538 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 201 



George H. Babcock ; vice-presidents, Joseph Mor- 

 gan, juu., Charles T. Porter, Horace S. Smith ; 

 managers, Frerlerick G. Coggin, John T. Haw- 

 kins, Thomas R. Morgan, sen. ; treasurer, William 

 H. Wiley. 



— It is announced that the British government 

 has taken possession of the island of Socofcra, in 

 the Indian Ocean, heretofore belonging to the 

 imamat of Muscat. For many years the British 

 government had subsidized the governor of the 

 island, but had had no direct control over it. 

 Socotra lies about 120 miles east of Cape Guarda- 

 fui, near the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, and 

 in the direct route of vessels passing between Suez 

 and India. The island is 70 miles long by 20 miles 

 broad, with an area of about 1,000 square miles, 

 and a population of nearly 5,000, mostly Arabs, 

 negroes, and Portuguese. A range of granite and 

 limestone mountains extends through the middle 

 of the island, rising in places to a height of 5,000 

 feet. The low coast-lands are fertile, producing 

 aloes, dragon's-blood and other gums, tamarinds, 

 dates, and tobacco. 



— Snow hall, for the uses of the natural history 

 department of the University of Kansas, at 

 Lawrence, was formally dedicated on Nov. 17. 



The government of Queensland is taking 



vigorous measures to guard that colony against 

 the rabbit-plague mentioned in Science of Nov. 12. 

 A- rabbit-proof fence of wire netting will be erected 

 along the boundary-line between Queensland and 

 New South Wales, with an extension of a hundred 

 miles northward along the boundary of South 

 Australia. For this purpose, 2,550 miles of fen- 

 cing wire and 450 miles of wire netting have already 

 been purchased in England, 



— While the question of the advisability of 

 women studying medicine is being discussed, the 

 women are settling it for themselves by entering 

 the medical schools in no inconsiderable number. 

 At Zurich twenty-nine are now pursuing that 

 study ; in London, forty-eight ; and at Paris, one 

 hundred and three. At the latter eighteen have 

 obtained their diplomas of doctor during the past 

 seven years. 



— An unsinkable lifeboat recently patented by 

 a gentleman in Buffalo, N.Y., possesses some 

 novel features. The entire lower part of the boat 

 is filled with sheets or slabs of cork, set up edge- 

 wise and fastened together. Above this is a filling 

 of rushes, set up vertically and having their ends 

 rendered water-proof. Above the cork and rushes 

 is a water-tight deck, which separates the lower 

 half of the boat from the upper half, where seats 

 are provided for crew and passengers. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Fort Ancient, Warren county, Ohio. 



Having recently, in comiDanj^ Avith Messrs. W. H. 

 Holmes and Charles M. Smith, visited some of the 

 more noted ancient works of Ohio, among them the 

 one mentioned above, I have concluded that a few 

 words in regard to its present condition might be of 

 interest to general readers as well as to archeologists. 

 This work has been so often described, that most 

 readers interested in our antiquities are familiar with 

 it. The first notice and plan were given in the ' Port- 

 folio ' (1809). Both plan and description were 

 copied by Caleb Atwater in his memoir in the first 

 volume of the Transactions of the American anti- 

 quarian society (1820). About twenty years later it 

 was carefully surveyed by Prof. John Locke, his de- 

 scri]jtion and plat being published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Association of American geologists and 

 natiiralists ('1843). This plat was copied by Squier 

 and Davis in • Ancient monuments,' and is the one 

 from which all subsequent figures have been taken. 

 It is quite accurate in the main : so nearly so, in 

 fact, that another complete survey may be deemed 

 unnecessary. Some slight corrections might be 

 made ; but these, with two exceptions, which will be 

 named, are of minor importance. 



As remarked by Squier and Davis, this is " one of 

 the most extensive, if not the most extensive, work 

 of this class in the entire west." It is also one of 

 the best preserved, the main portion having suffered 

 but little from the j)lough ; the surrounding wall be- 

 ing uninjured save at the points where the turnpike 

 cuts through it, and at a few places where ravines 

 have been recently formed. As earthen walls change 

 but little so long as they are covered with vegetation, 

 it is more than probable that we see this great struc- 

 ture (with the exceptions hereafter noted) as it was 

 when abandoned by those last occupying and using 

 it. For example : the wall at d (Squier and Davis's 

 figure), in the north-eastern corner, although in an 

 open field, shows no signs of material wearing ; the 

 height being now a little over nineteen feet, and 

 width at base sixty-seven feet, — almost exactly the 

 measurements given by Atwater. Growing on the 

 top are some large trees whose roots are not at all 

 exposed. With the exception of a short stretch at 

 the point mentioned, the wall throughout is still in 

 the unbroken forest. 



Evidences of wearing are observable at some of 

 the ravines it crosses, and a few of the smaller gul- 

 lies appear to have been worn since the wall was 

 built (a fact also mentioned by Atwater), though in 

 most cases the adaptation of the wall to the slopes 

 shows that these existed when it was thrown up. 

 Professor Locke states that the ' ' embankment is in 

 several places carried down into ravines from fifty to 

 one hundred feet deep, and at an angle of thirty 

 degrees, crossing a streamlet at the bottom, which, 

 by showers, must often swell to a powerful torrent. 

 But in all instances the embankment may be traced 

 to within three to eight feet of the stream." Although 

 our visit was during an unusually dry season, when 

 the ravines contained no water, the indications ob- 

 served did not bear out what seems to be implied by 

 Professor Locke's language, — that the wall original- 

 ly crossed the ravines: on the contrary, they appear 

 to show that the wall stopped on the sides at the 

 points reached by the streamlets in time of highest 

 water. It is true that at some points it has been 



