and customs of the Pueblo Indians 

 will be productive of valuable material on 

 this subject, necessarily but sketched in 

 this communication. 



Walter Hough. / 



NATHANIEL 80UTEGATE SEALER} 

 In ever-growing measure for over forty 

 years, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler made 

 himself part of our life and gave the serv- 

 ice of an intensely active personality to 

 the college and the country. 



He had an unusual range of experience 

 in contact with the world of men and work : 

 a boy in a slave-holding community, a 

 yoimg officer of the Union army in the civil 

 war, later the director of a survey in his 

 native state and member of various com- 

 missions in the state of his adoption, prac- 

 tised field geologist in many parts of this 

 country, observant traveler abroad, expert 

 in two bureaus of the national government, 

 adviser of mining enterprises in the south 

 and west, writer in many fields, orator and 

 poet on our days of celebration, he thus 

 gained that wide acquaintance with ex- 

 ternal affairs which made him so invalu- 

 able a Harvard man: student at eighteen, 

 lecturer at twenty-three, professor at 

 twenty-seven and dean at fifty. 



He was impatient of seclusion in his 

 work, and therefore related himself, but 

 without a trace of self-seeking intrusion, 

 to all phases of university life. Confident 

 and courageous, abounding in initiative, he 

 gave direction to work around him and 

 turned the course of events. Inventive 

 and independent, strikingly individualized, 

 he worked to best advantage as a leader or 

 alone, not as one of two; if other names 



' Minute adopted by the Faculty of Arts and 

 Sciences of Harvard University. 



