AveustT 13, 1897. ] 
de Chile.’ His last contribution embraces 
seven semi-mythical tales in the Pehuenche 
dialect, the original text and a Spanish 
translation. They offer much curious 
material, and often leave it doubtful 
whether the story is of native origin or 
borrowed from Huropean sources. The 
first, for example, tells of a dead lover who 
came from his grave to claim his bride and 
carried her to his tomb. In spite of the 
striking similarity of this to the legend 
embodied in Butrger’s ballad ‘ Lenore,’ the 
editor believes it to have been from native 
sources. 
Unfortunately, like so many other tribes, 
the Araucanians were little studied by the 
early settlers, and the knowledge we have 
of their mythology is vague and slight. 
Dr. Lenz very properly observes that it 
is all the more important to collect what 
still survives in their songs and _ stories ; 
and, it may be added, the scholarly manner 
in which he presents his researches to the 
reader renders them models of work of 
this kind. 
THE 14TH REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETH- 
NOLOGY. 
Tus report (for 1892-93) has just been 
distributed. It is in two parts or volumes 
counting up to over twelve hundred pages! 
The contributions are three in number, 
the first an exceedingly interesting paper 
by Mr. James Mooney on the ghost dances 
of our Western tribes; the second a study 
of the Menomini Indians, by Dr. Walter 
J. Hofman, containing a mass of accurate 
observations; and the third an erudite 
treatise on the expedition of Coronado to 
New Mexico in 1540, by Mr. George 
Parker Winship. 
It is needless to dwell on the value of 
these contributions to the history and 
ethnography of our country. Every future 
student of these subjects will owe a debt 
to this and previous reports of the Bureau. 
SCIENCE. 
249 
No series of publications by our govern- 
ment has been edited with more conscien- 
tious care, and none can show a list of 
articles of a higher class, or of more per- 
manent importance, than the Bureau of 
Ethnology. It should be a matter of 
patriotic pride, based on the recognition of 
solid merit, for the government to render 
liberal aid to this scientific department 
and increase the means of its usefulness. 
D. G. Brinton. 
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
A LECTURE by Professor William Crookes 
on ‘Diamonds’ was delivered June 11, 
1897, at the Royal Institution. It has been 
reprinted in the Chemical News and is per- 
haps the best brief treatise on the diamond 
ever written. The latter part of the lec- 
ture was devoted to the origin of the 
diamond as illustrated by the diamond 
‘pipes’ of the Kimberley field. According 
to Professor Crookes the diamonds crystal- 
lized out of molten iron containing carbon 
in solution and at sufficient depth below 
the surface to give great pressure. Water 
finding its way down to this iron, the gas 
generated bored out the ‘ pipes’ which were, 
“at the subsidence of the great rush, filled 
with a water-borne magma in which rocks, 
minerals, iron oxid, shale, petroleum and 
diamonds are churned together in a veri- 
table witch’s cauldron,” amud yoleano. “It 
may be that each volcanic pipe’”—of the 
South African fields—‘is the vent for its own 
special laboratory—a laboratory buried at 
vastly greater depths than we have reached 
or are likely to reach—where the tempera- 
ture is comparable with that of the electric 
furnace ; where the pressure is fiercer than 
in our puny laboratories and the melting 
point higher; where no oxygen is present, 
and where masses of carbon-saturated iron 
have taken centuries, perhaps thousands of 
years, to cool to the solidifying point. Such 
