SEPTEMBER 17, 1897. ] 
completely in 10 minutes. With saliva, 
starch was dissolved in the presence of 1% 
or less boric acid in from 8.5 to 11.5 
minutes; with no boric acid 11.5 minutes 
was required. With pepsin, the digestion 
of egg albumen was not retarded in the 
presence of 1% boric acid. With zymin, 
milk albumen with 1% boric acid was com- 
pletely peptonized in 24 hours. With 
Blumenthal’s chymosin, a far larger amount 
of boric acid than was necessary for pres- 
eryation of food did not affect the 
fermenting action unfavorably. While 
boric acid thus does not retard digestion, 
its physiological action still remains to be 
finally settled. 
Vq Wy Jel, 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE ‘ENCHANTED MESA’ OF NEW MEXICO. 
A suRYEY has just been made of the ‘En- 
chanted Mesa,’ or Mesa Encantada, of New 
Mexico, by a party sent out by the Bureau of 
American Ethnology. 
This mesa was brought into prominence sev- 
eral years ago through the work of Bandelier, 
who ascertained that the neighboring Acoma 
Indians have a tradition that their ancestors 
formerly occupied the summit, but abandoned 
it, together with a part of the tribe, in conse- 
quence of the destruction of the pathway lead- 
ing up one of its precipitous sides; the catas- 
trophe, which was doubtless due to a cloud- 
burst, being ascribed to supernatural agency. 
The same tradition was subsequently obtained 
by C. F. Lummis, a well-known student of the 
Southwestern Indians, and also ( with some con- 
firmatory evidence) by F. W. Hodge, of the 
ethnologic bureau. The traditional catastro- 
phe was so magnified by repetition and so en- 
veloped in mystery that the Indians, and after 
them the white settlers, had come to regard the 
mesa as inaccessible. 
Two years ago Mr. Hodge, then studying the 
Acoma Indians, planned to visit the summit in 
order to seek for traces of the alleged occu- 
pancy in prehistoric times; but he was deter- 
red by regard for the sentiments of the Indians, 
SCIENCE, 
441 
who held the eminence sacred. During the 
present season, Professor William Libbey, of 
Princeton University, after elaborate prepara- 
tions, ascended the mesa, without finding (so 
far as the accounts published in the newspapers 
indicate) evidence of occupancy. Reports of 
this failure duly reached the neighboring 
Indians; they were annoyed by the suggested 
impeachment of their tradition, and were 
thereby the more easily induced to permit the 
ethnologic party to visit their holy place. So, 
on September 3d, Mr. Hodge, accompanied by 
Major George H. Pradt, of Laguna, New Mex- 
ico, a U. S. Deputy Surveyor; Mr. A. C. Vro- 
man, a photogropher of Pasadena, California ; 
Mr. H. C. Hayt, of Chicago, and two Laguna 
Indians, proceeded from the Indian pueblo of 
Acoma to the foot of the mesa, three miles dis- 
tant, where they were joined by three Acoma, 
Indians. After measuring the eminence by 
triangulation (the mean of two determinations. 
is 431 feet above the plain on the west), the 
party at once ascended along the ancient route, 
and encamped on the summit for the night. Dur- 
ing the afternoon and the next day Mr. Hodge 
examined the ground critically, while Major 
Pradt made a survey of the mesa, and Mr. Vro- 
man secured a number of photographs. Several 
potsherds, two stone axes (broken ), a fragment 
of a shell bracelet and a stone arrowpoint were 
the chief evidences of former occupancy found 
on the narrow storm-swept crest ; but abun- 
dant potsherds, etc., were found in the talus 
swept down from the summit. All vestiges of 
the ancient trail ascending the talus, and con- 
tinued thence to the summit by hand and foot 
holes in the solid rock, have been obliterated ; 
but some traces of the holes remain. This ver- 
ification of an Indian tradition notable for in- 
herent evidence of accuracy is peculiarly grati- 
fying to students of anthropology. 
Except for the easily-removed opposition of 
the Acoma Indians, no difficulty was found in 
ascending the mesa, save for a space of a few 
feet at the top of the cleft; this was easily 
crossed on a light extension ladder carried to 
meet emergencies, and might have been passed 
with the aid of a geologic hammer to cut a few 
hand-holes in the steepest part of the rock. 
wJM 
