218 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. a 



gineers to the handling of the dynamos 

 and electric ' plant,' the mechanical en- 

 gineers to the testing of engines and 

 boilers, and each individual to that work 

 which he can best direct or with regard to 

 which the experience will prove most 

 fruitful.* 



The records of the Sibley College labora- 

 tories are thus peculiarly rich in data of 

 this kind. The first case quoted is that of 

 the trial of the Rochester, N. Y., street rail- 

 way plant by Dr. Bedell, in 1891 . The road 

 has about twenty miles of track, and very 

 easy gradients. The traction demanded 1.4 

 E. H. P. per ton, at 6.5 miles average speed, 

 efficiency of line was 90 per cent., that of 

 the station 64.8 per cent., and there were 

 needed, at the engines, 2.4 /. H. P. per ton, 

 20 I. H. P. per car. The Buffalo plant was 

 tested in 1892, under the responsible direc- 

 tion of Messrs. Wood and Palmer. The 

 average power demanded was 1.76 I. H. P. 

 per ton. The Ithaca street railway was 

 tested in 1894, and is important as illus- 

 trating work on heavy gradients, averaging 

 about nine per cent., a maximum occui-ring 

 at twelve or thirteen. The traction co- 

 efficient was found to be 40 pounds, per 

 one per cent, of gradient and per ton. 

 In a level country, the estimate for power 

 to be provided at the station is put at 

 2.5 I. H. P. per ton of car and load, the 

 number of cars on the line averaging about 

 ten. If averaging twenty, the figure be- 

 comes 2.2. 



* As many as a dozen indicators and nnnierous volt 

 and ammeters, dynamometers, special condensing 

 apparatus, scales for weighing coal and water, and 

 similar test apparatus are often supplied by the Col- 

 lege, the resources of which are gauged, in a way, by 

 the fact that it furnishes a large part of its graduating 

 classes of late years, numbering about a hundred, 

 with all the instruments needed in work of investiga- 

 tion in their graduating theses ; which theses are us- 

 ually accounts of such work. Its working ' plant ' 

 includes fifteen steam engines, seven gas engines, 

 some fifty gauges and a still larger number of steam 

 engine indicators. 



THE MIJSTNESOTA ACADEMY. 



The ]\Iinnesota Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences has, in addition to its 'Bulletin,' in- 

 stituted a new series of publications tenned 

 'Occasional Papers.' It is intended that 

 in this series shall be published researches 

 of considerable importance. Vol. I., No. 1, 

 which has recently appeared, contains 'Pre- 

 liminary Notes on the Birds and Mammals 

 collected by the Menage Scientific Expedi- 

 tion to the Philippine Islands,' by Frank S. 

 Bourns and Dean C. "Worcester. 



ANTHEOPOLOGY. 



Under the title of ' Notes on Primitive 

 Man in Ontario,' by David Boyle, there has 

 been printed in Toronto, by order of the 

 Legislative Assembly, as an appendix to the 

 report of the Minister of Education, Dr.G.W. 

 Boss, a pamphlet of about 100 pages, contain- 

 ing much instruction concerning the aborigi- 

 nal tribes of that province. Mi-. Boj'le has 

 been for many j^ears the efficient cui-ator of 

 the valuable Ethnological Museum of the 

 Canadian Institute. This monograph com- 

 prises many pictures of the native imple- 

 ments of stone, claj^, bone, horn, shell and 

 copper in that museum, and will be useful 

 to ethnologists for purposes of comparison. 



Tsdsaiit is the Tsimsian name of a small 

 tribe recently discovered on Portland Inlet, 

 British Columbia, 54° 50' Lat., which con- 

 sists at present of twelve Indians only. 

 They live on the proceeds of hunting and 

 fishing and originally spoke a Tinne or 

 Athapaskan dialect, which is evidenced by 

 the fact that two of theii* number still re- 

 member words of it, though the rest speak 

 the Nass dialect of .the Tsimsian Indians 

 surrounding them. Even the original 

 Tinne name of the tribe is no longer re- 

 membered. Dr. Franz Boas studied the 

 tribe during the later months of 1894, and 

 also discovered another remnant of the 

 same lingaiistic family, the Tinn6, which 

 lives in the vicinity. He favors, somewhat, 



