628 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 204 



able enclosures and in the elaboration of the form 

 of the reptile, that it might be the more real. 

 The natural and the artificial features must all 

 have related to one and the same conception. The 

 point of naked rock was probably at first and 

 always recognized as the head of both the natural 

 and the modified body. It vvas to the Indian the 

 real head of the great serpent manito. 



V7. H. Holmes. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



On the 8th of December, at Victoria, British 

 Columbia, died Dr. W. F. Tolmie, known to eth- 

 nologists for his contributions to the history and 

 linguistics of the native races of the west coast. 

 Dr, Tolmie was born in Scotland, but had been 

 resident on the west coast since 1833, at first as 

 medical officer to the Hudson's Bay company's 

 port of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, 

 but afterwards becoming a chief factor in the 

 company's service, from which he retired in 1870. 

 During the Indian war in the Oregon territory in 

 1855-56, bis knowledge of the language and in- 

 fluence among the Indians enabled him to render 

 efficient service in pacifying them. Dr. Tolmie 

 dated his interest in ethnological matters from his 

 contact with Mr. Horatio Hale, who visited the 

 west coast as ethnologist to the Wilkes exj)loring 

 expedition. He afterwards transmitted vocabu- 

 laries of a number of the tribes to Dr. Scoulez 

 and to Mr. George Gibbs, some of which have 

 been published in ' Contributions to American 

 ethnology.' In 1884 he published, in conjunction 

 with Dr. G. M. Dawson, a nearly complete series 

 of short vocabularies of the principal languages 

 met with in British Columbia, and his name is to 

 be found frequently quoted as an authority on the 

 history of the north-west coast and its ethnology 

 in the works of Bancroft and other authors. He 

 was at all times ready to place his extensive and 

 accurate knowledge on these subjects freely at 

 the disposal of inquirers. 



— The financial position of the American geo- 

 graphical society has been greatly improved in 

 the past two years by the lease and possible sale 

 of a portion of its real estate upon very remuner- 

 ative terms. Upon the completion of this sale, 

 and upon the sale of the building in Twenty- 

 ninth Street now occupied by the society, the 

 council have in mind the erection of a large 

 building which will be an ornament to the city, 

 and more suited to the growing needs of the 

 society, — a buUding which will be fire-proof, to 

 furnish the society with a safe and proper place 

 in which to preserve its constantly increasing 

 collection of valuable books and maps. The erec- 



tion and furnishing of this building will neces- 

 sarily entail increased expenditures, to provide 

 for which, without burdening the present mem- 

 bers, the council suggests that the number of 

 fellows be largely increased. If each member 

 will interest himself in this respect, the member- 

 ship will be largely increased, and the amount 

 which it is estimated the society will annually 

 need in its new building will be the more readily 

 attained. 



— The English do not propose to permit the 

 statue of Liberty in New York harbor to rank as 

 the biggest on record, without a contest. The 

 Illustrated London news comes forward with a 

 description of the colossal statues of Bamian, 

 together with measurements and illustrations. 

 Travellers, oriental and occidental, have spoken 

 of these statues from time to time, but accurate 

 measurements of them were first made by the 

 surveyors who were attached to the Afghan 

 boundary commission. Bamian, where these 

 statues are, is on the road from Cabul to Balkh, 

 where it crosses the Paropamismus range. The 

 elevation is about 8,500 feet above sea-level. There 

 are five statues, three of them, including the 

 largest, being in niches, the figures being formed 

 of the rock within the niche. Captain Talbot of 

 the boundary commission, using a theodolite, 

 found the tallest statue to be 173 feet high, where- 

 as the statue of Liberty is only 151^ feet high. 

 Since Liberty is on a pedestal, however, the statue 

 of Bamian must rank below her, unless the Eng- 

 lish propose to count its 8,500 feet elevation above 

 sea-level as a pedestal. The Bamian statues seem 

 to be Buddhist idols of great antiquity, and the 

 natives have a variety of legends concerning 

 them, 



— The annual report of the coast and geodetic 

 survey was submitted to congress recently. The 

 report states that the demands upon the survey 

 have been not only for accurate charts of the sea- 

 coast, but also for correct data upon which the 

 several states can base maps of the entire territory. 

 During the past year, due consideration has been 

 paid to immediate and pressing demands for re- 

 surveys of important harbors and highways of 

 commerce, and special care was taken to give 

 wide publicity to discoveries of dangers to navi- 

 gation. Hydrographic surveys wei'e prosecuted 

 off the coasts or in the waters of fifteen states and 

 two territories. Important investigations in ter- 

 restrial magnetism, physical hydrography, and 

 geographical history, have been made. The ag- 

 gregate of estimates for the next fiscal year 

 ($560,765) is considerably larger than the appro- 

 j)riation for the current year, but is less than the 



I 



