SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 31; 



that of the well-known artesian-water problem, and the geologist 

 predicts the success or failure of a prospect bore for gas or oil about 

 as readily and reliably as he predicts artesian water or coal. The 

 solution of the problem of rock-gas and petroleum marks an era in 

 science no less than in industry. Mr. McGee discussed also the 

 origin and distribution of gas, petroleum, and allied bitumens, show- 

 ing that they are distributed throughout the various countries and 

 geologic formations of the globe ; that, other things equal, they 

 are most abundant in the newer formations ; that, other things 

 equal, they are lighter in newer than in older formations ; that the 

 commercially available supplies of oil and gas are accumulated in 

 natural reservoirs formed by flexures of the rocky strata into domes 

 and anticlinals; and that in the American fields, at least, rock-gas, 

 petroleum, and the heavier bitumens are simple products of natural 

 processes of decomposition of the organic matter contained in sedi- 

 ments, their weight and other attributes depending upon the con- 

 ditions under which decomposition took place. In conclusion, he 

 pointed out that at the present rate of consumption the coal-fields 

 of the earth will be exhausted within a few centuries, when it will be- 

 come necessary to utilize, more completely than has yet been done, 

 the much more abundant supplies of carbon compounds dissemi- 

 nated throughout the rocks of the earth in the form of bitumen. 

 Rock-gas and related bitumens are indeed destined to form the 

 fuels and illuminants of the future. 



A Diagram of the World's War-Vessels. 



Lieut. R. P. Rodgers, chief of the intelligence bureau of the 

 Navy Department, has arranged in his room a curious and impor- 

 tant map. It is a large map of the world on Mercator's projection, and 

 on its surface are pinned colored tags showing the present position 

 of all the war-vessels of the world. British vessels are represented 

 by red tags, French by light blue, German by purple, American by 

 dark blue, etc., and the positions of them are daily re-adjusted so 

 as to conform to the latest advices. By this pictorial arrangement 

 the secretary can in a moment sweep the seas, and ascertain exactly 

 the whereabouts and strength of the naval power of the world. 



Of the ships indicated in commission on the map, about one hun- 

 dred and fifty belong to Great Britain and one hundred to France, 

 while Germany and the Ignited States have not more than forty 

 each. Italian ships are mostly in the Mediterranean ; Spanish ships, 

 chiefly in the West Indies and at home. Germany has three war- 

 ships at Samoa ; the United States has one, and two more on the 

 way, in the aggregate superior to the German contingent. China 

 has a dozen or twenty ships, all on her ofrn coast. She is not ag- 

 gressive. In Central America we are outnumbered in a way to 

 suggest that the Monroe doctrine is not to be 'enforced at once. 

 We have at the Isthmus of Darien one pretty poor ship on the east 

 side, none on the west side. France has one on each side, and 

 Great Britain has three on each side. We have four vessels on the 

 West African coast, and half a dozen in the seas of the Orient. 



The Eastern Cherokees. 



Mr. James Mooney of the Bureau of Ethnology, who has been 

 for several years studying the Cherokees, is making some interesting 

 reports of their condition and customs. It may not be generally 

 known, he says, that the Cherokees, whose expulsion from Georgia 

 and the contiguous States in 1838 was one of the most flagrant viola- 

 tions of treaty rights ever perpetrated by the United States Govern- 

 ment, have not entirely abandoned their ancient country. On the 

 contrary, a portion of the tribe, officially known as the " Eastern 

 Band of Cherokees," still keeps up an organization in North Caro- 

 lina, with its council, chiefs, and medicine-men, and numbers in all 

 about two thousand souls, of whom about fifteen hundred are 

 mainly full-bloods, speaking only their native language, while the 

 remainder are more white than Indian. In addition to these, the 

 official roster includes several hundred others who claim Cherokee 

 rights, — to wit, a share in the tribal lands and educational privi- 

 leges, — but the keenest observer could not distinguish them from 

 any other white men ; and their Indian blood, which in many cases 

 is an extremely doubtful quantity, and denied by the Cherokees 

 themselves, is about as dilute as that of the modern descendants of 

 Pocahontas. Excluding these pseudo claimants, it will thus be 

 seen, by reference to the report of the Indian commissioner, that 



we still have in North Carolina a body of Indians about as numer- 

 ous as the Arapahoes or Winnebagoes in the West, and far out- 

 numbering such noted tribes as the Pawnees, Omahas, Osages, 

 Comanches, and Nez Perces. 



These Cherokees are chiefly in Swain, Jackson, and Graham 

 Counties, and own altogether eighty-eight thousand acres. The 

 reservation proper lies principally in Swain County, and contains 

 one hundred and fourteen square miles, occupied by about twelve 

 hundred souls, very few of whom can speak English. Their princi- 

 pal settlement is Elawati (" paint clay "), known to the whites as 

 Yellow Hill or Cherokee. Here are the council-house, the chief's 

 residence, and the government training-school, containing nearly a 

 hundred children under the efficient instruction of teachers ap- 

 pointed by the Quakers, under a contract with the government. 

 There are five other day-schools supported by the interest on their 

 pro rata share of the fund appropriated for the removal of the 

 Cherokees in 1836. Aside from this, the band receives no aid from 

 the government, the Supreme Court having decided that they are 

 not entitled to participate in the benefits arising from any former 

 treaties with the Cherokees, so long as they refuse to join the body 

 of the tribe in the Indian Territory, — a proposition to which they 

 are bitterly opposed. Their legal status is a peculiar one. Al- 

 though living on a reservation, under care of an agent, and hold- 

 ing their lands in common, they are treated rather as intractable 

 children, and deprived of the privileges accorded the rest of the 

 tribe ; while, on the other hand, they have the rights of citizenship,, 

 and vote at all local and general elections. In politics they are 

 Republicans almost to a man, as they consider the success of their 

 schools due to that party. 



These Cherokees are the descendants of the few individuals who 

 were allowed to remain under the treaty of removal in 1835, and 

 of the larger number who fled to the mountains, and thus eluded 

 the soldiers who were sent out under Gen. Scott to collect the In- 

 dians for removal to the West. Many of the older ones still remem- 

 ber with bitterness the events of this period. These Indians may 

 fairly be called warriors, as three hundred of them served in the 

 Confederate army during the late war, while quite a number also 

 fought on the Union side. The former were a part of the Thomas 

 Legion, occupied chiefly in East Tennessee. They are now quiet, 

 law-abiding citizens, cultivating their small farms, and gathering 

 chestnuts and ginseng in the mountains, to trade for cloth and coffee 

 at the neighboring villages. A few are fairly prosperous, but the 

 majority are in a condition of abject poverty. Isolated in the heart 

 of the mountains, neglected by the general government, and de- 

 prived even of schools until within a few years ago, they are fully 

 two-generations behind their more fortunate brethren in the West, 

 and still keep up their old dances, ball plays, and conjuring practices,, 

 although many of them are professing Christians. Their present 

 chief, N. J. Smith, known to his tribe as Tsalatihi, is an honorable 

 and intelligent gentleman, of three-fourths Cherokee blood, speak- 

 ing both languages fluently, and thoroughly devoted to the interests 

 of his people. Through his effprts and the influence of the schools,, 

 the old Indian life is gradually giving place to the newer civilization. 



Some Habits of Koreans. 



On Saturday afternoon, Feb. 2, Mrs. E. R. Scidmore read a 

 paper on the home-life of the Koreans, among whom she visited irt 

 1 887 as a guest of Judge Denny, the foreign adviser to the king. She 

 said the Koreans are in most things poor copies of the Chinese. 

 Their dress is the same as that worn by the Chinese before the 

 Manchu conquest, which made the pigtail obligatory as a sign of 

 submission. Wisps of straw and bits of cloth, says Mrs. Scidmore, 

 hang at the doorways to delude the Devil and keep off evil spirits ; 

 and these are the only signs of worship seen about Seoul. They 

 have the worship of ancestors, as the Chinese ; and a trace of the 

 old dragon-worship must order their toleration of snakes, as it is. 

 impossible to get a Korean servant to kill the snakes that drop from 

 the mud roof and slip out of the flues of the kaugs that warm the 

 floors of the houses. 



Until the arrival of the American physicians, the king and queeni 

 had an army of necromancers and wizards in attendance upon them,, 

 and a form of shamanism was practised upon the sick. They were, 

 consulted as well in matters of state policy. 



