to 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXI. No. 518 



curious enumeration of historical facts occurring every 177 days, 

 for the space is limited. Only, by the way, 1 note that Professor 

 Thomas interprets phonetically Xaman as " north," the charac- 

 ter that, in reality, designates no^/ "south" (see the evidence 

 adduced by rae in "Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie," XXIII., p. 104). 

 His third sample of the use of his " letterglyph'' b is one of 

 th^se in'eresting hieroglyphs that change the so-called " prefix" 

 according to the four cardinal points. Compare Figs. 47, 48 of 

 the adjoined table, the former taken from Codex Dresden 29. 30«, 

 the latter from Codex Tro. 31, SOd. These varying elements un- 

 doubtedly are indicating the names of colors, as each of the four 

 cardinal points was distinguished by a special color. And the 

 so-odlled letterglyph 6, with all probability, has to be considered 

 as expressing the element Kan "yellow" (see 'Zeitscrift fiir 

 Ethnologie," XXIII., p. 108, 109). The explanation Professor 

 Thomas gives of the five dots, seen under certain hieroglyphs, as 

 rendering the sound ho "five," will receive a curious illustra- 

 tion by the varied form these dots exhibit, for instance, in the 

 Fig. 35b, taken from the Dresden Codex. It does not appear, 

 with all, that the samples of interpretation presented by Professor 

 Thomas in his last paper are more satisfactory than those of his 

 former one. It will be seen, indeed, that there is no reliance in 

 the simple fact that, applying a certain key, the parts give ap- 

 parently appropriate results. In a similar way there could be 

 proved and has been proved that the Mexican and Peruvian lan- 

 guages are derived from Sanscrit, and that the descendants of 

 the lost tribes of Israel survive in the Southern Sea. The right, 

 Professor Thomas claims, to apply such a key has to be proved in 

 the first place. I am awaiting if, in the paper he is preparing 

 for publication by the Bureau of Ethnology, he will be able to do 

 so. Dr. Skler. 



Steglltz, Germany, Dec 18. 



Irrigation Surveys. 



I HAVE just had the pleasure of perusing your issue of the 

 16th, with its review of Irrigation Work by the General Govern- 

 ment. Allow me, in returning my thanks for the comprehensive 

 references made, to make some brief corrections: — 



In the first place, then, the expendiiuresof the Geological Sur- 

 vey as to "irrigation" work, have been that of two appropria- 

 tions — in all $350,000. This is wholly outside of printing, which 

 is paid for under other appropriations. The cost thereof will 

 not be less than $15,000. Besides these two direct sums of 

 $100,000 and $350,000, with the printing of Part II. in Annual 

 Reports 10 and 11, the Survey for work in the Arid Region, topo- 

 graphic and hydrographic, has had two more annual appropria- 

 tions of not less than $100,000 in all. The terms of the appropria- 

 tions were designed unq\iestionably to continue indirectly irriga- 

 tion work which Congress had declared should not be continued 

 by the Geological Survey. Its irrigation work, then, has cost 

 much nearer $500,000 than it has $335,000. Its results are two 

 finely printed volumes — one of 123 pages and the other of 395. 

 In the latter are 80 or 90 pages of matter previously printed — 

 the larger part of it. indeed, having been twice printed bv com- 

 mittees of the Senate and House. The reprint in Report Eleven 

 is of Major Powell's testimony and argument before the House 

 Select Committee on Irrigation, 51st Congress, which in substance 

 And effect is the same that Director Powell made to the Senate 

 Committee at the same session. So, in effect, it has cost nearly 

 half a million dollars to publish 419 pages of " original " reports. 

 There are no topographical maps of significance as yet issued 



Now, the Department of Agriculture, under its oflSce of Artesian 

 and Underflow Investigation, and of Irrigation Inquiry, received 

 and expended between April 15, 1890. and May 1, 1893, just two 

 years, the munificent sum of $70,000. During that time it made 

 and has reported on two engineering, geological, and economic 

 examinations of the Great Plains region, between 97° and 105" of 

 longitude, and two reports besides on Irrigation proper. It pre- 

 pared and issued six volumes in all, — a report on Artesian Wells, 

 and the three parts you have noticed of the closing report on Ar- 

 tesian and Underflow Waters, also Progress Irrigation Report for 

 1891, and the volume referred to as " miscellaneous" by the re- 



view. As the work is in part only my own, though I edited all 

 of it, I can justly challenge the value of it all in quality, as much 

 as I may claim it exceeds the report in quantity, as compared 

 with the Geological Survey. The three reports (six volumes or 

 parts) embrace in all 1,694 pages, and some 58 valuable profiles, 

 maps and geologic sections, besides more than 100 olher special 

 illustrations. The report (four parts) you reviewed has been 

 printed to the number of but 1,733 copies for the use of Congress, 

 and it has cost something less than $4,000. The other reports 

 cost in all about $3,500 — a total estimate of $6,500. Since that 

 publication. Congress has appropriated $6,000 more for Irrigation 

 Inquiry. How much of this has been used I do not know ; some 

 of it I am aware has been wasted and I make the remark advis- 

 edly, as much as I regret to say anything except in approval of 

 the Department of Agriculture. 

 The account stands then: — 



A. Ten thousand copies (5,000 each volume under a general 

 provision of law) of two reports, and some other reprinting by 

 the U. S. Geological Survey, with a number of reservoir sites re- 

 served on the public lands, most of which have been restored 

 under later law by the Land Office to the Public Domain ; the 

 cost of all, at least, $465,000. 



B. Eight reports in all by the Office of Irrigation Inquiry, De- 

 pirtmput of Agriculture, — three of the Engineers, three of the 

 Geologists, and the same number of the Agent in charge (my- 

 self)^ in all seven parts or volumes, containing the matter in 

 brief, already stated, all this, too, in cost has been less than 

 $80,000. 



The Weather Service volume (chiefly Mr. Glassford's work) is 

 above criticism and that of the U. S. Census Office in its '■ Irri- 

 gation Division " work is only an adjunct to the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, unduly fostered by the Secretary of the Interior and the 

 Superintendent of the Census to enable Director Powell to do 

 that jvhich the 51st Congress by withdrawal of a specific appro- 

 priation had forbidden him doing, viz., continue the work of 

 irrigation survey and inquiry. The agent in charge was formerly 

 an hydrographer in the Survey and was transferred to the Cen- 

 sus. He has done better than it could have been anticipated he 

 would from his first bulletins, but the work has cost far more 

 than it is worth. That, too, from the value of the conditions 

 and not the ability of the agent himself. Of course, it will be 

 noticed most because it lias the benefit of the expensive printing 

 and publishing of the Census Office. 



This whole irrigation inquiry has been characterized by a 

 wasteful scramble to get in or on it. The State Department has 

 published a volume thereon ; the Treasury's Bureau of Statistics 

 has dabbled therein in its volumes on "Internal Commerce"; 

 the General Land Office has had its shy; the Weather Service is 

 discussing " Earth Moisture," etc., and the Army Engineer Of- 

 fice got in a little one on Egypt. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture only did what it was ordered and of late months not all of 

 that. Richard J. Hinton. 



Member Am. So. of Irrigation Engrs. 

 Washington, Dec. 26. 



Geographical Variation in Birds. 



In ornithology geography is the father of trinomial nomen- 

 clature. Climate is one great factor in variation, and topography 

 has not a little to do with making the climate; but geography is 

 unquestionably the cause of variable climate, else would the 

 polar regions be tropical instead of frigid. Topography is at best 

 local. 



The variations of a species of birds, which make of it several 

 sub-species are due to its geographical distribution. These vary- 

 ing individuals do not take the name of " forms,"' as in entomol- 

 ogy, but are set apart as true sub species, each with a more or 

 less well defined habitat of its own. But there is a serious diffi- 

 culty in ascribing any sharp line of difference between the forms 

 which intergrade on the outskirts of the geographical range, and a 

 corresponding difficulty in ascribing any definite geographical 

 limit. It is not seldom that individuals of one sub-species are 

 found far within the range of another sub-species. 



