December 17, 1886.] 



SCIJEJ^CE. 



565 



world by Mr. George H. Harris, in the ' Semi-cen- 

 tennial history of the city of Eochester.' My own 

 contribution to the subject was purely from the geo- 

 logic side. 



I may add, that the formation described by Mr. 

 Murdoch is unquestionably littoral, and not greatly 

 elevated above the present coast. What we know of 

 recent oscillations of coasts in arctic regions, and of 

 the rate of formation of littoral deposits, tends to 

 the opinion that the Point Barrow goggles have an 

 antiquity far less than that of the other finds. 



G. K. Gilbert. 

 Washington, D.C., Dec. 11. 



Polarization of resistance coils. 



On p. 208 of Science (viii. No. 187) Professor 

 Mendenhall's observation is noted. With my rheo- 

 stat I fail to obtain any ' reverse ' current properly so 

 called. The secondary current obtained by us is in the 

 same sense, whichever sense is given to the primary, 

 charging current ; and the secondary current is not 

 in the same sense in all the coils. 



This rheostat is constructed with brass mountings 

 and German-silver coils : hence I infer that the main 

 cause, at least of secondary current, is unequal heat- 

 ing of the junctions of coils with mountings. 



Since we obtained galvanometer deflections of 

 equal amount, as well as in the same sense, for both 

 senses of primary current through the rheostat, we 

 failed to observe any polarization effect by difference. 

 It may be that thermo-electric effects at junctions of 

 copper conductors with brass terminals happened to 

 mask the polarization in this case, though we could 

 not believe it probable. 



If my explanation of secondary current be correct 

 as far it goes, would it not be well to make rheostat 

 coils and mountings of the same material ? 



F. C. Van Dyck. 

 ISTew Brunswick, N.J., Dec. 8. 



Height of a meteor. 



I have a very accurate map of the track of the 

 large fireball which was seen near Philadelphia about 

 9.48 o'clock on the evening of Nov. 4. If any one 

 can supply another, even if only approximate, so 

 that the height may be computed, it would greatly 

 oblige Isaac Shabpless. 



Haverford coll., Penn. 



Elliott's Alaska and the Seal Islands. 



I beg permission to draw attention through the 

 columns of Science to a glaring instance of plagiarism 

 in Mr. Henry W. Elliott's lately published work en- 

 titled ' Our arctic province.' In this work the greater 

 part of the third chapter (more particularly pp. 45 to 

 57) is quoted, or adopted with slight verbal altera- 

 tion, and without the least acknowledgment, from 

 my report on the Queen Charlotte Islands of British 

 Columbia, published in the ' Annual report of the 

 geological survey of Canada for 1878-79.' This in 

 itself is perhaps a matter of small importance, though 

 not calculated to lead the public to place unquestion- 

 ing faith in the character of other parts of Mr. 

 Elliott's volume, to which I do not here allude. The 

 specially reprehensible feature to which I miist direct 

 attention is that Mr. Elliott has availed himself of 



the fact that a division of the Haida Indians inhabit 

 the southern part of Prince of Wales Island (Alaska) 

 to apply my specific observations on the Queen Char- 

 lotte Island Haidas and neighboring Ishmisians to 

 the Indian population of the Sitkan archipelago 

 generally, including ten tribes, which he enumerates. 

 In some cases the transfer is made simply by siib- 

 stituting ' Prince of Wales Island ' for ' Queen Char- 

 lotte Islands ' of my notes ; in other instances a more 

 elaborate procedure is adopted : but in no case that 

 I can find in chapter iii. is any part of my de- 

 scription credited to the Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 nor is the name of that well-known group so much 

 as mentioned in the chapter. Had Mr. Elliott con- 

 fined himself to generalities, it would not have been 

 so inexcusable ; but he descends to details, and, as 

 an. instance, actually adopts the measurements given 

 in my report for a house at Virago Sound, Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, leaving it to be understood by the 

 context that it was met with somewhere in the Sit- 

 kan archipelago, and measured by himself. I should 

 add, that the measurements were made to the nearest 

 inch, and that Mr. Elliott has followed six of the 

 dimensions correctly, but misquotes two of them 

 (p. 49). 



As an example of the jaunty style which Mr. Elliott 

 manages to impart to the original, I quote only the 

 following, in which some evidence of originality 

 certainly appears. Many pages occur in which the 

 style of the original is considered satisfactory, and 

 the incorporation made verbatim, or very nearly so. 



Report on Queen Charlotte 

 Islands (p. Ill B). 



"Both the Haidas and 

 Ishmisians have the custom 

 of collecting salmon roe, 

 putting it in hexes, and 

 burying these below high- 

 water mark on the beach. 

 When decomposition has 

 taken place to some extent, 

 and the mass has a most 

 noisome odor, it Is ready to 

 eat, and is considered a 

 very great luxury. Some- 

 times a box is uncovered 

 without removing it from 

 the beach, and all sitting 

 round eat the contents." 



Our arctic province (pp. 

 56-57). 



" But the ' loudest ' feed of 

 these savages consists of a 

 box, just opened, of semi- 

 rotten salmon-roe. Many of 

 the Siwashes have a custom 

 of collecting the ova, putting 

 it into wooden boxes, and 

 then burying it below high- 

 water mark on the earthen 

 flats above. When decom- 

 position has taken place to 

 a great extent, and the mass 

 has a most penetrating and 

 far-reaching 'funk,' then it 

 is ready to be eaten and 

 made merry over. The box 

 is usually uncovered with- 

 out removing it from its 

 buried position ; the eager 

 savages all squat around it, 

 and eat the contents with 

 every indication on their 

 hard laces of keen gastro- 

 nomic delight — faugh ! " 



Mr. Elliott, in his introduction, refers to the great 

 amount of literature which has appeared on Alaska, 

 and adds, "In contemplation of this, viewed from 

 the author's stand-point of extended personal ex- 

 perience, he announces his intention to divest him- 

 self of all individuality in the following chapters, to 

 portray in word, or by brush and pencil, the life and 

 country of Alaska as it is, so clearly and so truth- 

 fully that the reader may draw his or her own in- 

 ference, just as though he or she stood upon the 

 ground itself." Possibly wholesale unacknowledged 

 appropriation is Mr. Elliott's idea of ' divesting him- 

 self of all individuality.' He has certainly succeeded 

 in divesting most of the facts contained in his third 

 chaijter of all individuality, by applying them to a 

 region and to tribes not intended by the wi'iter. 

 Why should Mr. Elliott leave the extensive tours on 



