November 21, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



quarter of an hour. It is interesting to follow one of these balls 

 through the course of its multifarious duties. It first enters a slin-.; 

 in a tape wound over the escape-wheel axle, and it is the weight 

 of this and three other balls (which have been previously deposited 

 in preceding slings) which keeps the escape wheel going. As the 

 wheel turns round, the balls descend, and after a quarter of an 

 hour the lowest will have arrived at a funnel-shaped opening, 

 where it will get liberated from its sling, and fall. It first strikes 

 a lever which enables the drum to move on and discharge another 

 ball into a sling upon the escape-wheel tape. Then, rushing down 

 a tube, it enters a zigzag. It is within this zigzag that the strik- 

 ing of the quarters is performed ; f#r at each of its angles a bell is 

 placed, against which the ball strikes sharply as it passes them. 

 After leaving this zigzag, the ball is projected down another, 

 where it strikes tlie hours. 



As the number of blows to be struck is regulated by a similar con- 

 trivance at each zigzag, we will confine our attention to that for the 

 hours. The channel down which the ball passes is vertical to the face 

 of the zigzag. Now, the front or zigzag side of this channel is a 

 moving tape, which carries a little trap. As the tape is always mov- 

 ing, the position of the trap depends upon the time, and the posi- 

 tion of the ti^ap also determines the stage of the zigzag upon which 

 the ball will be projected. Thus, when the trap is opposite the 

 sixth stage of the zigzag, the ball will encounter six corners upon 

 its way down, and consequently six blows will be sounded; when 

 the trap is at the top, twelve blows are sounded ; and when the 

 trap is at the bottom, no blows are sounded. When the ball leaves 

 the zigzag, it enters a sling at the lowest part of the chain first 

 spoken of, and is intermit tingly carried up again to begin its work 

 over again. For repeating the hours and quarters at will, there is 

 a separate reservoir of smaller balls; and, by pulling a handle, one 

 of these can be discharged above the first zigzag; and when it has 

 done its work, it disappears through a hole, which the regular 

 balls cannot penetrate, back to its own reservoir It may be men- 

 tioned, that, in lieu of bells, the hour zigzag has a single vertical 

 sonorous tube for each set of corners.- The time, days of the week, 

 etc., are shown by means of tapes carrying pointers suspended 

 over the escape-wheel and another axle. 



The inventor, the Rev. Canon Cinquemani, maintains that the 

 simplicity and precision, by reason of the constant force on the 

 escapement of his " chronologe" (which he has patented), render 

 it peculiarly advantageous for missionary and other distant sta- 

 tions, where the assistance of professional clock-makers is not 

 readily procurable. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*#* Correspondents ai-e requested to be as brief as possible. The writer''s name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



On request, twenty copies of the number containing his communication will 

 be furnished free to anj/ correspondent. 



Mohawk Folk-Lore. 



At various times during the past two years the writer has had 

 opportunity to converse at length with OdjidjStekha, an intelli- 

 gent young Indian of the Mohawk tribe residing near Brantford. 

 From him the material given here has been obtained. 



The Child and the Bear. — Once upon a time a child was left an 

 orphan. A council of his clan was held to consider what should 

 be done with him, and to decide as to whose care he should be 

 given over. Some one (a woman) asked permission to keep him, 

 but soon after allowed him to get astray in the woods, where he 

 was taken up by a bear (the Indians believe that bears are more 

 loving to their offspring than men). The old she-bear had six 

 cubs, and she made the child the seventh. She lived in a hollow 

 log. One day she was out, and the hunters spied her, and, with four 

 dogs with four eyes apiece, they pursued her, and she was just 

 able to reach her hollow log and crawl into it. The hunters shot 

 her and split the log open, and discovered the six cubs, but where 

 was the seventh? After searching for a while, they found it in 

 the end of the log, all safe and sound, and they were sorry for 

 having killed the bear. 



The above story is represented as being told by an old man to 

 children. At the conclusion of it, the child asked, "Why are 

 you so afraid now to let us go into the woods where there are 

 bears, if the bears are so kind ? " — " Because our love for you is 

 great, and because of the way in which the child came into the 

 bear'a possession." 



A Ghost Story. — Dogs are regarded as giving warning of the 

 approach of ghosts, spirits, etc. One day a dog said to a man 

 that at a certain time the ghosts would come for him, and that he 

 must pack up and be off if he did not want them to get him. If 

 he disregarded the dog's warning, he would be lost. He started, 

 and the dogs, one on each side of him, trotted along, and when 

 he was tired carried him on [how they did this the narrator could 

 not say : the Mohawk word used meant simply " carried "]. Be- 

 hind them they could hear something flying along, and making a 

 great noise like thunder as it came nearer and nearer. It was the 

 spirit ; and when it got too near, one of the dogs would go back 

 and fight it, while the other would go along for a while, and then 

 take his turn at fighting back the ghost. By and by one of the 

 dogs got tired, and said to his master that he could not hold out 

 any longer ; and he went back, and the master saw him no more. 

 The other dog, however, kept on, and the man reached home, and 

 on arriving fell down on the threshold. A light was seen, and 

 when the crowd gathered round and questioned him, he said, 

 " I've seen a ghost." The Indians are very much afraid of strange 

 lights, believing them to be ghosts. 



A Dog Story — When asked if the Indians ever believed that 

 dogs spoke, Odjidjatekha said that at Caughnawaga (an Indian 

 settlement in the Province of Quebec), some time ago, a man put 

 his dog out of doors in cold weather. After a while he heard 

 somebody outside saying how cruel and bad it was to keep him 

 out in such very cold weather. He thought it was a man, and 

 opened the door, and saw his dog wagging his tail. 



Thunder and Lightning. — The Mohawks believe that thunder 

 is caused by seven men, who are up in the sky. Formerly there 

 were only six of them; but once upon a time an indian got up 

 there, and since then has prevented them from harming Indians. 

 Thus it is that no Indian is ever struck by lightning. When it 

 thunders and lightens very much, the Indians exclaim, "Say, old 

 man, enough of that ! " 



Weather-Lore. — Among the Mohawks the hog is regarded as a 

 sort of weather-prophet. When cold is about to come on, he car- 

 ries straw in his mouth to make a nest. When a hog is killed, 

 the people examine something in the inside to see what the weather 

 will be. Every year at the Reservation prophecies are made re- 

 garding the weather for the following year, and Odjidjatekha 

 claims that these are often quite successful. The Indians note a 

 good deal about the weather from trees, and from the actions of 

 various animals and birds, such as the muskrat, the woodpecker, 

 etc. 



Feasts, Games, etc.— The Pagan Cayugas and Onondagas still 

 practice their old dances and other rites. The Onondagas have 

 their white dog feast in the spring. There are also the green-corn 

 dance and the fall dance. The dances of the Pagan Indians are 

 celebrated near Brantford towards the end of January. 



The chief games of the Indians are, in summer, lacrosse, and in 

 winter the snow-snake. At a sort of religious festival in the " long 

 house," a game of lacrosse is played by women. 



The snow-snake is the chief amusement of the Pagan Indians 

 on Sundays in winter. Odjidjatekha stated that the snake has been 

 thrown by a skilful player to the distance of from 275 to 375 yards. 

 The Mohawk name for the "snow-snake" is agwddrdhonta ; in 

 Tuscarora, utra MntA; ih Onondiiga, hdwhdntd. 



A. F. Chamberlain. 



Clarli University, Worcester, Mass., Nov. 15. 



Mount St. Elias and the Culminating Point of the North 

 American Continent. 



The article on Mount St. Elias which Dr. Dall has communi- 

 cated to your issue of Nov. 14 calls for a reply. In my paper. 

 " Barometric Obser%'ations among the High Volcanoes of Mexico, 

 with a Consideration of the Culminating Point of [the North 



