OcTOBER 1, 1897.] 
to inquire into and report upon the availability 
of a new site for the national capital. Accord- 
ing to the Federal Constitution the capital must 
be removed from Rio de Janeiro to a more 
healthy location in the interior province of La 
Goyaz, at a considerable altitude above sea 
level. The above-mentioned commission has 
published an elaborate report, finely illustrated 
with photographs and charts, in which the 
geology, hydrography, climatology, etc., of 
the new site receive consideration. The work 
is a very interesting one. 
Owing to the unfavorable atmospheric con- 
ditions at Rio, where the cloudiness is very con- 
siderable, there has for some years been a plan 
to remoye the Observatory to a new location 
near Petropolis, in the Organ mountains, at an 
altitude of over 2,700 feet. Petropolis is a 
place much sought by the wealthier classes of 
Rio during the summer months, when yellow 
fever is most prevalent in the capital. It is 
high enough to be above the yellow fever zone, 
and its cool evenings and nights are much more 
agreeable than the hot nights of Rio. Further- 
more, itis above the fogs which commonly hang 
over Rio harbor at night, and is therefore a 
much more favorable location for an astronom- 
ical observatory. The necessary funds for the 
removal are, however, lacking, and there is at 
present no prospect that the location of the 
Observatory will be changed. 
Thereisa very common belief that the climate 
of Rio is unhealthy. This is by no means the 
ease. The climate itself is a fine one in many 
ways, the unhealthy character of the city being 
due simply to the lack of attention to the sim- 
plest sanitary measures. Rio harbor itself, 
beautiful as it is, is the most deadly feature 
about the whole place. The waters areso foul, 
as a result of the improper disposal of the city’s 
sewerage, that they are a veritable storehouse 
of disease. When thecity adopts proper sani- 
tary regulations and builds sewers to empty its 
drainage into the open ocean, instead of into 
the harbor, then Rio will become as healthy as 
a city with its beautiful situation deserves to be. 
This letter is mailed in the Falkland Islands. 
Although the meteorology of these islands is 
most interesting, regular observations are no 
longer made here. Those made here in the 
SCIENCE. 525 
past have been discussed by Marriott (Quart. 
Jour. Roy. Met. Soc., London, 1880), and by 
von Dankelmann (Ann. d. Hydrog, Berlin, 
1885). Mr. Davis, of the Argentine meteoro- 
logical office, has sent two sets of instruments 
to the islands, but has not yet succeeded in se- 
curing regular observers. The climate of the 
islands is particularly interesting by reason of 
their far southerly position in the stormy pre- 
vailing westerlies of the southern hemisphere. 
Sunshine is so rare here in winter that, as an 
old resident of Port Stanley said to the writer 
to-day, ‘‘When we see the sun for an hour or 
two everyone says ‘what fine weather we are 
having.’ ”’ 
R. DEC. WARD. 
Port STANLEY, FALKLAND ISLANDS, July 29, 1897. 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 
Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society. Vol. 
V., 1897. Navaho Legends, Collected and 
Translated by WASHINGTON MATTHEWS, 
M.D., LL.D. With Introduction, Notes, Il- 
lustrations, Texts, Interlinear Translations, 
and Melodies. Boston and New York, 
Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Pp. 299. 
A study of aboriginal life from the pen of Dr. 
Washington Matthews is always welcome, and 
this volume of Navaho Legends is no exception 
to the pleasant rule. Out of the abundant ma- 
terial collected by the author he has selected 
three legends for this publication : two incom- 
plete rite-myths and the Navaho Origin Legend. 
The latter ‘divides itself into four very distinct 
parts,’ I. The Story of the Emergence; II. 
Early events inthe Fifth World ; III. The War 
Gods; and IV. The Growth of the Navaho Na- 
tion. The term rite-myth is defined as ‘a 
myth which accounts for the work of a cere- 
mony, for its origin, for its introduction among 
the Navahoes, or for all these things.’ 
The Navahoes, we are told, ‘‘celebrate long 
and costly ceremonies, many of which are of 
nine days’ duration. Each ceremony has con- 
nected with it one or more myths, or legends 
which may not be altogether mythical.’’ These 
rite-myths possess a degree of traditional value, 
and the last chapter of the Origin legend, our 
author says, ‘is in part traditional or historical, 
and is even approximately correct in many of 
